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For The Love Of The Game

By Lies April 16, 2009 17 Comments

Gaming is a highly competitive subculture, generally online and/or in "macho" shooter games, but nonetheless we're a competitive bunch, no matter what is being played. Now, a little competition never hurt anyone, but being over-competitive is a problem. I'm sure everyone at some point in their life has encountered "That Guy", the one who can't accept losing or being corrected. I certainly have, and I exhibit those characteristics myself more than I would like. But the desire to be the best, to excel, seems to drive people who play games more so than most; sometimes people are driven so far they ascend beyond the game, reaching a level where they have forgotten the point of the game, and play-- no longer for entertainment-- but simply for victory, be it over other players, or even just the computer.

As an example, one need look no farther than the Pokemon series, and the recently released Pokemon Platinum. Most people reading this were no older than teenagers when the original Pokemon Red/Blue released (Except for Claude. But he's a kid at heart, and we love him for it), and I don't imagine most of us played it super seriously. Sure, attempting to fill the Pokedex was fun and rewarding, but no one I knew ever actually did it. Nowadays, filling the Pokedex is nothing but the beginning for the true trainers out there. Teams are specifically honed for battle, people obsessively breed pokemon to get the best traits, and don't even get me started on EV/IV training. People are using spreadsheets to determine which Pokemon to catch, breed, and train in order to build the optimal killing machine. But that's entirely missing the joy of the game; all enjoyment that could be derived is removed, and replaced by what is, in essence, a calculator; it doesn't see a Pikachu or a Charizard, it simply sees the numbers. People who play Pokemon this way enrage me. It's as if this wonderful, exciting, and diverse game that Nintendo has built is almost worthless- they ignore the huge variety of pokemon to catch, places to explore, and things to do in the world and instead focus on making six beastly pokemon that they can use to beat little kids in tournaments with. I understand there is a competitive scene and element to Pokemon, but I feel as though these people are destroying a great entertainment experience for a competitive experience, and there's really no doubt as to which of those is superior.

Please direct your attention to "Second Panel Guy"

Major League Gaming is another spawn of this distressing trend. Instead of playing for enjoyment, these people hone the craft of playing a game to an incredble, mercenary, simplicity. For them, the only thing that matters is the most efficient way to get kills or points. Halo 3, MLG's flagship title, is plauged by this elitism. Halo 3 has over 40 weapons and vehicles available for use in games, along with several pieces of equipment, in order to allow for interesting games and varied experiences. High-level players-- and MLG in particular-- embrace the Battle Rifle almost exclusively. Most "XXxXX123MLG_PR0321XXxXX"s have over 50% of all their kills with the battle rifle. The most efficient weapon is utilized, and everything else that makes the game unpredictable and entertaining is removed. The competitive edge to their play has taken away what made the game loveable in the first place. High-level Halo players are so obsessed with performance that many of them rejected the DLC map Blackout, a remake of beloved Halo 2 map Lockout, because it added more level geometry that made some grenade bounces and special jumps inaccesable, despite plaing almost identical. Take any given thing a new player likes about Halo: The vehicle action, the power weapons, the motion sensor, the equipment, the chaos-- almost all of it is gone at higher levels of play. MLG, in its haste to become the best at the game, neutered it.

Am I saying that all competitive gaming is bad? In a way, yes, maybe I am. The deeper and more involved in something you get, yes, it is true your skills will vastly improve, but in doing so you are sacrificing your enjoyment of the game. Or, at the very least, you're sacrificing large parts of the experience in order to be the best. I've been trying for my Brigadier rank lately in Halo 3, and I can't tell you how frustrating it is. I have the skill to reach it, but in order to do so, I have to sacrifice parts of the game I love and have loads of fun with, because I don't win that way. Maybe this is simply a problem I have. Maybe IV training Pokemon is SUPER REWARDING for the people that do it. But from my viewpoint, I wish that, for the love of the game, we would all just have a little less competition and a little more fun.

17 Comments

You know you're a nerd when...

By Lies April 3, 2009 6 Comments

I've been watching some back catalog episodes of How I Met Your Mother recently (which is a fantastic show). There was a scene at a party in one of the season two episodes (S2E4 "Ted Mosby, Architect"), and there's music playing in the background. As I'm watching, I'm thinking I've heard it before, and then when I hear the "music, music, music", I recognize it as the 1UpYours theme music (which is just a preset garageband sample they use to break up segments).

Like that is some seriously nerdy shit right there. Recognizing the background music in a TV show as being from a videogame podcast. Probably just a coincidence as opposed to a deliberate reference- the HIMYM producers probably just needed some background music and didn't want to license anything- but still odd and nerdy. It just made me pause for a moment.

You ever have one of those moments?

6 Comments

5.5 things Mass Effect 2 needs to fix

By Lies March 28, 2009 17 Comments

Mass Effect was a great game, almost universally considered as one of 2007's best. But the game had a few undeniable flaws that brought the experience down at points. Now, Mass Effect 2 is almost a year away, barring any delays, and we know almost nothing about the product, so it would certainly be naive to pretend to know if these problems have been fixed or not. But here's my list of five things Bioware needs to fix for Mass Effect 2.

The Technical Problems

Blue Shepard should not exist

Anyone who played Mass Effect knows what a mess it was on the technical side of things. Hideous texture pop-in, unstable framerates, and those horrendously long loading times, in addition to a myriad of other bugs. Bioware games are notoriously unpolished, but Mass Effect needs to be cleaned up before it's next iteration. The texture pop-in ruined cutscnes and several dramatic moments, and frame-rate issues made combat a chore. Luckily, from what we know, Bioware is focusing on getting Mass Effect 2 running silky-smooth. And if they can't get it done, new corporate overlord EA better parachute in some coders to help, because if ME2 is as plauged with problems as the original was, people are going to be a lot less forgiving. While some of the bugs are great (like the blue-faced Shepard you see to the left), others were game-breaking to the point where if you encountered them you had to restart the game or reload a save. That's not to mention the times when the game completely freezes and requires a hard restart of the console. Hopefully Bioware's technical mastery of the engine has improved and they can ship Mass Effect 2 without many of these problems, and support it post-release to patch out the ones that do make it into the shipping version- something that never happened with the original, which got one PC patch and no console patches.

The Sidequests

Bioware is famous for their deep RPGs with long main storylines and engaging sidequests. Mass Effect had a decent main storyline and terrible sidequests. The quests based on the Citadel were good enough- traditional, character and dialouge based quests- but there were only a small number of these. Once done with the Citadel, the only sidequests you had available were the UNC missions, which invariably involved heading down to some uncharted planet. There's a reason these planets are uncharted, and it's because they are WORTHLESS. Mining is not an entertaining activity Bioware! If you're not mining on the planet, the quest no doubt involves driving the Mako to a bunker (of which there are only two variations in the entire game), clearing out some weak enemies inside, picking up some item/log and heading back to the Normandy to talk to Admiral Hackett. There's no depth or variety to these UNC missions, and ultimately they cease to be entertaining and you only take them on to grind experience. The sidequests in KOTOR or Baldur's Gate were all detailed and entertaining, with many variations on how to approach them. Mass Effect has none of that subtlety, instead presenting a sidequest as an optional exercise in their poor shooting. Perhaps it fits more with the story theme of Shepard being a soldier, but they were boring as hell and ultimately unrewarding and uncreative.

The Mako

Model of new vehicle

The Mako, your planetside rover in Mass Effect, is one of the worst vehicles in any game in recent memory. It's not completely uncontrollable, but it is close. Scaling mountain ranges is almost impossible in it; and you'll need to scale a lot of mountain ranges for those UNC missions. As a combat vehicle, it's actually almost over powered, with it's double scope, jump jets, machine guns, and cannon. However, it's combat prowess is negated by the absurdly difficult and annoying controls. The image to the right appears to be a new vehicle of sorts, so it looks like Bioware is on top of this one, but they are RPG developers, and vehicles aren't exactly common in this genre. Hopefully the second time is the charm for them, but we'll have to wait and see. Ultimately, the Mako was tolerable, but it really controlled nowhere near the level it should have, and it felt like you were fighting with it the whole game.

The RPG/Shooter Balance

Two Krogans from ME2

Bioware likes to describe Mass Effect as an "Action RPG", but that's a little misleading. Mass Effect isn't an RPG with a real-time combat system; it's a third-person shooter with RPG elements tacked on. I think we all realize that Bioware's specialty isn't in shooters, it's in RPGs. The shooting in Mass Effect wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination, and far too much weight was put on it. Every story mission involved huge amounts of combat and very little dialouge/interaction with NPCs. The worst parts of the game were put on display in the main story- the only place you could really get any role-playing done was on the Citadel. Noveria had a small port, and so did Feros, but everything else just felt like imitation Gears of War. And if Gears of War is what we wanted, that's what we would play. The Citadel was the only area that really felt like it belonged in an RPG- it was like a planet straight out of KOTOR. For Mass Effect 2 to really shine, more emphasis needs to be put on the dialouge and interaction, less on the combat.

The Character Relationships

This one might be a little controversial, but I really found the character relationships in Mass Effect lacking. Conversations weren't very detailed and you really couldn't influence the relationship very much either way. You couldn't make a character hate you, and the love options felt very contrived, although the female relationship with Kaidan had one of the funniest lines I have heard in a long while:

KAIDAN: I've enjoyed serving under you ma'am.
SHEPARD: I don't think you've had the pleasure of serving under me yet

It just didn't feel like the relationships you built in Mass Effect were very powerful or meaningful. Some of the story scenes were great, but none of the stuff you could do aboard the Normandy really touched me. It just seemed a little weak. Add in the fact that you could only do the relationship dialouge on the Normandy and not planetside just made it a hassle to talk to these characters. Even if you went all the way through the relationship, nothing really changed. After bringing Wrex his armor for instance, it's exactly the same as it was before. Denying Tali the data about the Geth makes her say she'll leave, but she still stays for the rest of the game. And if your Shepard won't carry over to Mass Effect 2, that essentially negates the choices you made in the first game, as the premise all along was that decisions made in the original game would have repercussions throughout the trilogy. But there may be hope- check out this storyboard from Mass Effect 2 showing Shepard and Wrex:

And here's half a reason, because it doesn't apply to the PC version:

The Terrible Menu Interface

This was an abortion on he console, but fixed on the PC release. Get it right for both this time Bioware. Selling items popping you back up to the top of you list, having no way to batch-convert items to omni gel, having to confirm something in a weapon upgrade slot even if it was what was already there, the incredibly slow-scrolling menus, the 250 item limit, the list goes on. Get the damn menus right for the console next time.

So there's my list of 5 and a half things Bioware needs to fix in mass Effect 2. It will be an even better experience than the first if they address these issues, and the first was a pretty damn good experience- so good that I got all 1050 gamerpoints from it, which is quite the task, as those who have achieved it will tell you. Those are my issues with the original Mass Effect, comment on them or post your own. Mass Effect 2 is still a ways off, but I'd like to hear your thoughts of what you want more of and what you want less of in the sequel. Post your thoughts in the comments.

17 Comments

Bioshock's Missed Opportunity

By Lies March 27, 2009 19 Comments

Bioshock was one of the finest games of 2007, I think we can all agree. Everything from it's exploration of Objectivism to it's clever commentary on game mechanics was well written and explored. The setting of Rapture was a fantastic environment, one I'll happily revisit with Bioshock 2. But the original Bioshock made a mistake with the characterization of Rapture that I'm afraid will be repeated in the sequel. To put it bluntly, everyone in Rapture was insane.

When you first enter Rapture, one of the first things you come across is a woman hovering over a baby carriage, comforting something inside it. This moment is designed to make you pause and consider the situation- just long enough so that the woman- a crazy Splicer- can jump you. It turns out a revolver was inside the baby carriage. At this point, the game has conveyed to you that the city is insane, and you don't need to worry about shooting innocents. After this point, the only people you will encounter in Rapture are Splicers and Big Daddies.

The game's fiction presents the idea of Rapture as a city, falling apart but still functional. It seems like a place where people might still live, at least according to comments you'll hear from Atlas and Ryan. However, you literally encounter four people in the entire game who are not crazy Splicers- Atlas, Tenenbaum, Ryan, and Cohen. These people are the only ones in all of Rapture who are willing to talk to you before thy attempt to blow your brains out. Moments like the fight with the doctor are supposed to be surprising, but because no one in all of Rapture is willing to talk, it's not a surprise when he attacks you. In all honesty, it just seems unlikely that people are still going to him for surgery when you can't cross a hallway without getting attacked by a Splicer.

The environment and gameplay contradict themselves a bit. From what you hear from Atlas, Ryan, and the audio logs, you are to infer that the city is still inhabited and working to a degree, although just barely. Sane people still exist in Rapture according to what the game tells you. But you never see them. Ever. So instead of being a tense exploration of an overrun city, it's just a series of killrooms. Extremely entertaining killrooms of course, but every time you see something moving, you know you need to shoot it. It takes away from Rapture to inhabit it with only psychopaths.

Iroooony

Of course there is one exception to this rule- Sander Cohen. The crazed artist in Fort Frolic who is, ironically, one of the most insane people in Rapture, won't attack you. After you complete his "Masterpiece" and survive the splicer onslaught he sets against you, he'll come out and reward you for your help, then actually let you go. But by that point, you're already so indoctrinated by the game, you have a natural distrust. The first thing I did when Cohen appeared on the steps was take a shotgun to the back of his head. Only later did I learn he would let me live.

Of course, this can be viewed as a success, that the game got into my head so much that I though there was no way this guy wouldn't turn on me- but it's also a failure, in that despite what the story and characters were telling me, I thought there was no one left in Rapture who wouldn't attack me; because that was all the game had thrown at me. I never saw any proof to believe that Rapture was home to anything besides crazy Splicers and Big Daddies.

It was one of the few failings of the original game, and sadly, it seems like it will carry over to the sequel. From what the Game Informer cover got across, it sounds like Bioshock 2 will have the same conceit- that the city is somehow still functioning, ten years later, despite it's leaders being dead and almost everyone being a Splicer.

Rapture is a great place. I love it. But I would love it even more if I got to see the parts that aren't so goddamn insane.

19 Comments

You know what sucked?

By Lies March 13, 2009 11 Comments

In the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King movie adaptation, where Peter Jackson has that giant army of the dead sweep across Pelennor Fields, obliterating the rest of the Orcs and magically saving everyone left in Minas Tirith. Now if you were one of the people who only watched the movie and didn't read the books, that was probably fine for you. After all, it was pretty grandiose and entertaining. The problem is, Peter Jackson entirely missed the point of that battle in the book, where it's supposed to be the race of man proving their worth, alone and without help. In the book Aragorn uses the dead to clear the Corsair ships, but then sails up the coast rallying Gondorian farmers and gathering soldiers from the outer provinces. And yes, they sail up the river and turn the tide of the battle at Minas Tirith- but it's men having the might to prtect themselves. This is where they prove they have the strength to inherit the world from the Elves, who are slowly vanishing. Overall, in the grand scheme of the tale, the army of the dead serves the same purpose (and takes less explanation), but it misses the deeper message of that clash.

That's kind of how I feel about Watchmen: The End is Nigh. It was a fantastic book and a serviceable movie, but neither of them were really about punching dudes. Watchmen is a critique of superheroes cliches and the utter silliness of dressing up in a costume and fighting crime. It's self-aware. The game is not self-aware, and just focuses on the visceral thrills of beating thugs. It's certainly a serviceble brawler, but the use of the Watchmen license really hurts it, because it stands in stark contrast to the message of the original work. It's just missing the point. And that sucks.

11 Comments

Mythic Map Pack Impressions

By Lies March 5, 2009 14 Comments

Having been blessed with a free Mythic Map pack Code, I've had the chance to check Assembly, Orbital, and Sandbox out quite a bit now, and I figured I'd give you my impressions of them for those of you that didn't buy the Halo Wars Limited Edition. I also wrote up a quick guide to the Mythic skulls for those needing help.

Assembly

Purple Reign, indeed

Assembly is a mid-sized, symmetrical map with a strong Covenant aesthetic. Which means purple; lots and lots of purple. The map is separated into lower and upper tiers, and it's pretty hard to get a decent sightline- the map is packed with obstacles, which keeps it fairly balanced for people with weaker weapons, as there is usually a place to hide. The map tends to be dominated by Battle Rifles, with teams trading fire from walkways across the map. Although the aforementioned Battle Rifles do most of the heavy lifting, there is also a hammer, which can control the lower levels pretty well as long as whoever is wielding it stays hidden from the Battle Rifles. The other power weapon is a Rocket launcher, which is actually pretty ineffective here because of the limited sightlines and general openess of the map- rarely is a rocket inescapable. This map is balanced incredibly well, but lacks a bit in weapon variety, and will probably quickly be dominated by battle rifles. Still great fun, and this will probably be a ffavorite for MLG, and other people who think Halo is srs business.

Orbital

The graphics are seriously reminiscent of Mass Effect

Orbital is another symmetrical map, but this one has a human look, which should give you mad Mass Effect vibes, both stylistically and in content- which is high praise. Orbital is probably one of the best looking maps Bungie has made to date. Everything is quite detailed, with hard, sharp edges, and out the windows on the space station you can see Earth hanging serenely below. in terms of gameplay, Orbital is a bit of a natural evolution of Elongation from Halo 2, with a focus on long parallel corridors with lots of cover. Firefights here are generally long-range affairs, utilizing grenades and assault rifles. The layout is essentially two horseshoes, slightly offest, but in play it's quite confusing, and you'll be hearing a lot of "Where the fuck am I?" from your teammates, even after some experience with the map. The two power weapons are a Roocket Launcher and a Sniper Rifle, both with limited ammo, but whichever team has these has a definite advantage, even with little ammo. Orbital looks spectacular, but only plays decently. Perhaps it just takes time to adjust, but it doesn't seem to be terribly enjoyable so far.

Sandbox

Ew. Default Sandbox.

Sandbox is designed to be a Forge haven, and I think it will please on that count. It has amazing versatility, and people have already created some great maps- either remaking old Halo classics or building from the ground up. However, Sandbox is incredibly ugly- whereas Orbital is probably the best looking map Bungie has ever produced, Sandbox is the worst. The visual palette is bland and uninteresting (save the sunset, which looks amazing). However, it's an acceptable sacrifice for what the map offers in Forge potential. The default layout that's running in Matchmaking currently isn't too bad, but it's nothing special. Sandbox is going to best be enjoyed with friends in custom matches, as what you can do with it is very near limitless. Sandbox should keep getting better as more great Forge variants emerge, as it certainly delivers on it's promise of an expanded Forge canvas. Those of you who like to Forge will really enjoy Sandbox, and I suspect everyone else will also appreciate it because it enables them to play great maps made by other people.

Overall, Mythic is a pretty good map pack, although it's a bit lacking in bigger maps, or anything with much emphasis on vehicles. Orbital and Assembly will both probably be relegated to team Slayer/ Multi-flag CTF maps, which there was no dearth of before. Sandbox represents golden potential, but only time will tell what people produce. Another solid offering, although it's a shame they're limited to only people who bought the Halo Wars LE. See you in five weeks everybody else.

14 Comments

Joy

By Lies March 3, 2009 2 Comments

I just won one of 50 codes 1Up was giving away for the Halo 3 Mythic Map Pack!

The thread of entries was 27 pages long with 15 replies per page, so I really wasn't expecting a code. I'm quite happy about winning one though, as it's no secret around here that I love Halo 3. Sadly I won't be ale to play with the 1up dudes in their game night (which was tonight) because I don't have my 360 right now, but I really do appreciate the code and getting a chance to play these maps early without having to buy Halo Wars.

Anyone else who has this map pack, send me an XBL friend request at beat82 and we'll play some Mythic together.

Here's my entry if you're interested (you had to write about your favorite Halo memory)

From someone who has played a ton of all 3 halo games, both online and off, there are just so many awesome moments I could write about. However, one game stands out, from shortly after the launch of Halo 2's second DLC map pack.

Me and a group of some randoms were playing one-bomb on Relic. We'd plaeyed three good rounds, each of us scoring on our first attempt, but we stopped Red team the second round with good control of the Rockets and sniper.

So we go back on the offensive for the second time, with a chance to win the game. Three of our team members hold back, using the snipes to keep red team pinned on top of their base. The fourth guy sneaks around the back of their base and unlocks the teleporter for us. All three of us charge through the teleporter, ready to plant the bomb. A moment after we get through, all of us explode.

Turns out our teammate who had unlocked the teleporter was fighting off a guy using the rocket launcher above that room. As anyone who played on Relic knows, the teleporter room has a hole in the ceiling. A rocket from the battle above freakishly flies through and kills us all. A second after we die, so does our spy teammate, giving the guy a killtacular.

Since we charged in and died, the other team now has all the power weapons, so we can't get in to retrieve our bomb. After a few weak pushes against the base (all ending in failure), our bomb resets with about 30 seconds left. I grab the bomb, and our team piles in to the Warthog and floors it to the enemy base. We go around back, and drive up onto the base, planning to drive the bomb straight to the arm point, as that's all we have time to do. Unfortunately, they still have the rocket launcher. About halfway along the base, we get hit by a glancing rocket, which knocks the hog up into the air, but doesn't kill any of us. Actually, it helps by blowing us towards the arm point.

The hog lands haphazardly on the barrier right before the arm point. I hop out of the passenger seat JUST as another rocket hits the warthog, exploding the vehicle and killing both my teammates. The explosion pushes the warthog chassis into the arm circle- as I was standing right next to it, I get knocked into the arming circle, although my shield is down. With about 10 seconds left, I can hear the other team celebrating over proximity voice, thinking I'm dead. I hide behind the Warthog and arm the bomb with about two seconds left, RIGHT as an enemy walks around the dead warthog and discovers me.

I hear him yell: "NOOOO" right as time runs out and the bomb explodes.

That's the one Halo memory that really sticks with me the most. Stuff like that just really makes me love the series, and is part of the reason I've stuck with it for so long. Hopefully some of the new maps are as good as Relic, which is maybe my favorite map of the entire series. Barring that, I at least look forward to attempting a Relic remake in Sandbox :D

2 Comments

The medicine of music

By Lies March 1, 2009 5 Comments

Music is the medicine of the breaking heart

-Leigh Hunt

The humble musical note

Music has existed since time immemorial, past any moment in time we can comprehend. And ever since it's unknown inception, music has always held a special place in human culture. Loved and revered, music has been constantly refined and reinvented; it will no doubt remain in this cycle as long as we can imagine or even fathom. Musicians and lyric poets were revered and respected in ancient Greece as great artists and influential figures, and since then the medium has evolved throughout the years, spreading across a broad range of genres and styles, even melding with newer forms of entertainment. But humans have never lost their fascination or love for music- regardless of the form it's delivered in.

The radio was a unique cultural uniter during the first half of the twentieth century, enabling for the first time the widespread dissemination of common music. Ever since the end of the silent movie era and the advent of "talkies", sound and music played a crucial role in movies, and later, television. Although at first used simply to voice characters or create simple sound effects, musical scores eventually became embedded into this new media, a melding of the old with the new. The bombastic scores of John Williams or Howard Shore's sweeping epics help translate the language of a movie for the viewer, transporting them to a different place and time. These classic and memorable themes easily elevate their products past beyond the sum of their parts, to a new plane of enjoyment.

Who doesn't remember the Imperial March?

Although it might seem like a simple matter of transcribing some notes to a suitable theme, then laying it over the less talkative portions of a script, the process is significantly more complex and involved. Even in composing for TV, musicians need to take into account many different factors. Characters involved, the emotional timbre of the scene, the duration of the scene, the overall tone of the episode, and the actions taking place on screen are all factors. Composers utilize all of these variables to create notable music and help the overall artistry.

Even mediocre composers consider these factors, though some leverage them better than others. The artistic goal is always the same; simple, yet incredibly challenging: Compose music that subtly complements the scene, contributing without overwhelming or clashing with anything else happening. And as the art forms have evolved, music has done a great job keeping up. Music is used to complement and underscore personal relationships, epic conflicts, and deeply personal struggles. From movies to television, the importance of musical scoring is well known. Great emotional connections can be forged by associating a certain character with certain music, or laying related compositions over intense moments, using the soundtrack to pace the events and frame scenes in ways that simply cannot be accomplished with just a camera and dialogue alone. This week's episode of Battletar Galactica was a perfect example. Featuring a frustrated piano player, the director perfectly and complexly tied several disparate story threads together via masterful use of piano scoring throughout the episode. Composer Bear McCreary put in a ton of man-hours to achieve the result, and it paid off. It was, as he puts it: "The most innovative score I've produced". And it succeeded in an exquisite way, raising the impct of the final product far above what it would have been without the musical underscoring.

However, despite the successes in these other mediums, scoring and music remains an almost invisible component to the majority of the videogame world. Some composers are noted for quality, such as Nobuo Uematsu, and Koji Kondo, two Japanese musicians famous for their work on Final Fantasy and Nintendo franchises, respectively. However, as good as this music is, videogame scores still don't have anywhere near the impact their cinematic counterparts do; and ironically enough, the point where videogame composers can come close to rivaling movies is during cutscenes- essentially short movies inserted into games. The touching piano that interrupts the silence following Aeris' death, complementing the sound of the bouncing bead, could only be written because the composer knew the course of things to come, and that the player could not alter the scene or camera angle. The connection is forged, because in essence, this is a movie, and techniques unique to that medium can be applied, allowing for precision scoring. It wouldn't work if that scene was interactive or controlable.

Games that give you a radio just don't work musically. It may be fun to listen to, but it can't comment on on-screen events

Why can't videogames make the same aural connection movies and television can? Largely due to the major separating factor between the two mediums: gameplay. Gameplay forces sound effects to take a larger role, often simply drowning out the score, as sound effects are often vital for communicating gameplay information. But even more important than this is that the composer has no control or knowlege of what the scene may be. With cinema, a composer knows the contents of the film, he knows the timeline for everything in the story. He knows the pacing, he knows every action, every character movement, every camera angle. A videogame composer knows none of this. That is assuming, of course, the developer even decided to pony up for a composer, and not deciding to simply use licensed tracks, which have even less impact (especially when a radio is involved).

As such, it is unreasonable to expect a videogame composer to be able to complete with the talented people working parallel to him in film or television. Without the ability to choreograph his compositions to match the onscreen actions, a composer is handicapped almost to the point of irrelevance. It's like asking someone to write a book using only 200 words. You don't get Hemingway, you get Dr. Suess. You may marvel at Suess' ability to write Green Eggs & Ham with such a limited vocabulary, but at the end of the day it just can't stand next to For Whom The Bell Tolls, and it's ridiculoous to expect it to. Because they have been stripped of these vital tools of control, videogame music will never have the level of synergy and connectedness that exists in other visual media. Their greatest strength in one aspect is their biggest flaw in another. Although they can certainly create decent sounding music to play in the background while players shoot up alien worlds or embark on a noble quest to save the kingdom, it will always be slightly detached from the experince, inherently lacking in emotional investment.

Although videogames claim the unique abilities of sound that can somewhat adapt to in-game circumstances, as has been proven time and time again in countless mediums and subjects, cold, calculating technology can never match the artistic quality or vision of a genuine person. Zelda's score might adapt to a darker, more violent tone when you encounter a monster, but those are simple parlor tricks. It functions the same as if an indicator popped up on the screen, alerting players to a nearby enemy. A simple array of modulating sounds has limitations, and after even a few hours of play they become apparent.

Because one can never be sure of a player's actions, music and videogames will never be able to posses that familial bond that music and cinema do. The closest the two will ever be is in the cutscenes, the non-game parts of a game. In exchange for control, artistry and impact must be sacrificed. Although they are a burgeoning sandbox for new stories and ideas, games will never approach film or even television in terms of artistry due to this dichotomy. Something which is such a vital component to other visual media will never be a major part of videogames. This problem can never be rectified, by the very nature of these games and their need for interactivity. The level of artistry can simply never compete. No matter how hard videogames overcompensate, the gap can't be bridged, and that's a shame.

5 Comments

LOL

By Lies February 26, 2009 11 Comments

Which of these two do not belong?

I'll give you a hint: They're Mafia LIVE! and Rapelay