WET

Screen Writers Guild of America have decided on the best video game writing of last year:  

VIDEOGAME WRITING WINNER

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment

http://www.wga.org/awards/awardssub.aspx?id=1517     
 
And a reminder of those nominations again:  
 

• Assassin's Creed II, Story by Corey May, Script Writers Corey May, Joshua Rubin, Jeffrey Yohalem; Ubisoft Entertainment 
  
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Written by Jesse Stern, Additional Writing Steve Fukuda, Story by Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke, Jesse Stern, Jason West, Battlechatter Dialogue, Sean Slayback; Activision 
  
• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Written by Amy Hennig; Sony Computer Entertainment
  
• Wet, Written by Duppy Demetrius; Bethesda Softworks 
  
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Script Writer Marc Guggenheim; Activision    
  

 

[Edited to add: Yay!  I spun this post off in to an acknowledged tip in Joystiq]

  Nominations are out for the Writers Guild of America Award for video game writing:    

Assassin ' s Creed II , Story by Corey May, Script Writers Corey May, Joshua Rubin, Jeffrey Yohalem; Ubisoft Entertainment

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 , Written by Jesse Stern, Additional Writing Steve Fukuda, Story by Todd Alderman, Steve Fukuda, Mackey McCandlish, Zied Rieke, Jesse Stern, Jason West , Battlechatter Dialogue, Sean Slayback; Activision

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves , Written by Amy Hennig ; Sony Computer Entertainment

Wet, Written by Duppy Demetrius; Bethesda Softworks

X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Script Writer Marc Guggenheim; Activision     
 
 
Source:  http://www.wgaeast.org/index.php?id=285&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2229&tx_ttnews[backPid]=71&cHash=2786e64798     
  

Shamefully, I have not played any of this year's nominees. I hope the writing in the Wolverine game was better than the awful film it was based on.   Batman: Arkham Asylum should probably have got a mention: the story was a bit video-gamey but the dialogue was very snappy (maybe they didnt put themselves forward?).  

While I'd like to be playing Bayonetta more than anything else at the moment, I'm still positively buried in games from 2009 that I've either still to get to, or would like to at least mine for achievements. I'm currently working on a very possible S-Rank of Dragon Age: Origins, having just completed the game last night and I still have a ways to go when it comes to seeing everything Forza Motorsport 3 offers.  
  
Even ignoring the big hits there's still plenty of 2009 games to play. I never did get around to clearing Mushihime-sama Futari in one credit, nor did I scratch the surface of Raiden IV or the Raiden Fighters Aces achievements. Digging even deeper, I feel strangely compelled to go back and clean up WET for achievements, though that has something to do with my friends at Joystiq placing it on a few of their top ten lists for the year. It was definitely my guilty pleasure of 2009, along with 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand ... which come to think of it, I still need to finish! 
 
All this will change once Mass Effect 2 comes out because no matter what, I'm guaranteed to drop everything upon its release. For now, however, I'm not quite living in the future. 

No matter how hard I try, I always end up having some preconceived notion of a game before playing it. Being a skeptic, this is a good thing since I end up surprising myself with how well a game turned out. But sometimes I do end up with a feeling of disappointment. The games that surprised me the most this year were inFamous and Wet.
 

The Good Surprise

 
I thought inFamous was going to be this generic superhero game like the last few Spiderman games, set in an open world with a slight twist on the generic comic book hero stereotype. But I was so surprised by the execution of this boiler plate premise. I would go as far as to say that Empire City is the best open world experience there is at the moment. Sorry Assassin's Creed but your movement system is too slow when compared to the slick electric slides of Cole McGrath. And its not just the open world, the shooting is just so sharp and on the spot. The game doesn't break any new ground but it executes all the small elements perfectly. Its like they combined the movement system of Spiderman 2 and the shooting from Gears of Wars and set the game in Vice City. I loved every min of this game and I don't even care if the characters are cardboard cutouts. 
 
 

Addendum:   50 Cent - Blood on the Sand deserves a mention here. I completely forgot about this game when I originally wrote this blog. I don't think anyone thought  it was going to be any good but in the end, it was surprising playable and was actually fun in parts. I agree that its the most generic ass shooter you can find in the market but Fiddy and his outrageous crew made the whole ride enjoyable. Its a great rental if anything.
 

The Bad Surprise

Like most nerds, I like Grindhouse and think Elisha Dushku is hot. Sadly, those two combined to give me WET dreams (I promise, no more bad puns) and I was totally pumped to play this game. But the whole thing turned into a chore faster than the multiple loading screens you face in this game. I was sold on a GAME and what I got instead was a bad movie where I had to push random buttons after long intervals to keep the reel going. The most personally disappointing aspect was Rubi herself. There was potential here to make a really badass character like the Bride from Kill Bill. But what WET offers is a bitchy, foul mouthed and nearly psychotic female lead who does nothing but enforce the point that developers still can't figure out female characterization in games.

Episode from  10-28-09.
 

Let me be honest with you. This episode is long, but for good reason. We talk about Uncharted 2, Brutal Legend, Forza 3, Dirt 2, Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, the new South Park game, Wet, and an Xbox Indie Game called Bailout. We also tell you what we've been up to the past few weeks and give a big serving of news.

Show Link: http://www.vsrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65423

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WARNING: This review is only concerned with the story of a game. Even though the story is an important part of a game, by no means is it the defining component. A game with a horrible story may very well be one of the best games ever produced. It's just that my reviews are not about that.

SPOILER WARNING: The following text may contain spoilers for the people who have not finished the game in question yet. Reviewing the story sometimes makes such things inevitable. 
 
 

Idea:

 
"Wet" is all about mixing crazy Hong Kong movie action with 70's exploitation cinema. While this presents the developers a lot of opportunities for storytelling and stylistic purposes, there isn't really anything terribly original here. The writers obviously did not delve deep into the films of the era they are trying so hard to mimic. So in theory the idea is good. If only it was in better hands...

Rating: 1 out of 2

Setting:

An otherwise pretty contemporary setting gets partly interesting for being free of the usual constraints of the laws of physics. This is your usual video game universe where people never suffer any injuries if they consciously jump from great heights, slow motion saves you from bullets and chainsaws are actually better melee weapons than swords.

There is no constant location here. True to form, this is a location hopping adventure. Rubi literally travels around the world. You will visit, Texas, Hong Kong and London. The problem is that none of these places have a distinctive look to themselves. The world in "Wet" usually consists of hallways and warehouses. The setting is neither interesting nor pretty to look at and it doesn't help the story at all.

Rating: 0 out of 2

Characters:

Like my review of characters in "Batman: Arkham Asylum", this is a tough one too. In theory things are great. "Wet" has a lot of interesting, larger than life characters like "Batman: Arkham Asylum" does. And they all have a pretty detailed background written for them. Especially on the visual side of things, it's clear that a lot of care went into creating these characters. Rubi's outfit is carefully constructed to be both utilitarian and sexy at the same time, but the sexiness is subtly male instead of pure female. For all intents and purposes we can say Rubi is a man in the body of a woman. Many of the character designs are so interesting that my research partner Dr. Gülin Terek Ünal, was especially interested in them and took her time to examine every single aspect of their clothing and accessories. Pelham, Tarantula, Ze Kollektor and even Dr. Afro are all interesting characters living in a 70s comic book version of our modern world.

The problem though is that there are simply an awful lot of them compared to the relatively short run-time of the story itself. So many of them have literally a few seconds of screen time. Some of them, like The Torturer, die right after they are introduced. It's a funny detail that the life of some mobs in this game last more than quite a lot of supposedly major characters.

Side characters in a story are there to challenge the protagonist in different ways to invoke different character traits in her, so that we can get to know her and she can evolve. But the number of characters in this story make it very hard for any side character to be involved in the proceedings in a meaningful way. Consequently Rubi's interactions with them are very limited. Combine that with horribly uninteresting dialog and at the end of the day you will realize that the wonderful visual style of the characters is gone down the drain and you don't care about any of the characters at all.

Sure, Pelham is evil, but you don't hate him enough because you don't exactly get his motivation for doing that thing he did. Was it a threat directed towards William Ackers, was it payback or was he trying to frame Rubi? Why should I be surprised or impressed upon witnessing Zhi's betrayal when he isn't even established as a likable character I know or care about. Why should I be sad when the terribly generic Ming dies? You could have replaced him with a simple computer screen giving info. (minus the accent).

In fact the characters are so forgettable that I am struggling to remember their names even though the names are printed on screen with giant letters.

Rating: 0 out of 2

Plot Structure:

This is a fairly generic revenge story with no interesting plot development at all. Rubi is a "fixer" who does not really need any reason but money to do whatever she does. She is double crossed and fooled. She then gets angry and kills everyone on her path. And that's pretty much about it. In spirit of fairness though, this isn't any less than what was expected from the movies "Wet"s trying to mimic. Plot, here, is just an excuse for steering the characters to the next action set piece, and a very weak one at that.

On the plus side you have some nice plot twists thrown into the mix. The main mystery here is the reason why Ackers wants to save his son and then kills him. The fact that Ackers isn't Ackers makes some sense. But it also proves how dumb Rubi actually is for not checking out who she's working for exactly.

In general the plot follows a pattern. Rubi does some job. Things go wrong. Rubi needs info. Rubi finds info. Rubi does the next job. Redo from start. Insert combat between these sentences and you have the plot structure of "Wet". It never pauses to develop character relations or conflicts. It has no tolerance for scenes in which you can breathe. Consequently this action roller-coaster turns into an action free fall. Action saturation makes you care less for the plot.

Some obvious opportunities for developing the plot are missed. There is obvious potential for a love affair between Trevor and Rubi for instance. Imagine the impact Trevor's death would have if he and Rubi were romantically involved a few years ago. Imagine Rubi's anger. Imagine how the final relationship between William Ackers and Rubi would be. And this is only one of the many missed opportunities here.

The plot here is simply not personal enough for us to care. It almost feels like there were previous episodes of Rubi's adventures and we have missed them. This would have been okay in this genre but "Wet" doesn't feel like a good Rubi story.

Rating: 1 out of 2

Craftsmanship:

Again in theory "Wet"s central idea is a great opportunity for the developers run wild with their craftsmanship. In practice it feels rushed and centered too much around the meta aspect of things. They went you to feel like you're in a movie theatre. There is a grainy filter, visible flickering of the projector, commercial breaks and a great licensed sound track. The occasional red filter is done well too.

The problem with these ideas is that they are not always utilized correctly. Commercial breaks are not between acts and come off as random. Transitions are awkward. Red filtered scenes feel interesting for the first few times but afterwards you get tired of them. There are no other filters and even though it sounds like a nice idea to use the filter in a car chase scene, "Wet" uses it in the wrong car chase scene. You get to see a red haze in a spectacular scene which makes you want to see it in all its explosive glory.

"Wet", also fails in writing department. This kind of story requires a lot of impressive one liners, punchlines and long dramatic speeches following the action. "Wet" fails in all of these areas and fails to use other attributes of the movies it's trying to mimic. The dialog is simply forgettable.

Rating: 0 out of 2


 OVERALL:  2 out of 10
(0-3= BAD, 4-6= AVERAGE, 7-10= GOOD)

Already Reviewed: "Infamous", "Batman: Arkham Asylum"
NEXT WEEK: Retro Review "Planescape: Torment"

Download here. Or you can look at the news post, and maybe subscribe on iTunes?
 
This was the first podcast since the last three-hour megathon from last month, but I don't like the podcast being this long. I'm aiming for 1 hour podcasts, which really means 1:15ish we'll see. I have to figure out how to time manage and tell people to shut up about dumb topics, while making it sound like a conversation not a script.
 
Tell me what you guys think about the big return. What I really want to know is I know a lot of people listen to the show cause Tom is very funny. Fact is, he won't ever be back. So all you fans of the past show, will you still listen even though he's not on? I thought we did pretty well this time around, had some fun, talked about some cool stuff, and we have some more user-interactivity plans for future shows. Trivia questions, fabulous prizes, fun type of stuff.
 
Lemme kno

Games

I haven't had much time to play games this week or for a couple of weeks. I'm getting rid of my GameFly account, I liked it, I just don't need it any more. I finally got more hours at work so I can buy games now, plus I have run out of games to play. I did play some WET and that's OK, nothing special there. When I have time I have been playing some Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness and I'm really liking it, I'm hoping to get more time with it. I'm also saving up for a DSi, right now I have about $50 and I'll get I hope $140 next week. I'm hoping to get Chrono Trigger, New Super Mario Bros., some Dragon Quest games, GTA: Chinatown Wars, among others.
 

Movies

I'm basically making this section to give myself an excuse to talk about the best movie of the year, The Informant!. I saw that on Sunday with my sister and her boyfriend. I loved it, Matt Damon is spectacular in this movie, hitting all the right comical moments. Yes, Matt Damon can play in a comedy role, quite well I might add. Near the end the movie gets kind of depressing as the Matt's character starts to fall apart. But it's written very well and acted just as well. My Movie of the Year.
 

TV

The new season of Supernatural started a couple of weeks ago, but I've had to work and can't watch them so my mom tapes them for me. I'm pretty sure this show is on it's last season, to sum up the story; it's two brothers Sam and Dead, who fight demons and supernatural things. In season one they are trying to find their dad who has went missing. In season 2 they are trying to find the demon that killed their mom. In season 3 Dean sells his soul to save his brother from death. He is trying to find a way to save himself but can't so he goes to Hell. In season 4 Dean is brought up from Hell under God's command. Dean is meant to save the World from the 66 seals being broken (the seals are what keep Satan in Hell). He can't because Sam (who is destined to destroy the World along side Satan opens the last seal. The season ended with Satan coming out of Hell. On in season 5 they are trying to stop Satan. Dean found out that he is Michael's (the arch angel) sword. He needs Michael to enter his body so Michael can kill Satan. Dean is to stubborn and plans on finding another way. In the last episode I saw Dean and Sam are going their separate ways because Sam doesn't think that he can control his demon self. So the show is damn good, and most of my friends think it's a soup opera. For a CW show it's very well made. The new season, which will probably be it's last, is looking to be very good. Since season 3 I have said that Dean will have to kill Sam, and I think I might be right. With them splitting I think that Dean will follow heaven and Sam will go with Hell's side and Sam and Dean with have to fight. Though if it doesn't go that way I'm cool with that. Watch it Thursdays at 9 (that's Indiana time).
 

Bowling

Tune in next week, I have tryouts so I'll make one next week.
 

Books

I just read Shutter Island and it's fantastic. I'm not sure what to start next. Maybe a book from my school's library. 
 
Welp there's my mini up date. Thanks for reading
-Trevor