ZombiU - First 5 Hours

To start this off, I'll admit that I am not the one who played ZombiU, even though that's usually the way these reviews go. However, that would force me to ignore the adventure of hilarity that proceeded to happen a few nights ago while I watched a friend of mine play ZombiU.

I'd also like to point out how surprised I was when the game started up and I got to view the graphics on the WiiU for the first time. For a system that I expected to be an upgraded Wii, this one was already starting to impress me.

So what about ZombiU? Well it's a survival horror game, with zombies. Yes, just like all the others that proudly include zombies for us to kick, maim, injure, and kill. But even from the first few hours of gameplay, you can tell that this is going to be different. It's not going to be a walk in the park. You aren't meant to go off fighting everything; that will get you killed. Your game character isn't some overpowered, hulking behemoth, zombie-killing machine who happens to be super effective against zombie types. He or she is just a regular citizen trying to fend off the horde as best as they can, which is a feature I find of particular enjoyment. Being a fan of survival horror to begin with, I can say that this game holds true to its genre.

When you start up a game, you choose your difficulty and are greeted with a randomly generated player character, who is, in fact, named. And when that character dies, you'll have the unique opportunity to find him/her later, in the same spot that you succumbed to the zombie horde, as a newly indoctrinated member of the shambling masses. And there they will stay, until you find them again, with all your hard work and items safely stored in the backpack that they are wearing. How's that for incentive to take it easy? You thought getting to that point was hard the first time? Try doing it again, but this time without all the cool items you've been scavenging.

But enough on what the game is about, and on to the adventure I promised you at the beginning.

Like I mentioned earlier, a friend of mine is actually the one playing this through. He is an avid Gamer (note that term) and enjoys games with lots of action and little story. So why not put his FPS skills to the test against some zombies? Or so he thought...

The game starts up, and the shit talking begins. Apparently, some zombies don't know whats coming. He chooses Easy difficulty, and I proceed to paint a vivid picture of future gameplay including armless/legless zombies laying on the floor waiting for the nuclear, moon-cannon carrying player character to come end their misery.

After a quick cut scene of your character being surrounded by zombies you are prompted to sprint out of harm's way and straight up a ladder. This didn't really go over so well, since Johnny (the player character) decided to ignore the tutorial's suggestion of 'Run the hell away'. Instead of learning to sprint, we instead watched on as Johnny lazily sauntered past zombies on his way to the end point. After taking a few rotting claws to the back Johnny makes it up the ladder, surprisingly...

...into what looks to be a janitors closet. We are then shown how to use the flashlight. Looting around yields nothing but the way out. Walking into the next room we see that the hallway is somewhat blocked by soda machines that have been toppled over as a barricade of sorts. It's at this point he complains about not having any guns to start; at least we find out how to 'shove' zombies away. Which will be coming in handy here real soon as there appears to be a group of zombies chowing down on some soylent green down the hall past the soda machines. I mention that it would probably be a good idea to sneak by without the light on. But, like the tutorial on sprinting, this is taken as more of a suggestion than anything else. Johnny proceeds to climb over the soda machines, walk up to the gang of zombies with his flashlight on, take a gander at what could be so delicious, and attract their attention. Johnny turns around and calmly walks back to climb over the soda machines. He gets hit twice on the way over. 'How can Johnny be still alive?' I wonder, 'and why aren't those zombies climbing over that soda machine to come say hi?'

Well, Johnny's a Tunnel Snake, he's too cool for running around, and he's too cool for zombies. He's taking this outbreak like a champ. And the zombies are intimidated by his swagger. It's the only logical explanation. As for the apparently impervious zombie barrier, I'm informed that this is the only time they won't be able to climb things. Which is a relief, as I almost cried for game mechanics.

Johnny goes in for a second try, shoving his way through the horde at the soda machine and walks to the end of the hallway. Unfortunately for Johnny, it's blocked. So he turns around, shoves some more zombies away and makes a right. Its at this point Johnny learns to sprint, which is good for him since there are more zombies in this hallway blocking the way out. Through some luck and a bit of divine intervention, Johnny makes it to the end of the level.

Starting up again, we're contacted by some British guy on an intercom. He says he's here to help, and directs Johnny to some computer monitors and a map. The monitors show us the last guy our new British friend tried to help. He's stuck in a window. But he has a backpack, and we want that. Besides, its not like our window traveling friend is using it. The map shows us how to get there. It's at this point all reasonable navigation ends, as looking between a map and in front of himself is just too much for Johnny. We see the quest objective on the map but not many of the obstacles that lay in our path. Because of this Johnny's shins and face start taking some self inflicted punishment, as Johnny is too busy looking at a map to notice the concrete barriers, fences, road signs, and walls he's running into. After some painful navigation, Johnny finally makes it to the man without a plan, but he's got a backpack with some useful bits inside.

Poking around in the backpack yields a cricket bat and a gun. We're also told again that using the sonar ping would be a good way to find zombies on the map, as our next objective is to get out of the building. Some more painful navigation follows until Johnny finds a machine gun emplacement overlooking the mall plaza. Pinging the sonar shows us that there is indeed a zombie down there, minding its own business. Something tells Johnny that using that machine gun would be a poor idea, as it would probably attract a lot of zombies. But Johnny has never heard of a survival horror game, and just the thought of zombies offends him. So Johnny equips a bit of ignorance and gets himself over to the machine gun. With careless disregard, Johnny starts throwing lead down range at the lone zombie, turning it into soup. Unsurprisingly, Johnny has attracted the attention of the other zombie in the room, who begins to climb up in front of him. Johnny looks down and continues making as much noise as possible, turning that zombie into jello chunks. The gods of gaming cry out for vengeance but realize Johnny is protected by the unholy demi-gods of easy mode.

Johnny hops off the machine gun and starts making his way to the way out, but quickly finds out that its locked and requires a key card. Luckily for him, there's one in the mall, and its only on the complete opposite side of where he's at now. Johnny looks at his new objective on the map and starts walking, ignoring his legs while they wonder why Johnny hates them so much. Coming up to the objective, Johnny is reminded that he can ping the map with sonar by the very noisy zombie in the next room. Looks like the door is blocked by filing cabinets, which makes zombies incredibly angry. Johnny takes one look at the disgruntled zombie and starts rummaging around in his backpack for the only answer to this sort of problem. A gun. Taking it out, Johnny realizes he is exceptionally bad at aiming, but goes for the gun solution anyways. Shooting through the broken window ends in the zombie taking several shots in the arm, a few in the chest, and one or two in the leg. Johnny decides he's tired of shooting lame ducks in a pond and equips his cricket bat. Vaulting over the window, Johnny begins beating the already quite defeated zombie over the head. Johnny proclaims his triumph over his obviously equally matched opponent and grabs the key card.

Johnny begins wandering around for several minutes in a state I can only describe as "being lost with a map", but eventually makes it outside.

Ah, the great outdoors. Alas, it is raining and there are zombies about. Johnny doesn't hesitate, he has some surviving to do. Walking a little ways reveals some peculiar noises coming from behind some construction vehicles. Johnny doesn't even think twice, zombies ate his neighbors. He runs straight over to the zombies with his pistol and picks a fight, even though he's outnumbered. Johnny runs out of bullets and is forced to use his cricket bat, but he continues beating down the enemy until nothing but himself is left standing.

Moving on past the construction area, Johnny finds a zombie standing in an alleyway. It's the zombies unlucky day because that's the way Johnny was walking. Using his only weapon, Johnny runs over and beats down the poor fellow without remorse because Johnny hates zombies, they killed and ate his dog. Johnny continues his evening stroll until he finds some scaffolding to climb up. He finds some ammo and some flares. He also finds a couple of zombies down below him shambling around. Johnny, being unable to contain his rage, ignores the suggestion of throwing a flare as a distraction and instead goes for a more direct route. Jumping down he runs towards the zombies with his cricket bat and starts handing out blunt damage. Again, he becomes the only one left standing and heads on down the street towards the next objective, picking up a few flares along the way. Finding the building he's supposed to enter, Johnny goes to open the door, tripping an alarm, and attracts the attention of the horde. The British guy on the intercom urges Johnny to enter the building for safety, but Johnny's not a push over and he stands his ground. Johnny turns around and runs away from the safety of the open door, ready to cricket bat anything that stands in his way. Within seconds, Johnny is dead.

And thus ends the first few hours of ZombiU gameplay. It ended, as I hoped it would, in a much deserved and long-time-coming death for Johnny. Overall, I'd say it stands out as an example of survival horror doing it right. Instead of having a few cheap scares and a few less bullets, ZombiU takes up the challenge by providing you with an intense atmosphere and a lot less bullets. I think its time to experience Survival mode, Johnny must be avenged.

Reviews - To the Moon

Spoiler-Free Review #1 – To the Moon

(Important note: DO NOT spoil this game if you intend to play it. Do not read up on it, don’t “wiki” it, none of that. The risk you run of ruining such an amazing piece of story with spoilers is just not worth it. Also, stay away from the Steam game feed. People on there do not care if they spoil the game for you, and will do so eagerly. This write-up, hoever, contains no spoilers, so don't be discouraged from reading it.)

Being such a naturally cynical person can be a very tough job.  Especially when, like me, you are trying to help do your small part in spreading the word about something fantastic. When something comes along that completely blows you away, and makes you rethink something you often take for granted, you want to share it. But you also don’t want to share it with the wrong person. You have to be careful. Even if you don’t care what the person actually thinks, you don’t want them to dislike something for the wrong reason (or because they just simply don’t understand it) and then possibly ruin it for others down the road who have the potential to enjoy it for what it really is. This is where being such a cynic is tough.

Just last night, I started and finished “To the Moon” from Freebird Games. It only took about 4 hours, beginning to end. And at the end, I have to admit… I felt like I had ripped off the developer by getting it for $4.99 during a Steam sale. This game, in 4 hours, gave me a better storyline than ANY film I have ever seen. And it did so for half the price of a Matinee ticket at my local movie theatre. Now, for some, that may not be saying much. Many of you know that one of the greatest advantages to using videogames as a storytelling medium is that they turn the primary viewer into a participant. You’re not sitting on your couch watching the end of the film as the characters ask “What’s in the box!?” You’re not a bystander as the humans resist their Machine oppressors.  Games are different. More involved.

            Now, that said, you may not feel like you actually are Solid Snake, and that you personally are defeating the renegade FOXHOUND unit on Shadow Moses Island. But you definitely felt like you were there helping him along. You experienced the twists and turns just the same. Some games, with character creation or a large number of characters and decisions, and multiple branching storylines and endings, help to enhance that feeling and move closer to making YOU feel like the protagonist, which is something movies just cannot do. The narrative is set, you don’t make any decisions. Sure, some movies have alternate endings, but unless you buy the $375 “Special Once-in-a-Lifetime, We Need More of Your Money Edition Blu-ray, DVD, Digital Copy and Toaster Combo Pack”, you may not even ever know about them. (Plus, they are usually crap, anyway.) Games can take an amazing story and make it better by (even if only superficially) bringing the viewer into the narrative to experience it. Not just to watch it. This means that simple things like a tough gun battle become much more than “Ooh, that's going to be tough for them”. You know how hard it is for the protagonists because you spend plenty of time cursing at a “Mission Failed” or “Game Over” screen as the game SHOWS you how hard it is. It’s something we may not think about, but these “Game Over” moments (no matter how much we hate them) can be used to help illustrate more accurately to a Player exactly what the characters are really going through. And even though these “deaths” may not be considered canon (as games have different ways of interpreting “game over” or character death), once you pass a mission that took you 47 tries, you will likely come out of it with a much clearer understanding of exactly how tough a battle it really was.

I told you that to tell you this. To the Moon is a work of art in every sense of the word. It literally felt, from beginning to end, like a masterpiece, but it had a strange way of not quite feeling like a game, either. It doesn't have an in-depth combat system, or rigid-body physics, or fluid-dynamics simulation, or full-face motion capture technology, or problem-solving artificial intelligence. And yet, it felt more real than any game I've played that DOES have those things. Instead of trying to simulate reality, this game takes something real, and puts it into a simulation. It takes a grounded, touching, heart-felt storyline, drops in a few science-fiction elements and (despite the fact that you are traversing a person’s dreams) still manages to stay in touch. It never loses you. And the one or two times where the science fiction gets a little out of hand, you likely won’t notice, because you’ll be so caught up in it that it won’t even matter. And, in a very rare occurrence in games, the comedy sprinkled throughout isn't out of place, and isn't forced. It feels just as natural as the rest of the game. Yes, it’s built in the RPG Maker engine. Yes, it has SNES-style 16-bit graphics. Yes, it feels like an RPG you likely played in 1994. Yes, the premise is a bit contrived. But none of that will matter. 

But I digress; let’s get back to my original point. It’s tough to be cynical sometimes. In part, because our job here is to critique; and I just can’t bring myself to say anything bad about this game. It’s not flawless as a game by any means. The controls are odd. Some of the game mechanics are a bit repetitive, and the puzzles, while a welcome addition, aren't exactly challenging and may be a little out-of-place. When you get right down to it, it’s only real downfall may be the fact that it’s only barely a game. Sort of like Heavy Rain. I loved Heavy Rain because David Cage understands what a great medium this is for conveying your story. The problem was that Heavy Rain was billed as an engaging, story-driven game. And it wasn't. It was an interactive movie. That’s not a bad thing; it’s just not what a lot of people were expecting when they bought it. The game attempted to bridge that gap between amazing storytelling and presentation in films with the interactivity of a game. My biggest complaint was that it was made up of quick-time events. I HATE quick-time events. I won’t say it failed at what it was attempting. I think it did that quite well (bad acting aside). It just needed to tell people what it was doing from the start and not attempt to disguise itself as a game first, story second.

To the Moon is doing the same thing. It’s taking an inspired, touching story, and presenting it to you in an interactive way that goes beyond simple “Click to advance to the next page”. So yes, it may not be much of a “game” per se, but we’re not Gamers here, we’re Players. And this game is worth playing, worth experiencing.

The other reason it’s tough to be cynical is that I desperately want a great many of my friends to play this game. But my cynicism tells me that too many of them will miss the point. They’ll skip the story and get bored. They’ll complain about the controls or the graphics. They won’t enjoy it because they just don’t want to. But I honestly think it’s better this way. This is the sort of thing that needs to be spread among the right people.

In conclusion: Play it. Please. If you agree with our concept here, and you agree that games are an evolution of storytelling, you owe it to yourself to experience this. I’ll warn you, it’s not a happy story. But it’s worth every minute. Also, the audio is flawless, a nice little melding of nostalgic sound effects that remind you of RPGs past and a perfectly executed, high-quality original soundtrack written by the game’s writer/director Kan R. Gao. So I suggest grabbing the game/soundtrack bundle as well.

Get it, play it. And, if you love it, share it. Buy and gift it to a Steam friend. Even after the sale, it’s only $10. Two copies of this and you still are only at 1/3 of what you would pay for any new blockbuster title. And I guarantee you this $20 investment will give two Players a better experience than any $60 game you can buy right now. Not to mention, it shows Kan R. Gao and his team at Freebird Games that you don’t need a huge studio, AAA publisher backing and a state-of-the-art game engine to make people happy.

Werehogging

I’ll assume that the majority of you have heard the term “jumped the shark” before, but I wonder how many of you know what it means or where it came from.

According to Wikipedia, “Jumping the shark is an idiom created by Jon Hein that is used to describe the moment in the evolution of a television show when it begins a decline in quality that is beyond recovery.” It was coined in 1977 in reaction to an episode of Happy Days where Fonzie literally jumped over a shark on a pair of water skis. At this point, the show had seemingly completely lost touch with itself and had become so ludicrous that to bring in viewers they had to resort to such charades as death-defying stunts.

An equivalent term has also been accepted for movies. “Nuking the fridge” is the point at which a movie is so ridiculous or out of touch that putting Indiana Jones in a refrigerator to survive a nuclear explosion becomes a thing that actually exists in film.

To get to the point of this article, there have been many cases of a video game jumping the shark, and many equivalent terms have been suggested, but haven’t really stuck. Here at PvG, I think we have the answer.

Werehogging.

Yes Werehogging, a term that I can barely type without grimacing a little. And in case you hadn’t figured it out yet, it refers to the game Sonic Unleashed for the PS3, Xbox 360 and, most notably, the Wii.

Sonic Unleashed is a 3D action platformer released in 2008 for our three favorite home consoles that features the lovable blue speedster, Sonic the Hedgehog. The day stages of the game combined 2D platforming sections, reminiscent of the Sonic games of old, and a new, fast-paced 3D Sonic experience, running appropriately on the “Hedgehog Engine” (except on the Wii), that put Sonic Adventure stages to shame. The game was fast, the controls were good, the music was decent (although a new Crush 40 track would have been nice) and it became what later Sonic games would use as the basis of their gameplay.

Unfortunately, if there is day, there must also be night. See, at the beginning of the game you watch a cut scene of Sonic obliterating Dr. Eggman’s space fleet and transforming into Super Sonic to assumedly capture him. However, when Sonic catches up to him in the bowels of his flagship, Eggman flips a switch that activates a trap, capturing Sonic, draining him of his power, stealing the Chaos Emeralds, and, you guessed it, turning him into a werewolf.

(Image belongs to Tyson Heese)

I’m generally pretty accepting of new gameplay mechanics or twists in the storylines of my favorite franchises (I’m looking at you Wind Waker), and oftentimes these changes can make games more enjoyable than a copy paste of the last installment (I’m looking at you New Super Mario Bros. U), but if the Werehog levels of Sonic Unleashed were the least bit “fun” or “innovative”, then it wouldn’t be a contender, and our pick, for the video game equivalent of jumping the shark.

To begin, and I suppose this is just nitpicking, the word werewolf comes from the Old English wer for man, and wulf for wolf. So in this regard (which is the only regard, mind you), calling Sonic a Werehog is akin to calling him a man-hedgehog, which is definitely not what the game is trying to convey. Maybe they thought Hogwolf sounded stupid, who knows? Regardless, that’s not what earned Sonic Unleashed a jumping the shark award.

What did was the gameplay of the Werehog stages. While Sonic is usually known for his blazing speed and levels filled with loops, pinball machine mechanics and easily trounced enemies, what he is not normally thought of is slow, lumbering or stretchy. In the Werehog stages of Sonic Unleashed you play as Sonic, transformed by the visible moonlight (not even a full moon, unless this alternate earth has a perpetually full moon) into a hulking, snarling, hairy shell of his former self. Your main abilities consist of swinging both or either of your long, stretchy arms at enemies to dispatch them, picking them up to beat the others with and using said arms to traverse obstacles like pitfalls.

Now at this point, you may be thinking, “Well, that doesn’t sound so bad, it sounds like a normal 3D hack and slash/beat ‘em up game”, but you’d be wrong. The game still puts an emphasis on beating these levels as fast as possible without giving you any sense of speed whatsoever, and the limited abilities you have as the Werehog get stale before the first stage is over. The only rewarding part of playing these levels is that you unlock more day stages afterwards (and progress the plot I suppose).

Oh, did I mention? Dr. Eggman used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to awaken the spirit of the earth, who subsequently broke it into five or so floating chunks, so that he could build his secret base/laboratory/amusement park “Eggmanland”. Almost par for the course, but I still fail to see what this has to do with lycanthropy.

One more thing, if you play the superior version on the PS3 or Xbox 360, you’ll get better day stages that make up about two thirds of the game while only having to endure the Werehog portions for the remaining third. If you play the Wii version, you’ll not only be playing as the Werehog half of the game, you’ll also be forced to use motion controls to swing Sonic’s big, stupid arms around (unless you play with a Gamecube controller, but that’s cheating, right?). Try getting an S rank on that stage now, sucker.

This is the end of my rant, and while I’ll submit that other games have Werehogged their stories or plots worse than Sonic Unleashed, none that I can think of have Werehogged their gameplay quite as badly.

If you disagree, tell us what you think in the comments.

Esky out.

Oversensitivity in Gaming

(I realized after I wrote this that there is technically a spoiler for Borderlands 2 in it, but it's about the opening video. So... if you are really that butt-hurt about me ruining the opening video....don't read this until you've at least seen that much. Go youtube it or something.)

    Alright folks, let's start this out by pointing out something that a lot of people are immediately going to argue with. I realize "games are different" when compared to movies. I know that since you are much more involved in the progression and outcome of a video game, that it warrants a bit of a different perspective. That's why we have the ESRB, not the MPAA. It's different, so it must adhere to different standards.

    Now, let's start with what caused me to get really pissed off about this. A steam user (who I will not name because I don't want to draw undue attention to them, plus it's not about them) posted a complaint about the Borderlands 2 intro. Now, I have to give them credit, they made sure to point out, multiple times, that it was his/her singular opinion that fueled this post. They pointed out that the intro to Borderlands 2 contains the dragging death of a wild animal. Now, I'm not completely insensitive. I love animals. I always get angry when I hear about some douchebag kids killing the neighborhood stray because they have nothing better to do. I get angry when I hear about what the Walt Disney company did to lemmings. And it's just plain depressing when some old woman claims she "loves" her 200 cats when all she is doing is making their lives a living hell by forcing them all to live in miserable conditions. Because these things are actually pretty appalling.

    With that said... When was the last time you saw a Skag beast walking around your neighborhood? I don't remember seeing them in any wildlife documentaries. And I will bet you 20 rupees right now that there isn't a single "Crazy Skag Lady" anywhere on this planet. Why? Because Skags are not real. They're an invention by the folks at Gearbox. And, as a completely fictional invention, they don't have rights. They're not really alive. They are made up, and we can do whatever the hell we want to them. Like blowing them to tiny pieces with rockets, hitting them with buses, filling them with sub-machine gun bullets, or just beating them to a red chunky pulp with our bare hands. All, by the way, things you could do in the first Borderlands game.

    This is a video game. It's not real life. If it were, I'd be a little more inclined to agree. But it's a video game that is rated "M for Mature (17+) for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Sexual Themes, and Use of Alcohol". When you buy a game with a character on the cover who is holding hands to his chin like guns and every other character on it is either standing next to or holding a deadly weapon... what did you expect? Because I sure as hell didn't expect a puppy-petting simulation. I expected exactly what it told me on the front cover. That's why the rating is there. The cover could be completely blank besides that ESRB notice, and I'd still know what I was getting into. That's also why it says "17+". Because the only way we, as a society, have to measure maturity in a consistent and reliable method is through age. It may not be perfect, but dammit, it's all we have. The ESRB has determined that anyone who passes an ID check for being of the correct age is perfectly capable of realizing that this game does not depict real life and thus, some of the acts contained herein may not be suitable for reenactment with Fluffy. This user also mentions the idea of "Violence in Context", or the idea that shooting them in the game when they attack you is very different than dragging them behind a moving vehicle when they are (possibly) already injured, then goes on to point out that they "can't stomach pretending to drag one to death for fun".

    Well, congratulations. That means you are a sane person. Here's the good news. You didn't pretend to drag one of these fake animals to death for fun. Hell, at this point, you haven't even shot one in self-defense. What you did, is watch a group of the game's (quite obviously mentally unstable) villains torture a wild animal. Then you saw one of them headbutt and knock out a fellow bandit, just for the hell of it, before perching himself precariously on the hood of a moving vehicle. Finally, you watched the whole group get hit by a damn train, likely killing them all.

    I have to be careful here, because while I have to point out that the creature is not real, I'm skating a thin line here. Because I'm all for making the game seem real. Immersion is something I will always have a hard time arguing against. It's what makes the game so much more fun. That suspension of disbelief is how you ensure the game can mean something to you. My point is, nobody raises an eyebrow when Superman takes a bullet like a drop of water, because it makes sense in context. "Reality in Context" is what we need to be concerned with. As long as you are immersed in the game and believe it all, that's the point. But as soon as you click "quit" you can take comfort in realizing that "No animals were harmed in the making of this game".

    What bothers me even more about this is that people think that because something is angering or appalling or horrifying, it shouldn't be in videogames. I most recently encountered this atrocity when I was reading about the new Tomb Raider reboot (which i still have high hopes for, despite its extensive delays). When discussing the game, one of the developers mentioned that in the beginning of the game, she gets captured, beaten, abused, etc. I don't remember the exact wording he used, but he essentially implied that she may have been sexually abused. Almost immediately, tons of people got up in arms about how horrible it was to have that happen in the game. What? Because something is upsetting and miserable, we can't talk about it? We can't show it? I understand this specifically is a very sensitive issue. But that's the point. It's a sensitive issue, but it DOES happen. Ignoring it doesn't make it go away. You cannot censor something and make it go away. Censoring the discussion, representation or dramatization of something won't make the real thing go away. No matter how much we wish it would. It's like when the BBC censors and bans songs purely because they talk about (or sometimes are just perceived to talk about) things such as drugs, sex, and political views. Hell, the theme song to a Frank Sinatra film was outright banned from radio play simply because the movie had to do with drugs. IT WAS INSTRUMENTAL! Now, that is a very specific and slightly outdated example, but it's a mentality still goes on to this day. Some people think that not talking about things makes them disappear. And that if we don't expose people to something, they'll NEVER find out. The opposite is actually the case. Talking about things, and getting awareness out there is what helps people to deal with them easier.

    People don't get all up in arms over a girl being raped on your local prime time cop drama (anymore) because most people are intelligent enough to understand that it is horrifying, but it does happen. I realize that a lot of people play games to escape reality, but that's why I can almost guarantee you that Lara Croft will do a pretty damn good job of paying all those nice gentlemen back for their treatment of her. You don't put something like that in a game for her to just "deal with". That's why it's a videogame. Because you can do things that most people would not be able to. It's called empowerment.

If we had banned and outlawed everything that had "questionable" subject matter, then many amazing pieces of art would never have esisted. The supposed "Greatest Love Story Ever Written", William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" would have been banned. In case you folks don't know... (Spoiler alert) THEY BOTH FUCKING DIE IN THE END!

    Basically, what it comes down to is, people need to lighten up. It's a game. Nobody got hurt. And unless you decide to start reenacting the scenes within it, nobody really will be. It's one of the greatest upsides to the medium. I can come home after a shitty day at work and kill a bunch of fake people and animals as long as I want to blow off steam. And nobody will ever have to worry about it.

    We have to be VERY careful with how we present this on this site. Because I love getting into a game. Really experiencing it. But we all have to remember that no matter how much the plight of the Planet versus the Shinra Corporation touches us, no matter how much that Necromorph in the corner scares the living shit out of us, and no matter how much we hate how many times Ocelot has gotten plans to the fucking Metal Gear... at the end of the day, it's just a game.


        *23 Moogles were horrifically tortured in the writing of this article*

Life is a Journey

I was in the middle of writing a post about how Nintendo abandoned the audience that they've spent years making wonderful, meaningful games for to cash in on less-than-successful shovelware titles and rehashes when I had to stop suddenly to write this. I had to stop because my female friend, who was sitting directly behind me, just finished the game Journey for the first time.

Journey, a wonderful and beautifully constructed game by thatgamecompany (who also produced the games flOw and Flower), is more of an experience than a game, but presents that experience to you through its gameplay, which is something that many game developers seem to have a hard time capturing. Either the game lacks immersion, the gameplay is stale and detracts from the experience or the game falls short in both categories. Journey has simple controls and a well presented goal that make it easy to get into the game early on, which is good considering this game should only take you one or two hours to complete the first time. The main goal of the designers was to tell a story, which, in my opinion, should be the goal of any game designer, script write, author or artist.

The story that you're experiencing should be an integral part of a game, but that being said, a video game shouldn't need to take time out of the gameplay to progress the plot, and if it does, it should do so as briefly as possible to help maintain the immersion. Super Mario Bros., for instance, takes the time to show a brief cutscene before underground portions of the game and an even briefer bit of dialogue at the end of each castle to inform you that your adventure must continue to reach your final goal. Journey follows a similar pattern and only gives you a brief cutscene at the end of each section that explains a little more than your silent protagonist's travels could. Game designers need to be aware that most people who play their games aren't doing so to reach each cutscene or read every in-game novel they've written (I'm looking at you The Elder Scrolls series). There are other forms of media readily available to satiate our desires for written and visual entertainment. The ability to progress the story yourself is what creates the strong sense of immersion unique to video games. There may only be one direction to go on the map, but you get to decide to go there, you don't have to watch someone else do it. This is why people play video games, to feel like they're experiencing their own story.

She didn't make a sound the entire time she progressed through the game; didn't talk, didn't get up, nothing. In case you were unaware, Journey has a feature that allows someone else playing the game to randomly appear in yours and, as long as you don't lose sight of eachother, you can continue progressing through the game with them. So, very early in the game, she had someone show up in her game and help guide her through. Literally feet from the terminating point of the game, the other palyer stopped and started running around in circles. After 30 or so seconds had ellapsed, they stopped and started chirping (the circle button in this game allows you to make a chirping sound and is used by players to get their attention) at her. This was the point when I walked over to see how she was doing. She didn't know what he was trying to tell her, so I suggested she turn the camera to get a better look at where he had been running. When she rotated the camera you could see that they had used the path created by their character running in the sand to draw a small mural for her. Multiple hearts, some with arrows through them littered the ground around them. She immediately wanted to know if there was any way that she could contact this unknown person to say thank you. Luckily, the game lists the players you met along your Journey after the end credits of the game, so I let her send a message through the Playstation Network.

Now, I've beaten this game several several times, so the magic has worn off a little for me, but the end of this game still stirs up my emotions and fills me with a strong sense of accomplishment. I had never seen anyone do something like this before, however, and it made the game's ending that much more amazing. The fact that so much could be communicated with so little gives me hope for the future of video games, because that's what video games are all about in my eyes. Giving you the tools and letting you create your own experience, even if there is only one way to go.

The Video:

A good picture of one of the hearts:

Up Next?

Now that we've gotten that out of the way




...on to the less confrontational stuff.

I'm tired of biased reviews. So another part of this site will be several different sorts of critiques and reviews of both games and the industry as a whole. If I'm a fanboy of something, I should be able to point out this fact and attempt to overcome this bias to provide legitimate, helpful input. If that is not the case, then my colleagues will most likely step in and set me straight by providing an alternate view, or just calling me an idiot. But remember, while the reviews and opinions on this are just that, our opinions; we all assure you, that those opinions shall never be influenced by any group or organization or company who has interest in the outcome of such a review. We won't give a game a good review because we "have to love it". We won't be bullied into saying things that we don't believe. If it sucks. It sucks. And we'll be sure to tell you that. That's one of the nice things about not being some huge reviews site. We don't need to be sponsored by Eidos. Mr. Gerstmann doesn't work for us. Thus we can tell you without reservation that Kane & Lynch is complete crap (just as an example). Oh, and Eidos?

FUCK YOU.

Oh wait... that was confrontational too... Screw it.

The Concept

Players vs Gamers:

Welcome to the Ring
(or, The Concept)



For this project, I am going to adopt a set of terminology I encountered in a very well-written book given to me by a friend (I'll omit the name and description of the book in order to not detract from the importance of the idea it provided and hide an irrelevant bit of fanboyism on my part, both of which would dilute the impact). The idea of a split like this among a group I had always considered so close-knit struck a chord with me. It was like the Cyborg Ninja in the room: it might have been there all along, but until it cuts the enemy's hand off in the middle of a boss fight, you don't even notice.

A "Gamer" is a person who plays video games purely for the achievements, be they mental, or built into a system within the game/console/platform. The "I beat it" moment. The chance to check something off of their list. Bragging rights, and not much else.

A "Player" is a person who turns the game into an experience. A person who might be willing to sacrifice 10 frames per second for 4X anti-aliasing instead of 2X. The kind who will play a game again, just to experience the story, even if it doesn't change. They play for the immersion. The emotion. And even, the beauty.

A game to a Gamer is a statistic. A milestone at best.

For a player, it's an investment. An experience.

A player sees that one stray bullet that accidentally kills an NPC teammate as a loss to the team. A loss of capabilities. They may not go so far as to start thinking of how "Timmy the medic won't make it back out of City 17 to see his daughter again", but he sees more than the Gamer. A Gamer sees this as just another bullet that didn't hit the enemy.

<SPOILERS FOR THE GAME CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE FOLLOW>

Take, for instance, the missions "Shock and Awe" and "The Aftermath" from the original Modern Warfare.

Shock and Awe starts out as your typical "I'm a badass superhuman soldier" mission. You man an Mk 19 grenade launcher and shoot at several baddies from the comfort of your aircraft. After extracting a team of Marines and several other firefights, you watch your Close Air Support gunship get shot down just as you hear of a probable nuclear threat in the area. So you run in, shooting through more bad guys and work your way to the crash site. Then you, as the main character, personally carry the injured pilot back to your chopper and start your way out of the city. During the flight out, a nuclear weapon goes off in the city, knocking you and all the other helicopters out of the air. You can then stumble out of the helicopter in the aftermath and fallout of the nuke, past the corpses of your team and the pilot you just risked your life to rescue as buildings crumble around you and you slowly die. During the loading screen a large list of casualties sustained from the attack are listed, among them is the name of the character you were playing.

This level and it's imagery is pure art. And as much hatred as I have for the Call of Duty franchise, this scene is still one of the greatest examples of games becoming a true art form. The sound of the radio announcing a large number of casualties and locations of treatment facilities as you stumble out of the chopper. The bodies of your teammates laying around you. A teddy bear on the ground and the faint sound of children playing if you manage to crawl your way to a nearby playground. It was a scene that has very few equals. And sadly, a great number of people's only reaction to it was something along the lines of "Huh...that sucks."

It's just plain depressing that something like that goes to waste on the Call of Duty crowd... But I'll save that for a later rant.

<END CALL OF DUTY 4: MODERN WARFARE SPOILERS>


But again, why this divide among such a normally united group of people? It started to happen when videogames started becoming popular with mass audiences. When they no longer carried the stigma of being for "nerds". Suddenly, everybody wanted to play them. And that large group of people, who didn't really appreciate games for what they are beyond a way to kill time, started to influence the games industry. And started to give us huge budget games, with very little in the way of advancement of the concept. We end up with a lot of very pretty games, that are all pretty much the same. But a game like Minecraft, which is not "pretty" in any sense of the word, can sell millions of copies and provide hundreds of hours of fun without even having a storyline or set goals.

Then you have the "casual" crowd. The ones who started the facebook game craze. These people have actually begun to steer the industry as well. And the fact that Uncharted 2 (a great game, by the way) has "Facebook Integration" and Angry Birds is now available for the PS3.....just plain sickens me. And one quick note, who really shares their videogame progess on facebook? Seriously? WHY!?

This is a declaration of war on the Gamer and their systematic effort to turn games into an endless stream of carbon copies. The people who really like videogames hate you. Us Players want you to leave our passion alone. Go back to doing whatever the hell you used to do. And take Madden, Call of Duty, Battlefield, and every single game made by Zynga with you...

We're tired of your shit. And this site is going to help us fight you all. Your move.

(Now, to give credit where credit is due, I would like to thank Benjamin Chandler for his section that explained "Gamers" and "Players" in the book "Final Fantasy and Philosophy" and a game's use as a Writerly Text, it opened my eyes to this horrible epidemic and was absolutely invaluable.)

--Vinciere