May 21 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 21, Best Story

So if you’ve been reading throughout this month, you’ll have likely noticed my obsession with story.  I like games with good characters and settings and stories beyond graphics and gameplay, though those definitely have a major role in games.  As a medium of culture, the graphics and gameplay are sort of what separate them from movies and novels, after all.

Also if you’ve been reading the 30 Days of Video Games project or any of my blog at all, you’ll see my undying, unwavering, frightening obsession with I mean love of Dragon Age by BioWare.  So it will be no surprise that I choose Dragon Age (as a series) as having the best story.

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May 21 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 20, Favorite Genre

I’ve never been one of those types to have a favorite genre; I look at my bookshelves and see an equal spread of classic literature, fantasy, and general fiction and nonfiction.  I look at my DVDs and see action/adventure, fantasy, comedy, animated… all sorts of films.  So when I have to think about my favorite game genre, I naturally look to my game shelf and see shooters, RPGs, and action/adventure games.  I don’t prefer any one type over the other, so choosing a favorite genre is a bit difficult for me.

I could say I like the involvement that shooters give.  When I play Halo, I am Master Chief or Noble 6, slaughtering the Covenant forces and loving every minute of it.  When I play Left 4 Dead, I’m constantly on the move for fear of more undead rushing out of the shadows and killing me.  With BioShock, which is a combination shooter/RPG, I’m actually there, in Rapture.

But when I play something like Mass Effect or Dragon Age, my choices are having a direct effect on the storyline.  In effect, I’m creating the story as I go.  The protagonist is my character, and I’m guiding him or her through this strange land trying to unite different races against one common enemy.  When I’m playing Skyrim I’m immersed in the world of Skyrim and helping to shape the future of that land one dragon soul at a time.  There’s something very gratifying about that.

So I think in the end, really, my favorite genre comes down to what I’m in the mood to play and the kind of experience I want.  Each genre serves a different purpose, so I can’t really narrow down what I like best.  So in the interest of brevity, I simply won’t try to do it.  I will stick to playing the games I like because I like them, not because they’re the latest shooter/RPG/survival-horror/whathaveyou.  I know there are people out there who have favorite genres and will play any RPG or whatnot they can get their hands on, but I think for me personally I can’t really narrow it down.

And all it takes is one look at my bookshelves or DVD shelves to prove that to be true.

Next: Day 21, Game with the best story.

May 19 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 19, Game Setting I Wish I Lived In

This one’s a little tough, because I feel that all game settings have something about them that make them unique and enjoyable.  This question actually came up on Grey Wardens recently.  They asked which setting we’d rather live in: Dragon Age or Mass Effect.  I wasn’t sure.  Whether it’s the dystopian Art Deco of Rapture, the rugged lands of Ferelden, the vast galaxies of Mass Effect or Halo, or the rough Old West of Red Dead Redemption, each one has something appealing to it.  I mean, ME and Halo, and probably Rapture, will at least have toilets, so that’s something.

But upon thinking about it more, I decided I’d like to live in Skyrim.

I know it too probably doesn’t have plumbing or working toilets.  But everything about traveling through Skyrim reminds me of Iceland.  The soaring mountains plummeting into frozen seas; the desolate yet beautiful tundra; the simple towns; the untouched shorelines.

There’s a raw beauty to Skyrim.  I could (and have) spend hours just walking around enjoying the landscape.  Add to the fact that the music is so beautiful and just evokes what’s happening with it, and it’s a wonderful setting in which to immerse oneself.

So yeah, there are dragons, which does put a damper on things.  But still.

Come on.  Who wouldn’t want to live there?

Tomorrow: Day 20, Favorite Genre.  Or, 2/3 in!!

May 18 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 18, Favorite Protagonist

Yesterday we took a look at my favorite antagonist.  Games and stories need conflict and obstacles, which usually come in the form of antagonists.  But they also need protagonists.  Pretty much unless you’re playing a puzzle game you’re playing as a protagonist (Portal and Portal 2 exempted), whether it’s in first or third person, shooter or platformer, survival, or adventure.  A likeable protagonist can make the game easier to immerse yourself in, and can make the game more interesting.  For example, I highly disliked Dead Space because I couldn’t get behind the protagonist, Isaac Clarke at all.  I didn’t care about his story, didn’t know what was at stake, and I felt like I was being ordered around from place to place for no real reason.  You could argue the same happens in BioShock, but they fit that into the story.  You could also argue that all game protagonists are ordered from place to place by the sheer nature of game mechanics.  But from a story-based perspective, a protagonist is vital

That’s why I’m pretty sure my favorite protagonist is Marcus Fenix from Gears of War.  For starters the storyline of Gears is fantastic in and of itself.  But it’s one of those franchises in which I believe the characters really make it.  One of the reasons I got so into it was because I love the dynamics of Delta Squad.  Baird and Cole do plenty of talking, and Dom does plenty of peace-making, but it’s Marcus who’s really fascinating.

I’m one of those people who likes to really get into a franchise and its lore.  So I’ve read the Gears of War novels and gotten a lot of background, and from it, I’ve come to like Marcus as a protagonist even more.  The son of a wealthy, prominent scientist, Marcus spends most of his youth with the blue-collar Santiago family.  He’s considered an honorary brother by both Dom and his older brother Carlos.  Marcus is quiet, and when he’s not quiet he’s gruff and matter-of-fact.  He’s this huge, hulking guy, but he’s intelligent and introspective.

He joined the COG army as a mere Gear rather than an officer; his father’s wealth and standing could have gotten him a commission as an officer easily.  But Marcus is a man of principles, and would rather enlist with his brothers and work his way up with them.  He’s a man who wants to earn his keep rather than have things given to him.  He’s a man of duty, but he’s also a man who cares deeply about those he loves and cares about.

When Gears of War opens, Dom has just freed Marcus from a prison in Jacinto City.  Marcus has been serving time in the deepest, darkest cell there for abandoning his post.  Insubordination is a major offense in the military, but it’s later revealed that he disobeyed orders to go save his father.  In the end he failed, but the fact that he risked himself and his future to rescue his estranged father speaks volumes about the kid of man that Marcus is.  Throughout the first mission in Gears of War several NPCs make comments to Marcus about his past, which he just shrugs off.  And when finally faced with the man responsible for his imprisonment, Marcus doesn’t fly off the handle or get angry.  He calmly accepts that they must work together to end the struggle against the Locusts.

Now that’s not to say that Marcus is all happy-go-lucky, forgive and forget.  Not at all.  Beneath his gruffly silent exterior it’s clear that he’s struggling with his feelings, but he’d rather keep them at bay and focus on the issue at hand.  He realizes that there are more important things than personal feuds, and that he can worry about the past once he’s ensured that they’ll all have a future.

And all that?  Is just in the first game.

Throughout Gears 2 Marcus continues to develop.  We learn more about his family with a trip to the derelict Fenix estate.  While he’s his usual self, it’s clear through some of Dom’s dialogue that the visit affects Marcus.  Dom knows Marcus better than anyone in Delta, after all.  And Dom spent some of his childhood visiting the estate (though the two spent far more time at the much smaller, but far homier Santiago home).  When it becomes clear that Adam Fenix, Marcus’s father, may still be alive, there’s a slight crack in Marcus’s stony exterior, but he manages to keep it together.  He travels to the locus of the Locust kingdom, confronts the Queen, sees Dom through his heart-wrenching reunion with Maria, and blows up a Lambent Brumak.  It’s just another epic moment for Delta Squad, but there’s definitely some emotional tension going on.

The end of Gears 2 sets up perfectly for Gears 3, which I confess I haven’t finished yet.  I got to Dom’s death scene and have had a hard time picking the game up again.  I know I should, if only so I can see how Marcus resolves things with his father and with his feelings about Dom’s loss.  For such a violent, gory game series, Gears of War creates some remarkable characters and relationships.  They become real people with real issues and emotions, as is clear with Dom and his search for Maria, and Marcus and his search for inner peace amidst all this turmoil.  He’s a huge mountain of a man, but there’s a lot going on beneath the surface that make him absolutely fascinating.

Tomorrow: Day 19, Picture of a game setting I wish I lived in.  I’m going to try to post it, but may end up double-posting on Sunday, since my concerts are this weekend and I have dress rehearsal AND a concert tomorrow.  Then seeing Bard 🙂

May 17 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 17, Favorite Antagonist

The conflict is the reason I read and reread Frankenstein.  I actually hate the characters.  They’re all whiny and incapable of sucking it up and facing their responsibilities.  Victor always has a fever and is always swooning, and everyone around him buys it and pities him.  Then they get killed.  It’s frustrating and annoying, but the conflicts are what keep me going back for more in that book.  Conflict is necessary in a story; without it, there’s very little story.  Often when we complain that “nothing happens” in a book or movie it’s because there’s no conflict, or the conflict is so subtle we don’t really pick up on it.

The essence of video games is conflict.  It’s a game, so there’s an objective of some sort that must be met.  To meet said objective, we must overcome obstacles; conflicts, if you will.  And then there’s the ultimate conflict of all, the Final Boss.  I think my favorite antagonist would have to be Atlas/Frank Fontaine from BioShock.

One of the beauties of BioShock is that for a game classified as survival/horror, it’s very intelligent.  There’s a great deal of philosophy and moral/ethical issues at stake, and how you play the game determines a lot about how things play out in Rapture.  The underwater city has deteriorated because of a lack of ethics and morals brought on by an objectivist philosophy.  Basically, peoples’ own desire for pleasure as their main basis of existence led to the downfall of Rapture, and the propagation of that philosophy can be traced back to two men: Andrew Ryan and Frank Fontaine.

Ryan creates Rapture as a place for creative, free thinkers to be free from government involvement.  It’s supposed to be a creative utopia, but perfection cannot exist in an imperfect world.  Where Ryan seeks to run a utopia, his foil, Frank Fontaine, seeks to exploit it.  Their disagreements erupt into a war where Fontaine is supposedly killed.  By the time the protagonist, Jack, reaches Rapture, the city is in ruins.  Jack’s only help comes from a mysterious voice identifying itself as “Atlas”.

Atlas is, of course, Fontaine.  He takes on the name of the mythical Greek titan who held up the world, but is also an allusion to the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, who fleshed out the objectivist philosophies on which the story of BioShock is based.  If Atlas shrugs, the world comes collapsing down; therefore, the world depends on Atlas to hold it up.  By taking on the alias of Atlas, Frank Fontaine has basically declared himself the one upon whom the survival of Rapture rests.

What I like most about Fontaine is that he is a smart antagonist.  Smart villains are the really scary ones.  The big bad ones with all brawn and little to no brain are formidable and a bit scary, but when they can think?  And out-think you?  And use you as a pawn in their larger scheme?  That’s when they get really frightening.  Fontaine has basically used you, the protagonist, to achieve his own ends, and you only really come to realize it toward the end of BioShock.  You’ve spent the whole game surviving mad Splicers and psychotic Rapture citizens only to realize that Atlas, the comforting voice guiding you and asking you “would you kindly” do this favor and that, is the ultimate enemy.  How does that even happen??

Certainly, the moral dilemma about the Little Sisters and the ADAM is a major component of the BioShock experience.  But even more of an ethical issue is the realization that the protagonist, who really is you since it’s in first person, is being a mind-controlled pawn.  Atlas/Fontaine has essentially tricked you into doing his bidding.  For the first two thirds of the game, if not longer, you are going about doing his dirty work, completely convinced that it’s the right thing to do.  Only as you do more research and more of the story unfolds, and then when he tries to kill you bystopping your heart do you realize that he’s no better than anything or anyone you’ve encountered.  Rapture?  Rapture my arse.

Yes, in the end he becomes the big scary brawn over brains final boss.  But that didn’t worry me.  I can use any number of weapons on that.  What did worry me came after the face when I realized that the game had tricked me through Atlas/Fontaine.  While I had the rest of the game to go ahead and track him down and get even with him, it didn’t change the fact that the majority of the game had been what it was.

For those reasons Frank Fontaine is my favorite antagonist because he’s the scary-smart bad guy.   He’s not the scary monster under the bed; those aren’t scary because they don’t really exist.  He’s the predator out for his own gains.  And that is infinitely scarier, becausethat is real.

Tomorrow: Day 18, Favorite Protagonist.  Or, the other side of the coin.

May 16 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 16, Best Cut Scenes

Okay, doing it again and double posting in one day.  This whole week is crazy for me between progress report grades closing and rehearsals for this weekend’s Carmina Burana concert with the choir, and also getting the school magazine to the printer and such.  But I’m working to keep up with this, because I really want to see the month through.  So without further ado (since there’s been enough already), I present day 16: the game with the best cut scenes.

Cut scenes are tricky.  You don’t want them to take over the game, but you want them to add intrigue and improve the story in a way that gameplay itself won’t or can’t achieve.  Technological advances have given designers and developers the ability to create sweeping, cinematic cut scenes that are beautiful; but of course there must be a balance between what’s visually stunning and what contributes to the game.  In some cases both can be achieved.

In my own experience I feel that the game that best does this is Halo: Reach.  The game shifts almost seamlessly between cut scenes and playtime, and the scenes contribute to and enhance the story without hindering game play.  In the scenes you learn more about the characters and about the doomed planet of Reach.  The graphic quality is the same between the cut scenes and the game play; some games don’t have this balance.  The cut scenes will be smooth and cinematographic, while the game graphics will be rougher.  It’s a little annoying, but it’s a relief that Reach, Bungie’s final foray into the Halo universe, doesn’t have this dichotomy.

Another nice thing is timing.  The cut scenes in Reach usually come right after a difficult fight, giving you time to breathe and prepare for the next segment of the game.  Sometimes they come before another difficult segment, allowing you a chance to scope out the territory.  So really, Reach’s cut scenes enhance game play, rather than interrupt it, all while telling the story of the planet and the characters.  It’s nicely balanced, which is what we want.

Later today: I back-post day 15, screenshot from a game I’ve been playing.  Oops.  Haven’t had my coffee yet.

May 15 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 15, Recent Screenshot

The full title is “Screenshot of a game you’ve been playing”, but that was kind of long for a title.  And according to some comments that get routed to spam (and I’m not sure why–they’re so helpful!) I need to optimize my on-page thingamawhatsit.  Okay fine, it really is spam, which I find kind of funny.  Anyway, I digress.  I actually haven’t been playing much in the way of games lately.  I just haven’t had much time to game, and the free time I do have, I feel like there are other things I need to work on.  The upside is summer is coming, and as a teacher I’ll have time to get caught up on my gaming (I may even play ME3 at long last.  Yes, it’s 3 months after the fact).

I don’t have a screencap of this one because it’s on my 360, but here’s a pic of the box art:

Bard had never played Halo 2, so we’ve been working our way through it on 2-player co-op.  We don’t play every time we’re together so we’re far from finished (we just did the first arbiter mission), but it’s nice to just decide to load up the game and play a mission when we’re feeling like doing something a bit different.

And on the Halo note: Just ordered Halo 4 Limited Edition tonight.  AWESOME.

May 14 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 14, Current/Most Recent Gaming Wallpaper

No big surprise here:

 

Tomorrow: Day 16, Game With the Best Cut Scenes.  Or, why I’m glad I got caught up tonight.  Or, where I ended the last time I tried this meme, and intend to go beyond with this attempt.

May 14 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 13, a game you’ve played more than once

Okay, okay, you caught me.  I’m back posting.  But May 13th was a bit full, being Mother’s Day and all.  Bard and I spent the first part of the day with his mother, and the second part with mine.  So I’m doing two posts in one day so I don’t get too behind and have to do three… and then get SO behind I just don’t want to keep going.

So.  A game I’ve played more than once.

I like playing and replaying games; I like a game with a high replay value because I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth when I go through it and discover new things again and again.  I’d done several runs on Metroid Prime back in the day, to get various percentages or try sequence breaking, or increase the difficulty.  But in the last year I discovered Dragon Age, and I’m all about playing and replaying that one.

The worst part of it is I don’t want to replay the other origins and try beating it as a mage and warrior as well as a rogue.  I just want to play my Cousland rogue and romance Alistair and live sort of happily ever after.  I’ve played a Fianna-centric story through twice–once to play the game, the other to get dialogue etc. for my fanfic.  And I have a third playthrough on my PC that I’m using to get screenshots for it all.  Obsessed?  Yes.  I admit it and I’m okay with it.

But I just can’t seem to stop playing that game that way, and I love it.  I did play all the origin stories to get the achievement, but didn’t connect to any of the others.  Part of it is I attach to a character and work almost exclusively with that character (whether in a game, RP, or original story) for a very long time.  I nearly died in the D&D game I’m playing with MLHawke the other night and I had no inclination to create another character because I was just too used to my half-elf rogue.  To create someone new to play through til the end of the campaign, which should be wrapping up soon, just wasn’t something I wanted to do.  And though I’ve tried different characters in Dragon Age Origins, I just keep going back to Fianna.

I do have a female mage game going sort of… I’m using her as my ‘achievement whore’.  I just want to rack up achievements, so I’m using her to that end.  But in terms of doing much of anything else, or getting interested in the game or attached to the romance or into the story?  Not so much.  But with six different origins, four different romance options, and multitudes of ways the endgame can play out, Dragon Age Origins is full of replay value.

And yes, part of that replay value is shirtless Alistair.  Ahem.

Later on tonight: Day 14, Current or most recent gaming wallpaper.  At least that’s an easy one!

May 12 2012

30 Days of Video Games: Day 12, A Game Everyone Should Play

Being a gamer is about more than just playing games.  Every gamer has his or her own unique personality and tastes.  Some like sports games and will rush out for the latest Madden.  Others will gravitate primarily toward RPGs, and even then, it’s a question of turn-based or not.  Some like real-time strategy, others prefer platformers, still more shooters… the list can continue on and on.  I am by no means an expert, and actually, Bard and I just discussed this as I started typing this post.  I considered something specific, he said he’d approach it with something more generic… even then, among two lifelong gamers the concept of a game everyone should play varies quite a bit!

But we both agreed that everyone should play Super Mario Bros. 3.

Mario 3 holds the record for being the highest grossing video game to date, and has appeared on numerous top ten games lists in various online and print publications.  It’s a side scrolling platformer that can provide a challenge, but is definitely accessible.  Though the graphics are still clearly in the NES era, they are a step up from the 8-bit graphics.  The music is catchy, the worlds differentiated and fun.  The enemies have a comforting familiarity to them, while still having enough new and different baddies to make things interesting.

In terms of Mario and his game play through the levels, the game gives all sorts of new and fun abilities.  With the raccoon tail, Mario can get up enough speed to fly.  With the frog suit, Mario glides through the water levels.  He can hop in a boot that stomps enemies flat or get a tanuki suit that allows him to turn into a statue and remain invincible to enemies.  With the hammer suit he can throw hammers at the bad guys.

As far as bad guys go, it’s more than your standard goombas and koopas, and the bosses are more than just Bowser lookalikes, and the objective is better than a Princess in another castle.  All the airships are different, and all the Koopalings have different abilities.  All in all it’s a blast, and a good time.  In fact, Bard mentioned he has a working copy of it and we can play it tonight!

Because of all the fun aspects of this game, and its classic nature, I think Super Mario 3 is a game everyone should play.

Tomorrow: Day 13, A Game You’ve Played More Than Once