GameblurgKids Talking About the Future

What a fun little week I’ve just had. After keeping up with the Leipzig and an impromptu trip to see nerdcore phenomenon mc chris down in Orlando, Florida, I’m ready to take it easy and realign my focus to the important things in life: school games.

Puzzles Puzzle Me

Of all the things I’ve played the most over the past week, naturally, Braid intrigued me the most. If you haven’t played it yet, there’s no doubt that you’ve heard its name being enthusiastically expressed somewhere. (When a game reaches such a level of enthusiasm as Braid has, I tend not to peek at reviews out of fear of spoilers and awkward subjectivity.)

The only thing that I would like to touch on is the constant pitching of the word “pretentious” at conversations about the Xbox Live title. The “pretentiousness” surroundings in games have never bothered me (barring poor execution): i.e. when they take themselves seriously. Outside of the facade that a “game” inherits because of it’s nature, some games carry implication of an earnest atmosphere generated by artistic style, gameplay or its story. Instead of a mere distraction from the normality of our livelihood, what’s wrong with diving into a methodical environment and discovering the extremities of the unfamiliar?

As far as my position of “liking” the Braid or not, I did enjoy it (I haven’t finished it yet though). The game’s time traveling mechanic enraptures the gameplay, allowing you to tinker with the game’s time line at your own will. The inclusion of its power in the story line produces a realistic feeling toward Tim’s, the main protagonist, power, as if it’s not just a randomly placed skill, but a power that the main character posses and exploits in game, and throughout his own personal life. The puzzles evoke meticulous preparation and mind consuming thought (for which, I was lucky to play with friends). I’m not going to drown this paragraph in a bunch of adjectives to describe its disposition in my line of new games (we’ll save that for later), but I recommend a trial download to those who haven’t tried it as of yet.

A Stale Franchise No More

As a stereotypical American, I too enjoy our little national game centered around silly hats and dog piles. To extend my love for the game (football), I ended my 3 year “not-giving-a-crap-about-Madden” drought to simulate my favoritest sport in the whole wild world. Madden 09 was recently released, celebrating it’s 20th year anniversary. I don’t know if it was public relation’s consistent badgering from Electronic Arts, hopelessly addressing their continuation of their successful 20+ year franchise, or Brett Favre on the cover, or all of the positive buzz generated from it that warranted at least a try. Being that I haven’t extensively played the game in so long, I can’t personally report improvements of the franchise, but I do know that I actually had an exciting time playing. Wow…that isn’t helpful for sports game fans at all is it? Well, in a sad attempt to appear knowledgeable about the game, here’s a link to new discoveries about the game.

Hoodie Ninja

How about something that I do know about? Star Wars: The Force Unleashed demo was released on Thursday this past week, and finally, after the dust and bandwidth have cleared, I was able to get my chance to wreak havoc among the somewhat, familiar world that is the Star Wars universe utilizing the powers of the main character, Starkiller. I have purposely ignored every piece of concept art, story detail, etc. because ever since my eyes darted to the E3 2007 trailer, I’ve wanted everything in this game to catch me by surprise. Thank god I’m not a journalist (yet). Although I didn’t want to spoil it for myself, when the demo glided into the Xbox Live Marketplace, my patience and will power had worn thin. Seeing as it is a demo, all I feel comfortable talking about is the small amount of time with it, my expectations, and my fears.

The first thing I noticed was the Starkiller’s artillery. In the beginning, I felt an overwhelming emotion of freedom and power because of the seemingly limitless power I had been endowed. The ability to retract nearly any item/person Force’s reach is remarkable. Obviously, there was an immense focus on this portion of the gameplay: as a vast portion of its physics engine revolves around the player’s ability to physically manipulate and bewitch objects/people in your area. Initially, the powers were exciting, but easily was reduced into skepticism. Was I “too” powerful? Although it is a demo, and LucasArts continues throwing all of these powers in my direction in an attempt to sell the game to me, I’m assuming that it won’t take long for these rudimentary “dark side” powers will become a part of my arsenal relatively early in the retail copy. After all, what’s a sith lord without his Force Lightening? As I dove further into the demo, I found that this was not the case. Although my foes did not wield the same power, they carried what I lacked: numbers. It balances the overexhuberance of Force powers out a bit, but I do pray for saber-to-saber battles in the longrun. The game also seemed to disregard skill and award random button patterns. My personal gameplay style revolved around the Force Grip power (something about throwing Stormtroopers into…Stormtroopers makes me giggle), but upon further feedback and experiment, you could get through the demo just fine by mashing your X and Y buttons without regularity or pattern and survive the droves of enemies. The inability to block stray bolster shots and run simultaneously also hurts the ebb and flow of the game, causing you to pause and rely on defense when being bombarded by random infantry.

Weighing out the awkward and the good, the demo’s done good things for the upcoming performance of the title. The BioShock-like endowment of a multitude of potent powers have excited Star Wars fans, and generated curiosity from those who haven’t already succumbed to the avaricious pockets of George Lucas.

Unfortunately I have yet to try Too Human, SIREN: Blood Curse, Galaga Legions, or any other game that costs more than “free” (college student johns).* From what I’ve heard, they’re worth the babbling or two.  For now, deal with talk about popular games that you’re probably already sick of hearing, or send us some games. The latter excites me.

Note: However, I did play through a bit of Pixel Junk Eden. Wasn’t all too excited at the end of the 2+ hour session. Am I missing something?

Subliminal Nonsense: New Slipknot album is out, go buy it.

It’s daunting to dismiss the fact that our world is absorbed with the “bad guy”. Documentaries of Adolf Hilter air on the History channel quite regularly, 60+ years after his dictating reign ended. Sephiroth is highly regarded throughout the Final Fantasy universe as one of, if not the, best character among the franchises’ collective roster. Darth Vader’s heaving breathing sends an unprecedented chill down even the backs of the casual movie goers. Most recently, movie goers were infatuated by the neurotic and deadly antics of The Joker in the Batman: The Dark Knight. For some characters, there is no love between the audience and the characters, but with all, there is an undeniable feeling of…attraction.

These men listed above are the opposition: the easy foe to hate, but they are also, in a word, sophisticated. They are not bumbling fools; they have agendas, goals and dreams. These men also share one similar, important element, vital to their empires: power. Behind them lies a trail of destruction, lit ablaze by short tempers and a lack of tolerance for failure. This all sounds a little fun, now doesn’t it? A creation of havoc and disorder among adversaries without regard for rules or morals. If there were only some form of an interactive entertainment where you could take advantage of adapting the role of an ideal antagonist…

It would be interesting to explore the complexities that reside inside the minds of murdering psychopaths through our medium just as Edgar Allen Poe captivated audiences with tales of his own. Obviously, I am not a rabid lunatic (most of the time), but indeed, I curiously wonder what turn of events can derail rational thought. What makes these types of individuals tick to begin with? How does this deranged stature of mentality become routine and manifest into ones’ thought patterns and become his normality? The videogame medium holds the ability to engage players to participate in a characters’ livelihood, access their minds and experience their perspective, but should this mean that it always has to be the predictable perspective from the eyes of the hero?

Objectively wondering about inheriting the title of “bad guy”, few thoughts came to mind. There is of course, the universal hatred that comes with the title of “enemy”. The rage, or fear that spreads through the air as your name whispered could be undesired. It could be the conditioning that fantasy stories have embedded into our head: good guys always win. Or it could be the unwilling approach to the apparent negativity that lies within the adoption of such a role. To adapt the role of an uninvited being could produce skepticism among passive gamers who prefer the status of hero and doing the right thing. Killing the bad guy, and getting the girl is fun the first hundred times, but it’ll only take so long until you get exhausted from saving worlds and princesses.

Obviously, there are options that presently allow the player to see the world through the eyes of the antagonist, but as this role begins to birth, titles barely explore the intricacies of their reasoning. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a good example of the deviation from the normal role that the player adapts. Excluding its trite expressions and cliché-heavy dialog, its premise is an appropriate example to this article’s argument: play bad guys. You kill what they want to kill. Past occurrences are also presented to the player to represent background that explains the character’s current emotions, agendas and actions. The possibilities for this exploration throughout other potential franchises are prodigious. Story + killing stuff=super-fun-time. We’ve had the “killing stuff” part right for years, now how about that story?

In short, I want to tyrannically destroy anything that opposes me (“killing stuff”), and then discover why my character wants to do the same in his world, and the incentive (“story”) to destroy that lies in him; all in one, playable experience. Bad guys have a indistinguishable feeling of freedom, disregard for humanity that we all might crave from time to time (in videogames, of course). The angry emotion that generates a lack of control that breeds unwarranted chaos, and simultaneously gets the job realized. I want to experience the power and ruthlessness that comes with the territory. Just one, small taste.