Extending the Life of Games Through Books, Comics, and Other Media

Posted on November 12, 2010 by

Mirro's Edge

After finishing Mirror’s Edge, I disagreed with the bullet point commonly listed in the con column of reviews: It was too short. At about six hours, I felt the game told its story as best it could without unnecessary fluff. It was an unremarkable mystery/rescue story, but my indifference towards The City and its nefarious goings-on would have turned to resentment had I been forced to parkour my way over many more of its rooftops.

Now compare Grand Theft Auto 4 to the GTA “Episodes,” The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. Niko in GTA4 stumbled all over Liberty City, running errands for traitors as if he’d never played a GTA game. Episode protagonists Johnny and Luis, on the other hand, had one problem each to fix. I didn’t tire of them, and I finished their episodes grinning because I had ridden a simple, satisfying story arc. When I had finished with Niko’s revenge, I felt glad to be done with the meandering, 30-hour game.

So people should just stop complaining that games are too short, right? Yes and no. Continue reading →

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From The Bitmob Game Club Vault: A Personal Retrospective Of Fallout

Posted on October 13, 2010 by

Before it changed into something more inclusive, the Bitmob Game Club was a feature in which a handful of community writers played a few levels of the same game every week, then wrote about it in their own style. The final series, before everyone got involved with the Rez edition, was going to be about Fallout.

The project never came about, but I wrote my first contribution and left it sitting on my hard drive until today.

The simple graphics encouraged my imagination to fill in most of the game’s scenes, almost like a book or radio drama. Here’s my representation of what the first couple of hours was like in my head.

Continue reading →

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Apple And iPhone Developers: No First Amendment Here

Posted on September 15, 2010 by

While the debate about freedom of speech, games, and how the law should or should not censor the industry rages on, the folks at Apple have came to their own decision. Apps — which include some of the most creative mobile games around — aren’t protected speech on Apple’s platform. Don’t look for the First Amendment here:

We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app. It can get complicated, but we have decided to not allow certain kinds of content in the App Store.

App developers must abide by stricter rules than even console developers, who wouldn’t dream of releasing a game with an Adults Only rating. A lot of Mature-rated games wouldn’t meet Apple’s standards.

Sections 14, 15, 16, and 19 of this document indicate that developers may not criticize individuals or religions, show realistic injuries, or do anything Apple decides is “objectionable”: no Russian roulette or fart apps. Continue reading →

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Fixing Competitive Online Games: Abandoning Illusion in Favor of Fairness

Posted on August 17, 2010 by

Spawn campers are the ugliest, most annoying thing in online shooters (apart from racist, homophobic jerks). These guys are the equivalent of that kid who exclusively hangs around the other team’s goal and waits for the ball to come to him. He doesn’t deserve to score a point and nobody likes him, but he does it because he can and because he wants to win. All it takes to stop him is the offside rule.

In association football — soccer to you Americans — you cannot pass the ball up the field to a player who has fewer than two members of the opposing team between him and the goal line. That is essentially FIFA’s offside rule. It functions similarly in other sports, and it’s all about where a player can be relative to the ball.

In a game where the objective is to throw, kick, headbutt, or otherwise cajole an inflated pig’s bladder into a net, it might seem arbitrary. But it’s not. If you don’t have this rule, the game tends to descend into scrappy, schoolboy goal-hanging and point-grabbing. It’s cynical, boring, and ugly. Sound familiar? Continue reading →

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“Beating” Games, or, Can You Win at Flower?

Posted on July 30, 2010 by

Something has been puzzling me lately — why do so many people say they “beat X game”? The game has no will of its own. It isn’t (or shouldn’t be) working against you.

In the ’80s, when video games hated you and arcades beat you up for your quarters, this might’ve made sense. In board games, sports games, and multiplayer games, it works too.

Today, you can legitimately “beat” a few single-player titles – Ninja Gaiden 2 beat me, and if you complete Demon’s Souls, you could justifiably jump to your feet and shout, “Screw you, game! I beat your ass into the ground!” (Not in polite company.)

Ninja Gaiden

But can you beat Prince of Persia (2008 — the easy one)? Or Flower? Even macho action games such as Halo or Gears of War are designed to yield to most players at all but the highest difficulty setting. They challenge, but they let you through to the next level. Continue reading →

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What RPGs Can Learn from Battlefield

Posted on July 8, 2010 by

I have nightmares in which I direct my body using Battlefield: Bad Company’s Xbox 360 controls. One by one, the buttons stop working, and I feel helpless.

When I’m awake, the head bob, movement speed, and jump height are all perfectly tuned to push me into my nameless soldier who’s weighed down by his gear. Even without 3D or motion control, it’s the closest I’ve felt to sharing someone else’s body.

By comparison, Fallout 3′s Lone Wanderer feels like an unmanned drone. Role-playing games should immerse the player more than any other genre. But when I’m not listening to dialogue or reading diaries, I feel like I’m controlling avatars by remote, or worse — like I’m giving them instructions by email. Continue reading →

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Music Review: Kill Kenada — From Maggots to Flies

Posted on July 5, 2010 by

You might say Kill Kenada, from Bognor Regis, are the UK’s answer to Sonic Youth. And the answer is “get the fuck on with it!” Their new album, From Maggots to Flies, provides 30 minutes of noisy art-punk, bookended by two slow songs devoid of drums or amplification.

If you’re a Regina Spektor fan, then maybe you’ve already heard them — they featured on “Your Honor,” from Soviet Kitsch. If not, then imagine three skilled punks playing for their lives. They’ve had three drummers since forming in 2001, and it’s easy to imagine them dropping out due to the pace. Continue reading →

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