Sex and violence sell.

Oh, those good old days. When I see those images of the first ever computer games, it makes me wonder how we ever got to this point. Seeing those bars flying around in a make-believe universe just makes me cry (don’t take what I say to0 literally okay?). Back then bars and dots were sufficient, and a few bleeps would settle for music. But times have changed. The era of innocent games, suitable for kids of all ages, has come to an end quite a while ago. Games where you have to use your imagination will no longer do. We want action, we want more, WE WANT EXTREME. At least, that’s apparently what the developers think.

Nowadays we’ve got all kinds of games, from games for the most innocent little newborns to games for old sex-starved perverts. Girls with big curves hopping around on a beach in slim bikinis, with even a cheat to take away that small amount of clothing, is that necessary? Is that what we asked for? If I want porn, I can just go to a video shop, or even better: the internet. Porn is not what games are about. But lately it seems that almost every game has some noticeable marks from the big-boobs-hype. From the more extreme, like most of the fighting games and the all-famous “Dead or Alive: Extreme Beach Volleyball” (of which the characters all come from a fighting game…), to the less striking ones such as “Time Splitters” (look at the characters at the bottom) and “Sega Soccer Slam” (the unlockable art of the female characters). Young children get to play these games! Imagine an 8 year old kid playing “BMXXX”, the BMX game where you can control scarcely clothed women riding a bike without a saddle! It’s just not normal. But what about more resent games like Mass Effect or Heavy Rain? Read more

Your Favorite Videogame Sucks

I’ve started to wonder if the entire entertainment industry has a yearly barbeque pot-luck dinner in which movie moguls, A&R big-wigs, and television hot-shots get together and plot out the new hotness; talking for hours, and going over demographics to figure out what this new hotness is.  The video game industry is sort of that out-of-place in the arena of entertainment.  Sure, the industry rakes in tens of billions of dollars yearly, but the industry is still niche.  Though they’ll never admit it in a million years, your typical jocks or “ew, icky games are gross” type of people are still gamers if they own a PS3, XBox or Wii.

The industry is wise to this, so they have devised a clever little plan to rake in more gamers and more cash.  It wasn’t hard for them to figure it out: People like numbers at the end of titles, people like boobs; and the only thing they love more than boobs are big, phallic, throbbing guns.  With this simple formula in place, they’ve been able to release titles that hit people in the mouth.  Punch-drunk, and loving it, these people are able to swallow big-name title after big-name title.   The industry has gone through its growing pains, and now it is able to fire off on all cylinders like a clock-work project monolith; it is impartial to human emotion; always seeing, and always knowing.

A group of weary games journalists have woken up from the dream in which they have been living in.  They had grown accustomed to their dates with PR, in-studio tours, and late-night binge drinking on the tab of Phony Computer Entertainment (Names have been replaced to protect the guilty).  These brave journalists stood up and stated a creed; eloquent in its simplicity, and yet gravely profound to those who have ears to hear, “We shall not stand for shitty, derivative video games.”  Their battle-cry rang violently across the plains, and it shook the very foundation of the industry monolith.  The industry was awe-struck by the valor of these wordsmiths.  They felt as through the earth beneath them could collapse at any second.  That is, until the monolith developed a mind for which it could use to adapt to any situation.   You see, the industry began fighting a battle on two fronts.  The journalists were proving to be quite bothersome, but a new threat loomed over the country side bearing a banner named Indie.  The industry knew that it surely fall if these terrorist cells gained enough influence to turn their own slaves (the gamers) against them.  The industry knew that this two-front war would be impossible; so they devised a plan that would be fool-proof: Ally the journalists with the independent game developers; make them fall in love with each other so that a sleeper agent can be placed within their ranks.

And the plan could not have worked more perfectly.  The plan worked three-fold: The industry must cannibalize itself to give the journalists fodder that will distract them from the big-picture.  Second, activate the sleeper agent to act like an independent game developer, but with full financial and PR backing from the monolith.   And finally the third act was ready.  The coup de grace was to restore the act of making derivative video games.

It’s very easy to see how evil the mind of the industry became.  By the time a new generation of journalists came about, it was too late for them to think for themselves.  The irony of this story is how the journalists still yearn for originality, but their senses have been dulled to a fine spoon.  This is how the industry did this:  It created a war within itself.  It allowed one part of itself to be inferior to the others.  This was integral to the entire plan.  I might even go as far as to say that this was the crux of the plan all along.  This was a very easy countermeasure to the journalists because the inferior part was once the dominating force.  One might say that this was the monolith itself at one point, but only if legend serves correctly.  This inferior part would anger them, because it served them well at one point.  Next, the monolith activated the sleeper agent known as ‘Bustion Woman (Names have been changed to protect the guilty, once again fanboys say “woot”).  This game was disguised as a small indie project, but this project received the royal treatment.  One journalist (God, bless him, we’ll call him Angel Shoemountain) fell into this trap and attempted to champion this big-budget title as the true indie weapon against the evil monolith.

Next, the rise of publishing power-house Lazyhearing (okay it is Activision. They don’t need to be protected) Activision’s revenue came from only three videogames, and this should have angered the journalists; but, the games from this publisher received high praise from these same journalists.  They fell for this clever ruse hook, line, and quicksand.  The journalists couldn’t be marked for their mistake, so they had to think quickly: Let’s name smaller games as derivative, and stupid.  This will confuse the public and keep our journalistic integrity intact.  Smaller games did emerge.  And, mind you, these were good, quality games that deserved positive publicity.  But the journalists, with their reputation on the line, spat in the faces of these meager developers hoping to break into the industry.  These games were not perfect, but they were good.  Since the journalists were distracted they had to give these games a red-letter label of derivation.   A solid “D” was the stigma that beset these game developers.  Everywhere they went they heard the same thing “Like God of War, but…”  “Like Final Fantasy, but…” “Like The Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Castlevania; (etc. ad nauseum) but…”  This was the new creed of the videogame journalists.  Nobody knew how far they fell.  Nobody could know, for the ramifications would be great.

So this is the state of the game, young reader.  The once strong videogame journalists are divided, and almost conquered.  The monolith is grinding away, strong as ever.  So I hope that you can pass along these fleeting words of advice.  A modest proposal, if you will.

—A Modest Proposal from a Gamer Who Cares—

Dearest videogame journalists,

I know this letter comes at trying times, but desperate times call for desperate measure.  As I write this, I am filled with dread; for the present state of games journalism is anemic.   I have heard the words from everyone, and I have been deep in thought.  I could not write until I figured out a plan that could help us rise again in the face of the dark monolith known as “The Industry.”  I know you are betwixt your thoughts, a duality you have been regrettably forced to live in.  I feel fortunate that I have not yet “made it” as a journalist, and perhaps this perspective may help you reestablish your, our, once proud nation.

I hate to say this, but your willingness to view the world in shades of gray has clouded your judgment.  You have been entrapped by your own words, they very words you seemingly wield.  You seem like masters of your craft at one moment, and motley fools the next.  This is because the industry has direct control over you.  I shudder at those words; and I hope you feel the same way, too.  I have been on the verge of anger, but I know that anger will solve nothing at all.  I was so enraptured by my anger that I couldn’t write for months on end.  I was consumed with such fury that I couldn’t bring the words that I wanted to say to the front of my lips.  I had to stand back for a moment.  I had to stand back, and watch the suffering that happened around me.

Through this time of contrition, I mustered enough conviction to create concrete countermeasures thanks, in part, to concise citations.  It’s so simple: Gears of War is Winback, God of War is Smash TV, and Final Fantasy is Ultima with jobs; furthermore, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is Space Invaders, Trials HD is Excite Bike; ‘Splosion Man is Portal, which is N+; which is Mega Man who is Mario with an arm cannon.  The truth cannot be unseen, nor can it be unheard.   If we are to win against the monolith, we must embrace the derivative nature of videogames, of entertainment in general.  It’s absolutely foolish to keep going down this same track of accepting videogames that are derivative, and rejecting games that are also derivative.  However, it’s not that simple.  We must use the Monolith’s same weapon against it.  We must outright reject that which we must embrace.  It will be a hard adjustment to make.  The monolith was able to adapt to us, because it is unfeeling.  We are people with real emotions.  We care about our craft, and what we cover, with the ferocity of a lion protecting its pride.  But we must stand vigilant.  If we are to win every single big-budget title must be labeled, and spat on; it must be beaten and bruised.  No matter the name attached to the software, we must reject it cold-heartedly.  It is the only way that we can win.

We must remind the gaming public constantly about what they are playing.  We must tell them that they are consuming an abomination.  If they check the review for the latest Call of Duty game, they must be told that it is Madden.  When Mass Effect 3 comes out, we must tell them it is Knights of the Old Republic meets Hamlet (Spoilers: Everybody dies. I just spoiled ME2 & ME3 for you ^_^).  And what about Splinter Cell: Conviction?  It must be pounded into every gamer’s skull that the game sucks because it is every Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Legend of Zelda, and Mega Man game rolled into one.  And every one of these games must receive a 7.9 or below (or if you’re using the Star Scale: 3 Stars, no more.)  It has been scientifically proven that games that receive a 7.9 or below sell shit (but there are rare occasions where that is not so).   It is this new belief that will cause the monolith to go through a full restart.  You see, the industry has divided you over time.  Now, with a singular vision, we will move forward.   With any luck, this letter can be held under-wraps.  If this movement can fly below the radar, we may just have a chance, a hope in Hell.

Sincerely,

Daniel Wise

Heavy Rain lacking innovation, doesn’t deserve the hype

Do you ever feel like you just don’t get it? Like everybody is running around you is going crazy over something, and all you see is garbage, yet you’re staring at the very same thing? Well, that’s the kind of feeling I’ve been getting recently with Heavy Rain. I saw the game at GamesCom, played the demo, read a lot online, and watched a ton of trailers, but I just don’t get it. Read more

Tatsunoko Vs Capcom

What is a Tatsunoko?

A question that was asked by reviewers of many gaming sites. It is a Japanese Animation company which produced Speed Racer and Samurai Pizza Cats, which, if any of those characters were in this game, then the whole mainstream of people would get the name.

Rundown

I recently played this game and I have to say that it is a good fighting game that surpasses Marvel Vs Capcom, a spiritual successor of sorts, if you will. At first, this game was entirely exclusive to Japan, but due to Unity demand, TVC had been able to secure a western release. You have a number of characters from both Tatsunoko and Capcom, fighting in a tag team style to determine, which pairing is superior, I mean, who wouldn’t want to see Soki and Doronjo beat a giant, sentient lighter? The graphics are great, even for the wii, which is why most of the players are enamored that a fighting game of this caliber made it on this console. This is a good game with an impressive roster.

Story

Believe it or not, this game has a storyline. Each of the characters were pulled from their respective game/anime unviveres and have to fight each other to get to the main boss/antagonist to save the world, repair the demensional rifts and go back home. For each character on either series that you used, you unlock his/her/giant robot ending. At first I thought that the endings were animated like in Cross Generation of Heroes, but insteaed were drawn by UDON. Don’t get me wrong, I love UDON, but to me, it did not feel right. One example that got me irritated [Kind of Spoilerish] when I played as Jun the Swan and got her ending, I had to choose between two options. I saw the ending, however, when I ‘bought’ her ending, I saw Jun’s 2nd Ending illustration, this time without the text, if I was going watch the second one with text, I would have to play the game over again, and I did not want to do that.

Gameplay and Controls

I heard someone say that the contols are easy to pick up and play; this was one of the factors that frustrated me. Like Super Smash Bros Brawl, you can use the wii’s 4 control schemes: Wii Remote w/Nunchuck, Wii Remote on its side, Classic Controller, and Gamecube controller. The only two controllers that I had on hand were the Gamecube and the wii remote and nunchuck. I cannot adjust the buttons on the Wii Remote like I can on the Gamecube, which makes the Wiimote use very limited. The next issue was one of those “started on the wrong path” things. When I wanted to read the manual, I saw that most of the pages were gone. Mind you, this is new, out of the box and they were not ripped; it’s like they forgot to put the pages in before the sealing process began and therefore, I could not see the proper page for the controls, or the characters. I could not pull a decent enough com because the Hard button I adjusted to the R Trigger button on the GC control did not work at some occasions. Plus than and the physical pain that my fingers went through each gameplay frustrated me even more.

Judgement

If it wasn’t for the factors of the page-less manual, controls (Which I think the MadCatz TVC fightstick would work smoothly, but I cannot afford it) and, well, I will be honest here, lackluster endings, this title would have been quite appetizing. But, after all, this is a fighting game meant to be played two on two and online, but even then, you would have to square off against pros.

It’s Tasty

Heavy Rain: And Hollywood drowns…

Let me get the situation clear for you. I work in a gamestore, and if I like a game that I see, I buy it. It happened with Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2, Assassins creed 2 and so on. But this game was different…

Never before in my life, I was so eager to get a game as Heavy Rain. The mystery, the dark theme, the fact that it’s simple but challenging and the fact that the story is not pre-made for you. You, and only you are the one who makes the story. No, of course you can’t drift of the main story line, but at this point it’s rumored that the game has 25 different endings. 25 different endings? Imagine yourself being in the cinema for a movie you already saw and still, you won’t know how it’s going to end. That is awesome!

For those who don’t know heavy rain; It’s not quite a game; It’s an interactive drama. The game itself is one big movie, but at some points (And by some I mean a lot) you’ll have to interact; Choose between drinks, Play the right note on a piano, or maybe even have to decide over life or death. Evade a car by pressing the right button in a split second or risk your life by having to do button sequences; sometimes fast, sometimes slow. That’s the interactive part.

The drama part is different. The PEGI system classified the game 18+, and that fits great. There were a few moment in the game, I wanted to look away. Not because there is a lot of gruesomeness, the game is a psychological thriller, just like the saw-series. Furthermore, I have never felt myself being so much emotionally involved in a game then this one. With all these twists, melodramacy and the great expressions of the characters, you don’t have a choise.

I’m not going to tell anything about the story itself. It would spoil everything. I can tell you that the game is a mixture of saw, se7en, and a random melodrama. The thing that makes the game even more awesome is the fact that you don’t control just one person, but four main characters, which at some points cross roads or even interact, All leading to one major climax, which of course isn’t pre-determined as the main persons can die or put themselves in dangerous situations.

The developers not just focussed on the main game, but also on expansions (The first one is already released) This fact is really important, since the story itself can be done in half a day. Of course, playing the story different gives it a wider gameplay, but the expansions make the thing just perfect.

A turning point is the bugs. How can a developer spread a game around the world that is one big bug? A lot of reports online tell about freezing games, corrupted savefiles, missing screen/audio and even lost saves. That is quite outrageous for a game this big. The only thing we know is that sony and quantiodream are “looking at it”.

All I can say is that this game probably is one of PS3’s masterpieces, and one of the better games all-time. If you are prepared for a psycological windmill which won’t spare your emotions, then get this game!

Towards The Future: part one

It all started back in 2003. One day me and the rest of the neighborhood ( you know, back in the days when people still came over to play videogames together on the couch ) decided to go out and buy that game with the interesting-looking cover, sporting some anime-inspired artwork, and the magical word “online”. It was an RPG, and required a thing called a “nintendo broadband adapter”, or so it claimed, to play on the internet, with your gamecube. Wow, mind-blowing! At the time we still only had a 56k modem internet connection, and continuously wondered about those gaping holes on the bottom of our little purple videogame box of joy.

But then, we finally bought the game, Phantasy Star Online, it was called. It featured offline splitscreen multiplayer, still a common feature for console games back then, a singleplayer offline mode, and the ever-tempting online menu button.

At some point, we decided to buy a Broadband adapter, so that we could play mario kart in LAN mode, but when we got home, we instantly forgot all about mario kart and popped the PSO disk in, plugged in the adapter, and tried out that free one month of online play! Within a week it was impossible to get your hands on another broadband adapter; everybody in our street wanted one for PSO, and soon even neighboring towns were all-out of the little connection-peripheral.

At around the same time me and my brother finally managed to convince our dad into getting an ADSL connection, and from then on, we were absolutely hooked. We bought a second gamecube because my little brother and I didn’t want to take turns playing online, then a keyboard, which would later be complemented by an imported €80 ASCII keyboard-controller, a load of memorycards, and several copies of PSO.

So what is this ‘PSO’ you’ve been talking about?, I hear you thinking. PSO, now 10 years old, is the first-ever online multiplayer RPG game on any gaming console, and was a source of inspiration for modern games such as Monster Hunter, Lost Planet, and Guild Wars. Some say PSO, in turn, draws inspiration from Diablo.
Heavily influenced by popular japanese cartoon drawings called “manga”, the game is set in a sci-fi space exploration story, and truely shines in simplicity. It would even go as far as calling it an Online Arcade-RPG due to it’s simplicity in design and gameplay, and clearly shows a Sonic Team (the game’s developer) that is still getting the hang of creating 3D games.
PSO was first released on the Sega Dreamcast, but after the demise of the DC, PSO was ported to the Xbox and Gamecube, with an extra episode, quests, items, and received a large number of refinements.

Traveling to Microworlds Part 7 “Conclusion & References”

Conclusion

In this paper, I have explored what specific quality of video games makes them suitable for educational purposes and argued that their ability to let players travel to other frames of mind or microworlds is exactly that quality. This specific ability exceeds and goes beyond any educational value a game might have, although it can be used to create successful educational games that focus on very specific qualities, as Shaffer points out when he talks about epistemologies. Gee considers games to offer a set of semiotic domains. Learning abilities in one domain might be useful even when doing work in another. Abilities and experiences can be ‘carried over’, so to speak. In comparing a commercial and an epistemic wargame, it seems that both games take players to similar semiotic domains or frames of mind. This means that a game does not need to be designed as educational nor has to stress certain values in order to let a player experience a world outside their own. It is of course exactly this quality that Shaffer, but also the U.S. Read more

Tom’s Opinion On Dante’s Inferno

“ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE…”

Such are the words of Charon, the boatman of Hell, to the poor, damned souls that enter his ferry to cross the Acheron and pay for their sins in the dark depths of hell.

Although I think that the title is a catchy line (and you’ve got to admit, it is befitting of a sign on the gates of hell…) I have to start off by saying it doesn’t apply to the game as a whole. You need not abandon all hope when playing recently released ‘Dante’s Inferno’, for it has enough to offer many a sensation-craving gamer. I know I couldn’t resist my curiosity and had to try it out, and I was not disappointed: Dante’s Inferno is by no means a bad game.

If one was to compare Dante’s Inferno to contemporary games (I won’t judge about whether or not one should) it is easy to see many similarities to that other hack-and-slash adventure game, that established one… You know, God of War. The similarities between both games are clear as day. What would be unfair, however, would be to write off Dante’s Inferno simply because it is, what some people call, ‘a GoW-Clone’.

Even though it does heavily take after the adventures of Kratos in his ancient Greece, Dante’s Inferno offers a different setting, a different theme; and in my opinion, visual design and atmosphere is one of the game’s strongest points. If you add to that the fact that GoW’s gameplay was excellent and DI’s is nearly identical, the game is more than qualified on paper, I’d say.

I was literally taken aback by the impressive scenery you encounter during the game. Not that the graphics are above any other standard; the visual design is simply nothing less than amazing. At certain points, the attention to detail is more than welcome and some scenes, such as King Minos, judging the damned souls to their respective fate, while you watch the trials from afar simply caused my jaw to drop.

Aside from this, the system is solid. There are enough moves and combo’s to be unlocked, be it melee attacks, ranged attacks or magic: it’s all there, and it’s all good. The experience system is also implemented well by giving the player a choice whether to gain Unholy experience by punishing the damned and become an merciless slayer, or gain holy experience by absolving the damned and redeeming yourself.

However, it’s not all good (is it ever?). Dante’s Inferno falls short in a few areas, and even though some of these are common within the genre, that doesn’t make them any less bad. For one, the game’s duration is extremely short and a first playthrough won’t take anyone much more than ten hours. Even if you were to play through the game twice, and even though you will most likely want to, the second playthrough will be even shorter. You pay full price for a game that provides less than a day’s worth of fun.

Another shortcoming is the lack of actual diversity. Many tricks and fights are repeatedly encountered during the game and can quickly become a bit of a routine. The game pretends to introduce new types of enemies throughout its story but more often than not they’re hardly anything more than a palette swap with maybe a new attack or feature. I’m sure most people won’t be bothered by this, but especially after playing through Dante’s Inferno twice, I certainly am.

Another missed opportunity has to do with how the game handles the ‘absolution or punishment’ question. The idea itself is okay, and works well, but there is one ‘detail’ that I really don’t understand. Throughout the game, the player has the option to judge some of the damned and decide their fate (many of which are historical or mythical people whose names will likely be recognized by some people): punishment, or absolution. One builds up Dante’s Unholy level (punishment), the other grants Holy experience. Both styles are worthwhile, however, to advance within each style and gain new skills, one needs ‘souls’ (these function as a currency of sorts). Absolving the damned grant access to a slightly mundane mini-game that nets a nice amount of bonus souls if completed correctly, whilst punishing them grants the player NO extra souls… Unfortunately, this makes punishing the damned near useless unless you only want Unholy experience, and it would have been nice if people who like to be a tad more evil would have gotten something out of punishing people like Attila or Pontius Pilate, among others. As it stands now, absolving these souls can grant the player upwards to 1200 bonus souls with which to buy new skills and gain 600 Holy experience, while punishing the damned grants the player only the 600 Unholy experience, with no souls with which to actually unlock any unholy skills…

However, each of these flaws can easily be overlooked by avid hack-and-slash fans who will more than likely enjoy the game for what it’s worth. A search for Dante’s Inferno reviews on the net quickly shows there is a reasonable division between people who like it and people who don’t; and honestly, I fully understand the majority of verdicts who consider the game to be mediocre. It cannot, and likely never will, stand up against the popularity of God of War, but little do I think it matters. True fans of the genre have nothing to complain about, after all, they get to play through double the hack-and-slash goodness.

Traveling to Microworlds Part 6 “Case in point: waging war as frame of mind”

Case in point: waging war as frame of mind

In Digital Game-Based Learning, one of the chapters is about ‘true believers’ in the educational value of games. Marc Prensky says that the United States military “gets it” big time. As Prensky points out, “The military training mission is a daunting one. It has to train 2.4 million men and women in four services (Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines) plus almost another million civilian employees, to work as individuals, as teams, as units, and in combination to meet all sorts of unforeseen and difficult objectives around the world under very high -pressure conditions.”[1] The U.S. Military has experimented with virtual environments and video game-like software as training tools for years now, offering simulations in titles such as Joint Force Employment for officers, Saving Private Pabletti for foot soldiers and virtual training facilities like SIMNET, in which participants “…do everything from learning to drive their vehicle to re-enacting entire virtual battles, such as those from the Gulf War. The modern version of SIMNET is JSIMS, which involves literally thousands of pilots, tank commanders, ships, submarines, and various levels of officers linked by T1 and T3 lines all playing out the war ‘at 1-foot levels of granularity.’”[2] Read more

Industry choosing iphone, abandoning wii?

I think the iPhone makes a difference in the videogame space in a sense where it allows the industry to re-invent itself. Let me explain to you why.

If anything over the past few months stood out to me in terms of news and announcements, then I’d have to go with this trend of big developers and publishers seemingly losing interest in Nintendo’s white box of fun and starting to show their love to Apple’s iPhone. We’ve all seen big name publishers statements, thought mostly informal, with regards to the slow game sales on the Wii. And where some developers switch to PS3/360 development, others turned to the iPhone (or both). EA, Sega, Capcom, Square Enix and others have all started creating iPhone games in one form or the other. Read more

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