tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57261461796483602362024-02-19T02:34:38.672-08:00LiftBotUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-7088758677430714432012-10-10T11:19:00.002-07:002012-10-10T11:25:48.081-07:00PETA and PIKAPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a parody video game Pokémon Black & Blue – Gotta Free ‘em All that has been met with a lot of jeers. The game paints a world where Pokémon are treated like animals and have been forced into fighting for their trainers, not how they are lovingly portrayed in the anime series.<br />
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“The amount of time that Pokémon spend stuffed in Pokéballs is akin to how elephants are chained up in train cars, waiting to be let out to “perform” in circuses,” says a release on PETA’s website. “But the difference between real life and this fictional world full of organized animal fighting is that Pokémon games paint a rosy picture of things that are actually horrible.”<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="500" scrolling="no" src="http://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/swf/embed/blackandblue.html" width="600"></iframe><br />
The game from PETA and developed by <a href="http://thisispop.com/">This Is Pop</a> is full of powerful images and ideas about how Pokémon are actually abused by their trainers and, not unlike trained circus animals – only exist to perform when they’re told to. It makes some connections between the world of Pokémon and the actual injustices animals face in the real world.<br />
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Pokémon is far removed from the cruelties of animal fighting, but the principle of battling Pokémon for a master is at the core of PETA’s message.<br />
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As Professor Oak said in the intro to the game, “This world is inhabited by creatures called Pokémon! For some people Pokémon are pets. Others use them for fights.”<br />
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There’s a sense of pride in having a strong team, a feeling of remorse when you lose a fight and a sense of accomplishment when you beat the Elite Four, the champions elite of the game’s world. This development of your team is at the core of the game’s mechanics.<br />
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PETA’s game targets that through their satirical jab at the series, but what do you think? Does Pokémon promote the servitude of animals? Or is it a game that kids can play to learn to love their pocket monsters?<br />
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*Sorry the game doesn't fit onto the screen. You're better off playing it on the site in anycase: <a href="http://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/">http://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-67342696083370493802012-01-08T14:57:00.000-08:002012-01-08T15:23:26.068-08:00Extremely Lost in Translation<div>Dear Doc Love,</div><div><br />
</div>My brother bought me a Japanese girlfriend for Christmas. I know, I know it's a pretty big gift (I thanked him for her extensively), but I have some growing reservations. For one, I can't understand anything she says to me! I don't think she understands anything I say to her either. From what I could find out her name is Manaka Takane. It's been a complicated relationship, so far. For instance, just the other day Manaka and I went out to play some tennis. I could tell by the score at the end of the match that she didn't win, but there was no way for me to console her at all. We ended the day walking awkwardly home both of us in a stony silence before she gave me a quick nod leaving to take the train home. Everyday that we're together something like this happens. I'm not sure how long I can stand it. I need some expert advice.<br />
<div><br />
</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZKKJtMAsjZqBBdThuPqnAjuwx5mgNjGDNPpizo47jeKhOueXygy7ceQbHNBtqSKBjGQYWSxQrWsBAeQYHo8guDuVotBhL85XISel0eIEYBQjvygwIKF8QGH0vDTqbt2vCTo8Zh1sj-SU/s1600/Manaka.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUZKKJtMAsjZqBBdThuPqnAjuwx5mgNjGDNPpizo47jeKhOueXygy7ceQbHNBtqSKBjGQYWSxQrWsBAeQYHo8guDuVotBhL85XISel0eIEYBQjvygwIKF8QGH0vDTqbt2vCTo8Zh1sj-SU/s320/Manaka.jpg" width="215" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's a photo of her</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div><div>Manaka and I both go to the same school and we meet up everyday in class. Sometimes we head to the diner or the mall after school, and we're always emailing one another. There's a lot of communication in our relationship, but she always leaves me wondering how much is actually reaching her. There are some other girls too like Rinko and Nene who both show mutual interests in me, but I have no idea how to tell them about my problems. I really, really like Manaka, but those other two always seem to be talking to me, or flirting with me, or randomly meeting up with me at school or downtown. It's really getting to a point where all three of them seem to be constantly following me even though I think of them only as friends. It doesn't really help that they speak Japanese too and all I can do is randomly spit out a few phrases from my small translation guide and hope to get a good reaction.</div><div><br />
</div><div>It feels like everyone around me is suddenly speaking Japanese even the teachers and my best friends. I think something a lot larger is going around in this world, and I'm starting to freak out. That, as someone once told me, is the worst thing you can do in a relationship. He told me, "If you start to panic, you'll lose confidence and so will she." That's the thing though, I can't tell what she thinks of me. Other than these small faces she keeps drawing on the desk or at the diner while we're together there's no real indication of what's going through her mind. I think they're an indication of what she's feeling, but they're so indistinct. Each time we're together she changes the face that she draws. What kind of girl tell you how she feels like that? I'm so lost in translation here. It feels like I'm so in over my head, and there's no way for me to tell her that it's over. It's like I'm trapped in some kind of weird, Japanese dating simulator.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I'm really sorry for putting so much onto you right now :( </div><div><br />
</div><div>This was really the last place I wanted to be, but it's the only place I can turn to at the moment. The more I think about Manaka the more it feels like she's doing this to me out of spite like I can't speak her language so she revels in that fact. She affectionate, so are Rinko and Nene, but she makes me feel so confused, so flustered every time we go on a date. A few days ago she spotted me at the shopping mall and she was So Happy I was buying CDs. Then a few days later, she spotted me at the shopping mall again and she was So Disgusted that I was buying CDs. Maybe it has to do with the days when I do things. Maybe I should have been with her doing something, but she's never made any indications about what I'm supposed to be doing to make her happy. It seems like the activity I take part in during my days has an odd affect on these invisible scales through which she judges me.</div><div><br />
</div><div>I feel like Bill Murray except Charlotte has been replaced by a Japanese-speaking school girl who can stare into my soul. It makes me wish I could just turn this life off using a power switch. I've done some research on people who have had experiences like mine. There are a number of people who have been through this kind of thing and there are a few guides out there that have helped me along the way. It feels like Manaka and I aren't a unique couple, in fact it feels like there are so many couples like us it's almost formulaic of how to succeed. It's all about communication I think.</div><div><br />
</div><div>From what I know in life about relationships, what you have to be able to do it talk. I've spent my entire life looking for someone I could speak to and my whole life searching for someone I could connect with. Manaka might be that person, but the language barrier between us puts up such a wall that we're unable to do that. It's no fault of her's, nor is it a fault of my own. I made up with the fact that if I spent money on a language tutor for Japanese her and I could live a happy life. It feels like if she spent some time getting a little more localized in where we are, I could understand her better and the culture that she's from. East and West are two extremely different locales, and even starting to understand where she's coming from is a challenge. A lot of girls see working out and fitness as a big deal, but with her it's almost a necessity that I spend my time working out at night to impress her. We've gone on dates, for sure, but they almost always end with me saying something wrong (not that I know what I said).</div><div><br />
</div><div>There's always an expectation of change in a relationship, I know that. I've been flexible, but sometimes she acts as if she's not even trying to change. It's as if she's a robot programmed with a certain number of responses that are beyond my abilities to comprehend. Maybe it's a cultural thing. Two days ago we had our first "kiss" too if you can call it that. She insisted that I only use my fingers to touch her lips. We didn't even make contact, though it made her really happy. Sigh... I think this kind of contact is genuinely something she wants, but the nature of it, the skin contact is a little odd. On the whole, I don't think this relationship is really for me. She's way too different and maybe I'm a bit too closed-minded. That whole thing I wrote up there was a little unfair. For sure it's odd how she acts, but I can't really expect her to change who she is or for her to cater to me. There's a degree of cultural relativity going on here.</div><div><br />
</div><div>This feeling of being lost in translation is an interesting one. Everyone around me changing slowly into this unrecognizable form, the expectations of what a "relationship" entails, and the effort made over the last 210 days have really affected me deeply. It's something I never really expected to get from a girlfriend in a box. Manaka has taught me a little bit about what it must feel like for someone who speaks Japanese to go to a place with people who speak English, as she taught me how it feels like speaking only English to an all Japanese crowd. It's not that we're incompatible or that we're unwilling to work things out. I think it has to do with what length we as players on this stage are willing to learn the language of the people we're with. Even if it's just trying to communicate through small gestures like emailing a few words, going on a date, or going to a tennis match it makes a difference in the end if you make that effort. Of course, it's easier if there's a commonality in the language that you speak, but can two people communicate without the need for words?</div><div><br />
</div><div>I've come to you looking for some advice in this matter. Any help that you can give will really be appreciated :)!</div><div><br />
</div><div>From,</div><div><br />
</div><div>A Confused John Doe</div><div><br />
</div><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Dear John Doe,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Are you dating a real girl? I read your letter and I'm extremely confused by what's going on in your life. I think this is beyond my expertise, but I wish you all the luck with this.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Good luck,</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Doc Love</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-1081629482271011982011-12-31T19:32:00.000-08:002011-12-31T20:01:49.608-08:00Best and Worst of 2011 – Games Journalism Edition<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XzbK6olo77Va2nHMyKdh5MYU3rSZHRrj3g1Ndgwumdvg0vvwcPkpRJzfsCWtlMSmUu8TDuRo5Ps_E4Fzhv3sQALAoJOB2w8fai2IOcpEUtmq41DwDFwe7441CGQWctqi5Kc0aaURNZ6y/s1600/lwm_release1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XzbK6olo77Va2nHMyKdh5MYU3rSZHRrj3g1Ndgwumdvg0vvwcPkpRJzfsCWtlMSmUu8TDuRo5Ps_E4Fzhv3sQALAoJOB2w8fai2IOcpEUtmq41DwDFwe7441CGQWctqi5Kc0aaURNZ6y/s400/lwm_release1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5692508257631695474" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">Great games journalism pieces are not few and far between. If you look hard enough, if you read more than the standard press release rehashes, and if you dig a little deeper there are writers out there who are surpassing the quick news hits that lie on the surface of games journalism. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Here are the best and worst pieces of this year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><b>Best</b></div> <p class="MsoNormal"><u><span lang="EN-CA">Level with me</span></u></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/23/level-with-me-level-with-me/">Rock, Paper, Shotgun</a> has been hosting a series of interviews conducted by game developer Robert “Radiator” Yang, and every one of them is brilliant. Just a few weeks ago they reached the climax of the interviews, a combined effort by all the interviewees to create <a href="http://www.moddb.com/mods/level-with-me">a level in Portal 2</a>. Having played it myself, I can see each of the interview subjects influences, particular method of game development, and signatures in each environment.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Who’s been interviewed? Dear Esther creator <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/25/level-with-me-dan-pinchbeck/">Dan Pinchbeck</a>, Design Reboot’s <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/01/level-with-me-jack-monahan/">Jack “Gauss” Monahan</a>, former Grin Level Designer <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/07/level-with-me-magnar-jenssen/">Magnar Jenssen</a>, Blendo Games’ <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/15/level-with-me-brendon-chung/">Brendon Chung</a>, Stanley Parable creator <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/22/level-with-me-davey-wreden/">Davey Wreden</a>, Proteus creator <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/29/level-with-me-ed-key/">Ed Key</a>, and Kairo developer <a href="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/23/level-with-me-richard-perrin/">Richard Perrin</a>. You don’t see this kind of active games journalism too often.</p><p class="MsoNormal">It has to do with scope.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Good games journalism is about interesting content and hearing voices from the community talk about games. Doing this kind of journalism is informative and it appeals to a base who wants to know what modern-day innovators are doing with game design. Furthering this each interviewee helped to design a level that showcases their talents and their ideas. Their interviews were virtually manifested into a video game, the very medium they are discussing. This is active, constructive, revolutionary games journalism. And they’re damn good reads.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Worst</b> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><u>Steal this look - I Got My Fashion Sense from Video Games (And You Can, Too!)</u></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I really want to qualify 2011’s <a href="http://kotaku.com/5843886/i-got-my-fashion-sense-from-video-games-and-you-can-too">worst piece of gaming journalism</a> before talking about it. The question that has stuck with me while reading Tim Roger’s article I <i>Got My Fashion Sense from Video Games (And You Can, Too!)</i> is whether or not he was writing tongue and cheek, you know, ironically. It could be said that it’s a deductive piece about living a video game flushed life, but it begs a serious question: </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Are we supposed to take the article seriously?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA">That’s probably the most unnerving part of his article, you just don’t know where he’s coming from. </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-CA">Rogers</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-CA"> is a video game journalist who’s written articles on topics like how he <a href="http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore">hated living in </a></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-CA"><a href="http://kotaku.com/5484581/japan-its-not-funny-anymore">Japan</a></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-CA"> and different <a href="http://kotaku.com/5535475/i-3-stupid-games">aspects of game culture</a>. His article is in no way poorly written – a few mistakes here or there, but it suffers from not really say anything. It’s one thing to write an article that comments on specific aspects of gaming culture like clothing, but to write something like this, perhaps ironically in order to get hits and comments, is just wrong.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A lot of bulk journalism is about getting hits, about getting the information out first even if it’s wrong or if it’s meant to instigate flame wars. It makes me wonder if Kotaku publishes Roger’s articles because they know it’ll get people commenting and passing it along to other readers. It’s at once a-sort-of interesting piece and it’s a hit grabber made to publicize something no one really cares about. It doesn’t say anything, and how can we take it seriously when it makes games journalism look like an exercise in editorial narcissism?</p><p class="MsoNormal">Am I wrong about this being the worst piece of games journalism of 2011. Probably yes, but it pales in comparison to the efforts made by Rock, Paper, Shotgun above.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">***</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">That is it for the best and the worst games journalism of 2011. Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Radiator Yang did an amazing job of interviewing and involving level designers in their journalistic efforts. Tim Rogers did an amazing job of writing a damned long article that was actually pretty funny in some parts. And $35 dollar underwear is comfortable, but a luxury no one should be able to afford.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">Oh, and take a look at this runner-up piece of crap example of games journalism for the lulz: <a href="http://www.cgmonthly.com/game-reviews/xbox-360-games/597-brink.html">http://www.cgmonthly.com/game-reviews/xbox-360-games/597-brink.html</a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-56282508862210732932011-12-28T20:23:00.001-08:002011-12-28T20:23:58.908-08:00Star Wars: The Old Republic the fastest growing Subscription-Based MMORPG ever<p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img class="size-medium wp-image-59051 aligncenter" src="http://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Old-Republic-1-515x288.jpg" alt="" width="515" height="288" src="http://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Old-Republic-1-515x288.jpg" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial;" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; " /></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">After opening their servers just this past Tuesday, Star Wars: The Old Republic has received over <a href="http://www.republictrooper.com/2011/12/26/star-wars-the-old-republic-becomes-fastest-growing-subscription-based-mmo-in-history" href="http://www.republictrooper.com/2011/12/26/star-wars-the-old-republic-becomes-fastest-growing-subscription-based-mmo-in-history">one million</a> new subscriptions making it the fastest growing MMORPG in history.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center; ">According to a </span><a href="http://www.swtor.com/news/%5Bnews-category%5D/20111226" href="http://www.swtor.com/news/%5Bnews-category%5D/20111226">press release</a><span style="text-align: center;" style="text-align: center; "> on the SWOTOR site there have been to date:</span></p><ul style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><li>Over 60 million in-game hours – roughly equivalent to watching all six <em>Star Wars</em> movies over 4 million times</li><li>Over 850,000 Sith Warriors and over 810,000 Jedi Knights created</li><li>Over 260 million quests completed</li><li>Over 44 million PvP battles</li><li>Over 9 million space combat missions completed</li><li>Over 3 billion NPCs killed</li></ul><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">With the purchase of the game comes 30 free days of access to the servers, but after that trial period is up it's going to cost you $14.99 per month, $41.99 per three months, and whopping $77.94 for six months. It's no different than other MMORPGs like <a href="http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/subscription-options" href="http://us.battle.net/support/en/article/subscription-options">World or War Craft</a> (which SWOTOR stole the title of fastest growing MMORPG from) that charges about the same, but there might be a dip in the number of users after the 30 day trial is up.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">It's a good sign for Bioware's latest game since the numbers have shown quite a significant increase since <a href="http://www.swtor.com/news/press-release/20111223" href="http://www.swtor.com/news/press-release/20111223">early release</a>. But we can't forget that there have been some casualties in this event. Sony Entertainment Online's Star Wars Galaxies ran for over <a href="http://swg.wikia.com/wiki/SWG_Wiki" href="http://swg.wikia.com/wiki/SWG_Wiki">eight years </a>opening their servers June of 2003 and <a href="http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/index.vm" href="http://starwarsgalaxies.station.sony.com/index.vm">closing their doors just two weeks ago</a>.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">The old vanguard of Star Wars Galaxies has lost a home, but perhaps they've found another in the Old Republic.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-59057524672205243342011-12-28T20:22:00.001-08:002011-12-28T20:23:16.871-08:00Community Trolling: Half-Life 3<p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><a href="http://www.justpushstart.com/?attachment_id=59062" rel="attachment wp-att-59062"><img class="size-medium wp-image-59062 aligncenter" src="http://www.justpushstart.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Half-Life-Shirt-401x300.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="300" style="border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; " /></a></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">The t-shirt you see here has been causing quite a stir online. According to Uber Entertainment game developer <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/Ekanaut/status/142476850931834880">Chandana Ekanayake</a>, he saw the shirt at a local game development event being worn by a Valve employee. No one can confirm if the shirt is real, where it was made, or if this is nothing more than a slightly elaborate case of trolling on Ekanayake or someone's part.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">To put it simply, we are desperate enough for any information about Half-Life 3 that we'll believe, even for a split-second, anything at this point is a sign.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">The entire gaming community, or at least a fairly large part, has been waiting for Valve to give us even the slightest hint at a new iteration of the series that we're looking to almost anything as proof of its existence. For instance, <a href="http://www.black-aperture.com/">this website</a> appeared only a few days ago sating some of the rumorlust we're all feeling. It's obviously a fake site run by someone out to troll people who want facts, who want an image, who want the slightest of confirmation that the game is in development.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Valve' s Chet Faliszek put an end to all the <a href="http://gamingbolt.com/chet-faliszek-from-valve-puts-an-end-to-all-half-life-3-rumours">rumors</a> saying, "This is the community trolling the community nothing more."</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">It doesn't help that so little information about Half-Life 3 has been revealed. Around this time last year Game Informer - bosom buddies with Valve - gave us a tidbit of information with <a href="http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/12/31/what-s-ahead-game-informer-s-2011-predictions.aspx">this post</a>. And again this year there was speculation that Wheatley's VGA's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUfDbDxIr30">nomination speech</a> had slight hints at Valve's new title. This year a host of websites and rumors have been plaguing news feeds with some saying that Co-founder of Valve Gabe Newell was overheard telling certain employees to start leaking information.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">To this Newell had this to say to Gaming Bolt who messaged him after these new rumors arose: <a href="http://gamingbolt.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/gaben.jpg">No</a>.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">More rumors are sure to arise over the next few months and speculation about Valve's new titles will keep us all on our toes. With all of the demand for a new Half-Life game being so out in the open, Valve is almost obligated to keep delaying until the very end to build us to the peak of suspense.</p><p style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: -webkit-auto; ">Let's just hope we get something soon, and not an announcement of a reboot of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NxAdFF0Pv0">Ricochet</a>, though that might be cool.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-19299389865730889292011-12-22T23:40:00.000-08:002011-12-26T10:36:58.126-08:00The Last Guardian, Video Games Last Best HopeFumito Ueda was the last best hope for video games, and now that he's gone it feels like all is lost. Well he's still on contract with Sony and slated to complete his latest project, but it's still an ominous sign of things to come. In hindsight (two minutes worth of reading) that seemed like a kind of unqualified statement to make, but you have to look at the facts. Shadow of the Colossus, his creation, brought about the end of the previous age of consoles, and it brought in developments and a scale in video game design never seen before. The game introduced the idea of "flow" into video game design where all elements successfully mesh together to create a fluid experience. Ueda did so much to elevate where the video game medium stood as an art form. And now that the Last Guardian has been put in a limbo what could have brought about the next age of gaming is now in peril.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGOW_WI2IlcyGoBr3_DGfWuHehmNDklYv9PJ7BY_AqDId5snQsXtFNbhG0qW2H5lNhrDFUyQboCi6Yh3Oil3bihMX-cmD0CYRp6vdfUdCTMnPKBzj_4d7_tSPX9UoM4uG0NIi-2Iiej91/s1600/Shadow+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipGOW_WI2IlcyGoBr3_DGfWuHehmNDklYv9PJ7BY_AqDId5snQsXtFNbhG0qW2H5lNhrDFUyQboCi6Yh3Oil3bihMX-cmD0CYRp6vdfUdCTMnPKBzj_4d7_tSPX9UoM4uG0NIi-2Iiej91/s400/Shadow+2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div>I know that a video game is not solely the creation of one person, but the influence Ueda has had on video game design can't be argued with. Ueda was born in Japan in 1970. In 1993, he graduated from Osaka University of the Arts and in 1995, he began to pursue a career in video game design. His first big title was Ico, a game where you play as a young boy who tries to save a princess. He had worked in the games industry before on projects including Enemy Zero where he worked as an animator. But it's when he started working with Sony his career took off. Ico is a kind of pure experience, a boy-meets-girl where the innocence of their relationship is highlighted by a simple tale and a difference in their ages. It created an experience highlighted by the communication between the two characters. The act of holding hands, slight gestures, small sounds between them created a relationship rarely seen in games.</div><div><br />It was something revolutionary and I encourage you to read <i>Count to Ten </i>in Kill Screen Magazine if you can get your hands on a copy, or at least I think that's the article. Regardless other people have articulated their thoughts about Ico, but were here to talk about an entirely different game.<br /><br /></div><div>In 2005, Sony released Shadow of the Colossus. I've struggled with one giant gaping aspect of this game. A lot of people talk about it, few people actually play the entire game. I'm one of those people. I cite the game for its story, for the technology it used, for ushering in the end of a console generation, for changing everything in video games without having a true understanding about what makes it such an amazing experience. It's something ultimately subjective, but it's a game that has such an impact on the community at large. There's a moment right at the start of the game - I played that much - where you begin to realize this isn't going to be a Zelda-like experience. There's something about the princess lying frozen on the altar, the feathers flowing in through the open temple, the giant monolithic statues standing in the back ominously resembling the bosses to come, and Agro being one of the most life-like creations you've ever seen.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSUF_Y2v5qfFeeFTJ8ylOU0f5Ofli2ZniXXxUnA5E0jzsnkVH1i8nAt6hUpNW2EykKXA2X71WVz_E6WtDXBDaTe4TxPaqpyT5FGGzNZGPVGNK5U0oJxrLam3pNeztbRQjTzxM6S8PKJPe/s1600/Shadow+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUSUF_Y2v5qfFeeFTJ8ylOU0f5Ofli2ZniXXxUnA5E0jzsnkVH1i8nAt6hUpNW2EykKXA2X71WVz_E6WtDXBDaTe4TxPaqpyT5FGGzNZGPVGNK5U0oJxrLam3pNeztbRQjTzxM6S8PKJPe/s400/Shadow+3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />There's a moment when you step out into the music-less field trying to reign in Agro from throwing you off that something clicks about the experience. "There is nothing like Shadow of the Colossus." It's a statement surely you've heard, one that's been said over and over from 2005 to 2011. And it's a true statement. No game has come even close to resembling the kind of experience you find in Shadow of the Colossus.<br /><br />Why?<br /><br />I could tell you stories about fighting the first bosses of the game. How it felt to see their lifeless, innocent bodies fall to the ground in a heap. I could tell you about how the story builds Wander - the protagonist - as a character through his slow decline into becoming one of the colossi by desiring to save a condemned maiden. How, like a gamer, his lust for a happy ending eventually leads to his own reincarnation as a child. Yet there's one aspect of the game I want to discuss more than anything else.<br /><br />It has to do with trust.<br /><br />We're going to deviate from Shadow of the Colossus just a little here. If you've ever played a Zelda title you know that in most dungeons, in most boss areas you receive a specific item that helps you progress forward. There's an inherent lack of trust in this kind of game design. It's meant to stymie your progression in the game to ensure you get the full experience. You can in Zelda 64 play the entire game without picking up a heart piece or heart container. It'll leave you at a serious disadvantage, but if you chose to play the game like that it'll punish you for it. Fill up your bottles with fairies if that's your choice, you've insulted the game mechanics and you'll be punished for it. Don't expect an easy time. That aside aside, what each new item allows you beat the boss. Each new item allows you access the next area. It's a good form of game design as it keeps you in the experience ever moving forward, but it's not one that trusts you as a player.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOfFTpqi_htbZvT5QdnubTPhj2JBXpAKXDvdSIv7Nde8xhtmdMdRl41Gl6SCsMlUsng_o2GEkyvdPWaBR-fZwOAQIzXbjpv_Lyf0Yg-_zxfe5d4Tcl8m4Hwg08uYOqWb03d8bU9U31ct9/s1600/Shadow+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitOfFTpqi_htbZvT5QdnubTPhj2JBXpAKXDvdSIv7Nde8xhtmdMdRl41Gl6SCsMlUsng_o2GEkyvdPWaBR-fZwOAQIzXbjpv_Lyf0Yg-_zxfe5d4Tcl8m4Hwg08uYOqWb03d8bU9U31ct9/s400/Shadow+4.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />In Shadow of the Colossus they give you a bow, your horse, a sword, and the ability to climb. They trust you enough to use the items given to you to beat each boss that comes your way. We have to qualify what trust really means in this context. When you were younger, did your parents ever let you stay at home by yourself? Being 20 years old means that only 4 years ago that could have been considered a kind of legal offence (psh, Canada) if they left me unattended for that amount of time, and they did. They trusted me to keep myself safe inside of a house full of dangers. They understood that I was mature enough, responsible enough, apt enough to consider all of my options before opening a can of soup with a chainsaw. It's almost, but not quite, the same thing with Shadow of the Colossus. What it gives the players is the agency to explore the game's mechanics without having your hand held. This also gives way to the natural flow of the experience.<br /><br />When the second Colossi swoops down at you what is your first reaction? It's to jump and hold onto its wing. What a marvelous feeling. My brother and I yelped when we first accomplished this feat in the game. It felt like such a natural next step in mounting him. And it's more than just seeing his wing coming towards you and figuring out that you have to grab onto it. Before you fight the second colossi, you're introduced to the concept by the slow, sluggish first boss. Compared to the rest of the game, it is probably the easiest level to face. The game gives you a small tutorial on how to climb by making you scale the wall that leads to its domain. When you reach the boss and you see that there are structure all around its body, your brain automatically tells you that you have to climb to defeat it. There is a little hand holding by the game when it tells you to aim for the highlighted spot on its body, but on the whole you're left to your own devices to succeed or fail.<br /><br />What's important is this: during the intervening period of fighting the first boss and travelling to the second, the player becomes so entwined with the experience that a natural evolution in the understanding of the game's mechanics occurs. You get better at the game. The player has gone from being an intermediately skilled player to flying on the wing of a giant colossi. This is the "flow" of the experience. It's one of the reasons why Shadow of the Colossus is such a successful game. The learning curve is basically non-existent. What you are given is a literal boss in a level that you have to defeat, and you do it through intuition, through skill, and through an understanding of the game's core mechanics.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63DHTL1ax247xkPhAzYCcVIXIeh_eJOTXz0hiuHWFzYohJpHvr-25lMaqbWy6lIZXC9Xp2Cgqc58d-CRsJl0ZM_HOxQhhYlnCxaYvhFHY3RVW25iSguX8Wikjhm_XFl6vQ288DjpoLOJk/s1600/Shadow+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63DHTL1ax247xkPhAzYCcVIXIeh_eJOTXz0hiuHWFzYohJpHvr-25lMaqbWy6lIZXC9Xp2Cgqc58d-CRsJl0ZM_HOxQhhYlnCxaYvhFHY3RVW25iSguX8Wikjhm_XFl6vQ288DjpoLOJk/s400/Shadow+5.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />It might be easy to say that this kind of progression comes naturally to all games. In general, perhaps that's right. If we look at something like Tetris the more we play the deeper our relationship to the tetrominoes becomes, and thus we learn how they all fit together until we're like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwC544Z37qo">this</a>. Well maybe not like that, but you get the point. There's a natural progression of the skill to difficulty ratio that exists in Shadow of the Colossus. The game isn't above making things difficult for you, but you are expected to solve the puzzles given to you using one set of items. There are times when the bosses can be frustrating. For instance, it took about 30 minutes to figure out you had to shoot Turtle Colossi in the foot to get it to fall over. The game doesn't hold you hand by placing a weapon that you can use to defeat the boss. It makes you think. This isn't something that is seem in a lot of games today. Tutorial levels are the main instigators of hardcore gaming's ire, and there's a lot of anger about their overuse.<br /><br />Trust in a video game - like in how you can trust Agro never to run away - comes from a natural understanding of the relationship between the player and the game. It comes from a design that does not cater to the player, but expects them to master its mechanics. This is something that makes Shadow of the Colossus unique. There are limitations imposed onto the player, but never conscious of this he or she will attempt to use their equipment and intuition to defeat each colossi.<br /><br />There's something mystical about the game that no player can really put their finger on. The story in the game is a take on the classic Hero's Journey. It starts in media res knowing that Wander has already committed himself to the quest by taking the sword and the princess. His supernatural aid allows guides him to the colossi who stand as the perils he must face to save the girl. And when Wander becomes the massive, black colossi he becomes the master of the two words entering into a transcendental state where he's more than a being with a sword, a bow, and a horse, and becomes part of the game's structure itself. You become a colossi, and when you are eventually defeated you are reborn as a child. This final act of purification along with the return of the princess leaves Wander in a state of neither anticipating the future or fearing for his past sins. He's placed on a clean slate and given a chance to start anew.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMaSv8u5SWr9Kv0wes-wasDkzdecttfiahGDnUZpETA1FQMI6YSEKwR7fD7XdHZryvspM2KpW-QmhPrqAgema-SQw8sksshDOtdurz5Q6C4_NLp-HBiRe0FtBG4DFyVurF4hStKW_rf7g/s1600/Shadow+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggMaSv8u5SWr9Kv0wes-wasDkzdecttfiahGDnUZpETA1FQMI6YSEKwR7fD7XdHZryvspM2KpW-QmhPrqAgema-SQw8sksshDOtdurz5Q6C4_NLp-HBiRe0FtBG4DFyVurF4hStKW_rf7g/s400/Shadow+6.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />This monomyth can be traced throughout video games. Mario, for instance, is a clear example of how the hero's journey can be found in the medium. He enters into the Mushroom Kingdom looking for Princess Peach because she'e been kidnapped by Bowser, an evil force beyond Mario's control. He uses special items like fire flowers, star men, and mushrooms to aid in his journey across countless worlds until he saves the princess and leaves with her. It's a classic story found in countless games, yet the story in Shadow of the Colossus sticks with us because of its brevity, because of its sparse nature. There was such an opportunity in Shadow of the Colossus to include a massive, complex story that it seems almost cruel to impose such a rigid narrative structure on the player. It almost feels like the monomyth is detrimental to the game.<br /><br />Simplicity.<br /><br />Simple narrative design can be a good thing and it can be a bad thing. A game like Dark Souls, for example, begs so many questions with its sparse narrative. We don't have any real impetus to begin our quest other than a weird feeling that we're supposed to be doing something. There's nothing really to fight for. In Shadow of the Colossus, we are given a few minutes of expository video and we're shown the personal connection Wander has with the girl. If you've played Ico, the player is given an added awareness of the importance Ueda places on relationships in his games. As we progress through the story, as we kill the colossi one by one, Wander becomes more and more corrupted, yet we push him on to complete the game. In a way, we become the driving force looking for an ending to the story. In Dark Souls, we play the same role pushing our character forward death after death, but we're fighting only to his or her end. This is the downside of a simple narrative. Without the proper impetus, without that few minutes of personality in your character the player forgets to invest him or herself into them.<br /><br />This is a criticism you could make about Shadow of the Colossus. What does the story really say other than being an interpretation of the hero myth? Wander's character represents the idea of the hero within video game narratives. He's brave enough to try to save the princess, but he's doing so in a way meant to bring about something unnatural. It's his desire to see her brought back to life that ultimately makes him sacrifice his own. He's punished being put back into the body of a child under the care of someone else. Here you could make a commentary about what the monomyth really entails. Joseph Campbell's interpretation tells the tale of the altruistic hero saving a girl from a horrible fate. Shadow of the Colossus, without the context of the monomyth, could portray Wander as a kind of vagrant stealing away the girl while trying to redeem himself. In this way you can't really know what his motivation as a character really is. Did he want to be corrupted to kill the pursuing priests? Was the relationship between him and Agro meant to evoke empathy from the player for a anti-hero?<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXAA_SzVMcB-3zRE918wJlWfrDOuLPcNy5mYH6uRfUQNPiNClLJF7NF-XPZ-P7Kts87f_88Oyid5z8gTzSNrGiEJvi1NROpAX4-2ZVGIzAhwTp3LlpRWLFuL6-7FXn5Txr-6QhppvL_5e/s1600/Shadow+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYXAA_SzVMcB-3zRE918wJlWfrDOuLPcNy5mYH6uRfUQNPiNClLJF7NF-XPZ-P7Kts87f_88Oyid5z8gTzSNrGiEJvi1NROpAX4-2ZVGIzAhwTp3LlpRWLFuL6-7FXn5Txr-6QhppvL_5e/s400/Shadow+1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Wander mercilessly cuts down the colossi without questioning the mystic voice that speaks to him. Without even attempting to save her by any other means, he sets himself up as a heroic/reckless hero. Some would argue that Shadow of the Colossus has a minimalist story. That it's meant to stay out of the way of the game's mechanics to help expose the inner beauty of the experience itself. While it's true that Ueda's game are kept deliberately simple, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus having fairly sparse narratives, this lack of complexity is detrimental to the overall experience. There's an argument that if an overly complex story had been added to the game it would have ruined the experience. Zelda 64 is the game that it is, being called perfect by some, because of the story. It's because of the hero's quest as presented by the game that is succeeded as a video game. Shadow of the Colossus was kept deliberately, maybe as a commentary on the hero myth, but it's never quite clear why.<br /><br />Ueda's style as a game developer/storyteller is to keep his projects mired in vagaries. There's never a time when you can say, "This is what's happening because 100 years ago this happened, and here's an entire history that explains everything." That's simply not his style, nor would fans of the game want something like that. The ambiguities left in the game give it an esoteric feel like there's something deeper going on outside of the game world. It's as if Ueda has kept us in the dark to keep us guessing about Wander's story.<br /><br />In the few paragraphs above it feels like I've attacked this kind of storytelling in video games. In some instances it can be an interesting choice to use this archetypal narrative design. For instance, No More Heroes' semi-protagonist Travis Touchdown follows the monomyth, but deviates continually from the path. A character like Mario never stops to use the washroom right in the middle of the quest. Travis does. There are other, more interesting aspects on how Travis comments on the nature of storytelling in games like how he addresses the player, has inner monologues, doubts his quest, and leaves us with an anti-climax.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEdVNh_aG5_1Fp-vg_54N_8c31JdstlMDWYXcWJswouP9nSur4L5OrLW9X77B3tWcEinz9K1NYXSDeJGpGKnMFGCvQGHADFZDDRmmDImV-T9-U5l8r-mf5woFwRDw1NL6ZITC5q2IK9U9v/s1600/Shadow+14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEdVNh_aG5_1Fp-vg_54N_8c31JdstlMDWYXcWJswouP9nSur4L5OrLW9X77B3tWcEinz9K1NYXSDeJGpGKnMFGCvQGHADFZDDRmmDImV-T9-U5l8r-mf5woFwRDw1NL6ZITC5q2IK9U9v/s400/Shadow+14.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Shadow of the Colossus with its aesthetic beauty and complex game design leaves out a message, a commentary from its story. It's something that a lot of people leave out of their analyses of the game. Video games should always attempt to say something even if it is something simple or a small commentary about the nature of story telling. The vagaries surrounding the world of Colossi are beautifully maintained in and of themselves, but they don't lend themselves well to complex storytelling. Storytelling, in general, is still something video games need to work on. The simplicity of Shadow of Colossus' story is what people really enjoy. It's a boy-meets-girl-meets-colossi-meets-best-game-of-the-decade, but it could benefit from development. Going against the archetypal grain, saying something about how the monomyth is overused in video game narratives, and saying something is an important way The Last Guardian could help save gaming.<br /><br />And now we're at the focus of the article and in about 3,000 words, oh god. The Last Guardian or Hitokui no Ōwashi Trico as its known in Japan first appeared at TGS 2009 in this <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF3fED8EXl4">trailer</a>. It left me feeling all jittery when I first watched anticipating the innovations to come. At E3 2009 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzHoMT5eRg">this trailer</a>, showing a more completed version of the game, appeared. The game, like the characters in the trailer, had gone through a significant evolution showing that development of The Last Guardian was still being developed. Take a look at <a href="http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/09/24/team-ico-talks-fumito-ueda-on-the-last-guardian-shadow-of-the-colossus/">this</a> (third link sorry) interview conducted at TGS that year. This quote is what's important to the development of his latest project, "I think it’s possible to make it even more artistic. But because it’s a video game, those possibilities have been subdued somewhat — it’s a game." I shudder to bring the video games as art argument into this article, but here we go.<br /><br />What is it exactly that makes Shadow of the Colossus a work of art? The environments. Expansive in their scale and deliberate in their design, the world created around Wander is inspired by traditional video game design and the real world's natural beauty. We enter into the Forbidden Land with a sense of awe about the size of the temple, the breadth of the land we have to travel over, and the minute details hidden away for us to find. The hub world design, as well, is a hallmark design of games and one that's seemlessly intergrated into Shadow of the Colossus. Agro. Literally the most realistic animal in all of video games, Wander's horse Agro is absolutely fluid in his design, in the way he moves, and how he acts as a agent within the game. Art, in some definitions, is about imitating life. Even the colossi, virtual strangers to the real world, have a system of movements that make them so lifelike that melancholy overwhelms you when their lifeless bodies slump to the ground. Inspiration. I've written more about Shadow of the Colossus, referenced it as a work of art, and as an example of good video game design more times than I can count. Articles upon articles have been written about the game describing how it changed the way modern game developers look at animation and design.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCsztNwaIuvdDD83mRtCMnOyOrPxrw0s_rvYBu15oLi8MJNtM5qXHpS46zhEzq-dS4C1UXuoONIdJs4E7oADPKcA3YAtCJrwEn1MWK8oykMTMJFDxatBlZ4GJ5GuqadvZupDy5bNBHwfl/s1600/Shadow+13.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCsztNwaIuvdDD83mRtCMnOyOrPxrw0s_rvYBu15oLi8MJNtM5qXHpS46zhEzq-dS4C1UXuoONIdJs4E7oADPKcA3YAtCJrwEn1MWK8oykMTMJFDxatBlZ4GJ5GuqadvZupDy5bNBHwfl/s400/Shadow+13.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />All these reasons, are they legitimate enough to say Shadow of the Colossus can be considered art? Ueda considers a work of art to be something that inspires a person, something that evokes thought. If we go by this definition of art then all video games could be considered works of art as each could elicit even the faintest hint of this feeling. Duke Nukem Forever is not art, but by the Ueda's account it could be categorized in the same way as his game. Even in the interview linked above, he's flattered that some writers even consider his game a work or art and inquires what parts about the game they consider to be artful. This in no way means Ueda considers his game anything but a work or art, but what's the difference when he says "Arty" and "Art"?<br /><br />Video games, as a whole, have been kept under the foot of people scared of what a medium "designed for children" can express. It's this feeling that kept Six Days in Fallujah from being made. It's this feeling that put video games before the United States Congress during the summer, a battle we won, calling out the medium's "violent nature". It's this feeling that made a news channel I won't even bother naming make Mass Effect sound like a hardcore, pornographic video game. There is fear in public at large that if video games start to say something, if they start to have messages in them like installation art, like film, television, or theater that their children will be targeted. It's this feeling that keeps video game developers from taking risks. Name the last time a triple A budget video game has challenged your way of thinking about the world? I can name possibly one game in the past five years that has been released outside of the indie game scene that has made me think. It's simply the truth that the video game medium is not like film. We don't get commercial works that break the surface like Inception or Drive that really make us think. It's because there's a fear on part of the developer that the 13-year-old demographic they target won't get the experience and thus won't buy the console.<br /><br />Yet it's more than just having a well-funded avant-garde of video game developer it's about changing the connection we share with our games. This is something that The Last Guardian could potentially help alleviate. Over the past decade video games have progressed to the point where the technical capacity of game development studios finally rival all other commercial art forms. Developments like mega textures (RAGE), real time lighting (Crysis), daring cinematography in games (Kane and Lynch: Dog Days), complex narrative structures (Deadly Premonition), and budgeting (L.A. Noire) mean that we have a base structure for creating the form of art within games. There's one last development that video games have to undergo before they can truly be considered a unique art form. They need to be able to create life.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZwQJYt4g6axVHP_oqtO1t7mUHG8_wJxYGmGvyMpcv1O7FAzvtVxDZ97G6xi4u_aVP3gFAHWma3Kpzxv-lbNXI1XBAiYDCAksViZLeJlj6_nKTH2vMIL_KFg4ffFu_7Q45W9vNv5ZKpeN/s1600/Shadow+10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMZwQJYt4g6axVHP_oqtO1t7mUHG8_wJxYGmGvyMpcv1O7FAzvtVxDZ97G6xi4u_aVP3gFAHWma3Kpzxv-lbNXI1XBAiYDCAksViZLeJlj6_nKTH2vMIL_KFg4ffFu_7Q45W9vNv5ZKpeN/s400/Shadow+10.png" width="400" /></a></div><br />Animation is still a major issue in traversing the uncanny valley in video games. For instance, creating characters with eyes that follow you instead of staying in one static position is a minute detail that most games get entirely wrong. Half-Life 2 was able to pull it off with characters like Alyx Vance looking at you, and not staring into your soul like the characters of Skyrim. Life is about instilling energy into the characters around you. If we look at Ueda's canon of games so far we see two major developments. In Ico, he introduced the concept of holding hands through a dynamic connection between the two characters. The further Ico gets away the faster the girl runs to catch up with him. This created an actual, physical relationship between the two character within the experience. It seems like a small development, but you have to look at how flexible the mechanic had to be to successfully emulate the feeling of holding hand with someone. In Shadow of the Colossus, he introduced not only a climbing mechanic, which is the most robust aspect of the game, he also introduced an animation system that help gave the colossi a sense of scale.<br /><br />When you mount the first colossi, Wander can easily be thrown off or knocked off by the force it exerts. The player enters into his domain and quickly realizes that even though the colossi is a giant opponent it is extremely agile because of its scale. This is one aspect of the game design that only Shadow of the Colossus has ever achieved. For instance, God of War has big bosses that rival the colossi in scale, but there's something about them that fail to achieve the same size. It has to do with the protagonist's relationship to the boss. Wander is feeble, yet with the power of the sword he's able to attack the colossi's weak spots to eventually defeat them. Though you have this mystical aid, you never quite feel that you're in control of the situation. The first boss in the game, if you stay on long enough, will begin to shake its body violently to get you off. It's like when you have an ant crawling up your arm and your first instinct is to wipe it off. In God of War, angry guy runs up the arm of the boss, does a quick time event he has complete control over, and plunges a weapon into the brain of his opponent. Not for one moment is he out of control of the situation or fighting an enemy that is unpredictable.<br /><br />Unpredictability. In a world of games built around rigid systems seeing a character who can surprise you with their actions is a rare thing to see. Shadow of the Colossus was an interesting example of a game that used scale as a means of creating this feeling of unpredictability. Players are too used to fighting linear battles, or fighting enemies with strict patterns. Wander's diminutive size automatically puts you at a disadvantage even when facing off against the smallest of the colossi, but the intuition in their design you gain by surmounting each boss gives you an unspoken advantage. You learn that even though you are smaller than them you can use their massive scale, their slow movements to your advantage. This part of the game's design is highlighted in the last part of the game when Wander transforms into a colossi. The little guys attacking you are the hardest enemies in the game, and you're lucky to hit even one of them with your giant fists. It gives you the sense of scale that each colossi projected from a first-person perspective. As well, it serves as a kind of emphatic device to show how frustrating the deaths of the colossi must have been. Size matters in games, and this was one of the ways Shadow of the Colossus was able to bring to life characters of massive proportions well.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3TTXWCwGmiq1BBtoFv-G2pEM-4MqrHb27qoC6UK5RgDuUQUL6hhbb5E-gn4soMGfEbzFCprqoxknj5l7llZ0GvXuL4HU3pudK1GoayMffyXkPm-dBNIJ4y_JgJclX3lqRJBilopythIb/s1600/Shadow+11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg3TTXWCwGmiq1BBtoFv-G2pEM-4MqrHb27qoC6UK5RgDuUQUL6hhbb5E-gn4soMGfEbzFCprqoxknj5l7llZ0GvXuL4HU3pudK1GoayMffyXkPm-dBNIJ4y_JgJclX3lqRJBilopythIb/s400/Shadow+11.jpg" width="298" /></a></div><br />In the trailer for The Last Guardian, we're introduced to two characters: the boy and the beast. Both characters show a level of dynamism on their own. The boy is able to pick up barrels to hit soldiers, he's able to jump and climb like Wander, he has a beautifully crafted system of animation, and he represents the same level of scale players were meant to feel in Shadow of the Colossus. He's a little kid in a adult's world, and a world that's probably full of monsters. Along with him is the beast. If you've ever owned a pet then you might know what it's like to lose them. Almost unavoidably, the beast shown protecting to the boy will die and your heartstrings will be pulled so hard they might snap. This feeling a lot of the community has echoed speaks to the expectations of the relationship that is going to be created in the game. In an interview, Ueda said that the game is anything but a pet simulator, which is a relief. There's nothing worse than having to constantly cater to a character in a video game. This also means that the connection created between you and the beast will be done through story, through building a relationship through trials seen through together. The bond between the two characters is shown when the boy (I honestly hate having to refer to him this way, but he doesn't have a name yet) fall off the cliff and the beast (same thing here I wish he or she had a name) picks him up. Already we see that there's a relationship created between the two and that they're dependent on one another to survive.<br /><br />They are protecting each other because they have a meaningful connection as characters. We can gain all of this insight into who they are from three trailers. It's insane what can be packed into a short demo of the game and the speculation is can create. There are some important things we have to look at from them. The beast needs to be fed. He has to be sustained or his health needs to be maintained like any pet. The beast has to rest. What person, animal, or omnipotent, spaghetti-like being doesn't need to rest only a daily basis? It seems like a small way to instill life within the characters, but the need for sleep is something that is rarely expressed well in games. I can tell you personally that my character in Skyrim has been going for almost 150 hours without any rest. A person would die if they even came close to that kind of deprivation. They protect one another. There are moments within the trailer where the boy's running on his own through small dungeons protecting himself. This shows that there is going to be a system of scaling structures (Shadow of the Colossus) and going through dungeons alone. If we look at traditional video game design, I guess we can assume that at the end of every dungeon the boy will find something needed to unravel the game's story. As he exists, he'll be confronted by the area's boss and you'll get to be in control of the beast to fend it off. It's this which creates not only a sense of scale, but a sense of dependency for the characters. While the beast can fight other giant creatures it cannot feed itself, nor can it reach what, perhaps, it needs in every dungeon. There's a dynamic relationship between them.<br /><br />Ok, now what does this all mean for creating life in games? It sounds like The Last Guardian is simply going to be a hybrid of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, and that's possible. We just don't have enough information about the game to make a clear predictions about what exactly it's going to do. What I can say it this, The Last Guardian is going to create a deeper relationship between the player and the emotion associated with relationships. Already having a deep sense of who the characters are helps make this point even clearer and Ueda's portfolio of games shows a growing sense of how game mechanics, character animation systems, and design factor into creating a true-to-life story for the player. It's all speculative, but this is where Ueda's last project with Sony could take us.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm9R3bLTrQWV0k-I1GrmoTZ0YubGhDFrpG3EIG1hIqr8oGfjD0PQGJiUB7QrkEaSSGXlE1sRmbN4PQyC2JE-lAtReStbHuqDS99ho0IthM4oNSejNztpVJmaW5BVHnJhRhb5d23M5gUKu/s1600/Shadow+12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhm9R3bLTrQWV0k-I1GrmoTZ0YubGhDFrpG3EIG1hIqr8oGfjD0PQGJiUB7QrkEaSSGXlE1sRmbN4PQyC2JE-lAtReStbHuqDS99ho0IthM4oNSejNztpVJmaW5BVHnJhRhb5d23M5gUKu/s400/Shadow+12.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />It was a little heartbreaking to hear the news that Fumito Ueda was leaving Sony. It was even a little more heartbreaking to see that he's staying on as per his contract to finish The Last Guardian. It means that this could possibly be his last game of this scale, this polish we'll see in a long, long time. The growth as a developer he has shown between games was phenomenal. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are two of the most critically acclaimed video games because of the amount of detail that went into their minute aspects. Holding hands and holding on are two simple mechanics that made the games memorable as a whole, not only as standalone experiences from two different generations of game development. The Last Guardian will usher in the end of the current generation of consoles. Right now as it sits in limbo, a slight chill runs through everyone who cares about the medium being moved forward as an artistic form. What happens if the game never comes out? What happens if The Last Guardian never sees the light of day? These questions keep me awake at night.<br /><br />Video games will still be there even if Ueda's last project is never released. He's done so much to help elevate video games from being simple diversions into deep experiences that explore the deepest connections we have as human beings. Maybe that's what video games should do as a medium. They should provide us with perspectives, with roles, with shoes to fill. There's so much they can do with through interactivity that if The Last Guardian can instill life into its character, players could feel a real sense of responsibility for his or her experience. The death of a character will not only evoke your emotions, but your memories, your thoughts, your guilt, and your identity as an active participant within the experience. That's something video games are able to accomplish that no other medium can. They give us a window not only to look through, but a window we can open or break depending on what kind of person we are.<br /><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"></span><br /><div style="line-height: 17px;"></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-19135899064561652652011-05-31T23:23:00.000-07:002011-06-02T15:16:54.836-07:00Character Profile: Travis Touchdown<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>"Everyone deals with grief differently. Some people fuck at funerals... I cut off heads." - Travis Touchdown<br /><div><br /></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkZejDpeQL1rOGvsBzKY5Pr3pZ8IWc-HHYKzZVdWwyETLqkhtkyuNf05TqW2QLHdSgWWNS0nwCnTD_emDZqxfu_yMhnom6LUhFXDcZ9QsoJqE9C2h4mgmuy1EoSih84zoPGen3A8mgZhDr/s320/Travis.jpg" style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 320px;" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613133497691309522" /><div>It's hard to analyze Travis Touchdown, the legendary assassin king of Santa Destroy. In true fourth-wall-breaking form his past and the events that led up to No More Heroes are shrouded in mystery. What we know about Travis can be surmised through the first game's intro: he's an otaku assassin, a punk paradox. He's usually out for blood to satisfy a spur of the moment urge for violence, yet it's an urge that has reason. Travis signals the end of Suda 51's series of "Kill the Past" games. A few writers have called out No More Heroes's story as a parody of video game narratives. Players saw a shift away from the abstract, intertwined plots of games like Killer 7 and Flower, Sun and Rain to a self-aware meta-narrative. That's where Travis Touchdown exists. He's a character trapped within a mature story created by a writer who continually circumvents it. Travis is constantly at odds with the author-god of his game, and it's a desperate struggle to escape.</div><div><br /></div><div>Travis Touchdown from NMH and NMH 2 are going to be treated as separate entities. They share common character traits, but the narrative that surround the two Travis' are wildly different. While NMH's focus was on themes of "Killing the past" and memory, NMH 2's focus was shifted towards the ramification of violence and themes of revenge. I'll try my best to keep the two of them separate throughout the article and when something in common comes up I'll be sure to make note of it. Travis has shown quite a bit of character development since his debut. By all rights his character from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle should be the one profiled, but his former self is still punk and unlike any other "protagonist" around. </div><div><br /></div><div>Travis is constantly at odds with his sexual nature. In both games, he fights because of a promise made to him by Sylvia Christel, a United Assassins Association representative. A full course meal of sex for killing hundreds of people. Sounds like a good deal. This is the central impetus of No More Heroes, but there's another reason shrouded because of a hangover. In the first game, Travis meets Sylvia in a bar and she tells him - after he bought her a few drinks - that she can help him get the revenge he seeks. She lets him into the association, which might or might not exist, and helps him climb up the ranks. While Travis is in it for the sex, he's subconsciously seeking revenge for his parent's death. It's never said when or at what age his parents were killed. What we know is that someone scarred a young Travis, a girl not unlike Sylvia. </div><div><br /></div><div>It's hard to say why sex is so important to Travis. It serves as a loose justification/impetus for him to reach the top of the rankings. Sex as a theme is never developed enough in No More Heroes. He's continually manipulated by Sylvia who uses her sexuality to lure him into killing, at least in the first game. What we have to look at are the base reasons why Travis fights, why he kills. </div><div><br /></div><div>Travis in No More Heroes is green. Up until this point in his life he's never killed anyone, or at least no one that we've heard of. At the beginning of the game we get a taste of why he bought his beam katana from an online auction and why he wants to be the best.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here’s Travis’s monologue from his tenth rank fight with Death metal:</div><div><div class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA">This count, I feel as though I’m looking at my future self. Making bucks, big ass house, fast cars, dining is style with a world-class chef and a trusty nutritionist counting every calorie. A team of hot yoga instructors to keep me in shape, nurses to attend to my body, maids and loyal servants at my every beck and call. On the weekends, tan babes knocking at my door every two hours. Everyday full of excitement and luxury. That’d be the life. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA">Everything in its right place. It’s the perfect life. It’s the life of winners. That’ll be my life. I thirst for selflessness, hypocrites lusting for their own desire to get killed by young rookies like me. This is how it goes down, and for the old killers they’ll croak anyways. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;"><i><span lang="EN-CA">I guess you could call this a comedy. I realize there’s nothing really here for me. But what else can I do but keep going? Maybe I should have been a little more careful before I jumped in. Gotta find the exit. Gotta find that exit to paradise. But I can’t see it. I can’t see anything. There’s this sense of doom running down my spine like it’s trying to suck the life out of me. I need to get rid of it before I bail. Something deeper… deeper than my instincts taunting me. Can’t find the exit… can’t find the exit… can’t find the exit… can’t find the exit.</span></i></div></div><br />Money, yoga instructors and a purpose in his comedic jaunt into the violent life of an assassin that's what Travis Touchdown wants most. All Travis can do is kill. He’s a merchant of death who has suffered due his sole purpose in life. Does he like his job? Does he enjoy his role in life? Is this just some huge prank being pulled on an otherwise redeemable character? What Sylvia offers to him - other than sex - is a way to channel his purpose within the video game experience. No More Heroes is an extremely self-aware video game. I wrote an entire article on how it breaks the fourth wall <a href="http://www.levelfortytwo.com/2010/01/breaking-the-fourth-wall-nmh/">here</a> and part 2 <a href="http://www.levelfortytwo.com/2010/02/breaking-the-fourth-wall-part-2/">here</a>, so I won't go over it in too much detail. What I will say is this, Travis Touchdown's desires begin to deteriorate as the game progresses and he lets you know that it's happening.<br /><div><br /></div><div>Like Garcian Smith Aka Emir Parkreiner in Killer 7, Travis Touchdown suffers from a multiplicity in his character. Each time he defeats a boss, Travis is given a tidbit of information, a story or a lesson that teaches him about the life he is about to enter. His dream of being at the top begins to fracture as the memories of his past return. At the climax of the game when he fights his sister Jeane, Travis recalls the events of his father's death. Though his relationship to Jeane is more a poor B-movie parody, it still serves to break his character further. The more he fights, the bloodthirstier he becomes and the more he kills, the more Travis becomes like Jeane and the "old hypocrites" he refers to in his monologue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe these lessons carried over into his three-year disappearance from Santa Destroy. The issue now is that in No More Heroes 2, Travis is confronted by the mistakes of his past and is </div><div>forced into confrontation by powers greater than the UAA.</div><div><br /></div><div>What separates Travis from No More Heroes 2 from Travis in No More Heroes is his age, maturity and cynicism, yet you could never tell that his character changed. This is what made Desperate Struggle such a let down. Travis returns to Santa Destroy to find out that Skelter Helter, the 11th ranked assassin from the last game's brother, has killed Bishop Shidux. He's the guy who owned Beefhead video and Travis' only true friend. In a fit of rage, Travis calls up Sylvia setting up the next fight and begins a "motherfucking" war to kill whoever called out the hit on his friend. It's almost the same setup as before. There's no escape for Santa Destroy's former assassin king and he's forced into a confrontation for no reason. I guess the question is: why is Travis so affected by Bishop's death?</div><div><br /></div><div>Throughout the first game, Travis is subjected to escalating examples of death and insanity. Thunder Ryu, his mentor, is killed. Bad Girl shows Travis how violence can lead to a life of maniac excess. Holly Summers showed him that all assassins live by a code dictated by victory and defeat. Each boss of No More Heroes foreshadows what Travis could become. Bishop's death is the unintentional result of his life as an assassin. Maybe it was the sudden nature of his demise. Maybe they had a longer relationship than other characters from his past. There are a lot of unexplained reasons why Travis feels so intensely about the death of his friend when hundred of people around him have died including his sister by his own hand. His death felt like the final straw. It's one thing to be attacked personally, but it's an entirely different thing to have your life outside of the game attacked.</div><div><br /></div><div>The remorse Travis feels for Bishop's death is what ultimately propels him forward in No More Heroes 2. There's always the sexual impetus, which includes Shinobu Jacobs, a character I'll be talking a bit about, but it plays a smaller role in the game's narrative. The theme of revenge, the cycle of killing and death becomes the story's central focus. It's surprising that it would come into focus as Travis knows that revenge only begets more revenge. It's a lesson Travis learnt from the first game, and he's living proof of it. Near to the end of the game, Travis remembers that the main reason he became an assassin was to get revenge on his sister/childhood love Jeane for killing his parents. After fighting, maiming and killing 10 other professional assassins, he gets his vengeance and is ultimately left with nothing. What did Travis get by killing his sister? There's no emotional catharsis, he didn't win a prize, he didn't get laid, so is it any surprise that he'd try to run away? In No More Heroes 2, he's pulled back into the conflict and forced to confront, again, the cycle of violence he created by accepting Sylvia's offer.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgu1GlKEwiRqjNRjhyphenhyphenpoJ-uw8iy-o-ZyInWgq-hRGeDOnxHeghuWaUhS7WrmJKePIudu-r6PEKfdFyLCJfFasa01nttNKSGgSRPrKCdbEykXefRYbuRTm51pKfrXbdSWSRjV6ZGc6NFQYNY/s320/Sylvia.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5613135149088567506" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 160px; " /></div><div><br /></div><div>In No More Heroes 2, Travis is confronted by another set of assassins propped up by an organization. In the new Santa Destroy, the Pizza Bat corporation has taken advantage of the bloody conflict that happened three years ago a la Mad World. They've made being an assassin more than a profession, they've made it into a sport. The new assassins that go after Travis aren't really up to par with the ones from the first game. In a small sequence before each fight, Sylvia, now working in a brothel, tells a mystery listener - it's Travis by the way - about the assassin's past. Alice Twilight, the second last boss, shows quite a bit of depth in her character. She recognizes the sick game that has been created by Pizza Bat and all she wants is to stop the cycle of violence. She embodies everything that could go wrong with being an assassin. Unlike Travis, Alice has analyzed her life and seen that it has been an endless cycle of violence, and yet she idolizes Travis.</div><div><br /></div><div>Alice instill a new maxim in Travis. She helps him understand that whether you're an assassin, a murderer or anything in between humans bleed, they die and they suffer. Humans or even representations of humans in video games, literature and film are never worthless, and nor should they be played with like toys. It's a realization that gives Travis the most dramatic character development in the sequel. Although he has already learnt this from his first rise to the top, the fight with Alice and the subsequent lesson in humanity he receives is the most explicit message he's ever given. It is the one time Travis admits that what he is doing is wrong. And at the end of the fight, Travis vows to shut down the United Assassins Association. </div><div><br /></div><div>What happened? Isn't that the end? Travis realized that he's wrong? Pizza Bat and the other ranked assassin organizations should be destroyed, he said it himself. Alice Twilight's last wish was that Travis would remember her. Who else said that in the series: Holly Summers from No More Heroes. Like Holly, Alice is an assassin, one that has lived a life of death by rank. Holly tells Travis that when an assassin loses they must die. For a moment, Travis matures, he learns the weight of his actions and he gains insight into the mentality of an assassin. After a brief cutscene, she kills herself leaving Travis neck-deep in regret. In a melancholic sequence after the fight, Travis carries her body to a sandpit where she is buried. What Holly said resonated with Travis and it was further emphasized by Alice's speech. These are two characters he remembers, unlike Helter Skelter. There's a convergence of themes seen here from the two games. Memory and revenge are seemingly interlocked with one another. Travis is the "No More Hero" the assassin king who walked away from the throne. After killing his sister Jeane he learns the true impact of vengeance. It creates a cycle of death. He doesn't gain anything, nor does he when he killed Holly or Alice. All he does by killing is bury himself further in a pit of sand, one he can't escape from.</div><div><br /></div><div>After his fight with Alice Twilight, Travis has sex with Sylvia. He gets laid. It's awesome and everything that he's no longer the No More Virgin, but what's really the point? After fighting someone who made him reflect upon all of his actions as an assassin, essentially bringing back the regret he felt in killing Holly Summers, he has sex with the person who has facilitated all of the evil things he's done. This is one place where Travis' character has faltered slightly. Like the paragraph way back up there, Travis is constantly at odds with his sexual nature. After he's done, he triumphantly runs out of his apartment and yells "Downward Dog" to the whole of the city. Is it catharsis? Is it him finally being rewarded for becoming a killer? Was it all worth it? Why is that the only cutscene where we don't see him his sunglasses on? While themes of revenge and violence are most prevalent in No More Heroes 2, sex always makes it way back into the series.<br /><br />Shinobu Jacobs returns in No More Heroes 2 as Travis' semi-servant. After the events of the first game, she traveled the world eventually conquering assassin tournaments in Asia. What happened between her vowing revenge on Travis and her becoming his faithful servant is never revealed, and we're left asking why she's so devoted to him. Call it a film cliche. We've seen it before when a sworn foe returns in a sequel only to become an ally. The difference with Shinobu is that she was spared by Travis. This condemned her as an assassin. As Holly Summers explained, if an assassin is defeated they have to die. To repay Travis, she devotes her life to him in a weird, unwanted sort of way. At one point she even offers her self to him because he is her "master." Why did he refuse? He said it was because it made him feel, "like that pervy teacher in a porn." There's more to it than that.<br /><br />Throughout No More Heroes, Travis is confronted by hyper-sexualized male and female assassins. Every other fight he's taking on bosses getting off on giant-phallic brain vibrations - see Dr. Lentz Shake - and insane acid spitting vixens covered in bondage gear. Killing and sexuality become intertwined as thematic devices. Every time Travis returns to his apartment in the first game, someone from Beef Head video calls him up to return a number of different pornographic films. His beam katanas are basically giant, killer penis extensions that he has to jack to recharge. The overt sexual nature of No More Heroes symbols is never hidden from the player, it's pronounced. Yet when confronted by a woman's sexuality, Travis doesn't know how to react. Holly Summers, for example, calls him a pathetic example of a man because he wasn't able to kill her. Through her explanation, she de-sexualizes her character and her profession. This shows Travis that she's more than her appearance. She's a human being. Shinobu is a hyper-sexualized character, and in the second game when she comes onto Travis he relents being unable to go through with anything. Travis is sexually repressed. Why then is he able to have sex with Sylvia and not Shinobu?<br /><br />What Travis showed when confronted by Shinobu was guilt. He felt that taking advantage of his "servant" made him into a perverted individual, which he has already shown to be a main character trait. Travis parades his sexuality around Sylvia continually pursuing her for the purpose of sex. He talks a big game, but when confronted by someone who has the same strong sexual desires he's affronted, scared even. Shinobu, like many of the other characters in the game, is a reflection of Travis. The master-slave relationship they have is no different than the dependence Travis shows for Sylvia. The guilt he feels when confronted by Shinobu is informed one: by his innate inadequacies in understanding his sexuality and two: by the guilt he associates his relationship with Sylvia Christel. On the promise of sex, Travis killed hundred of people. On the supposed promise of a relationship, Shinobu killed for her "master". It's complicated.<br /><br />What we can take away from Travis Touchdown is this: appearances are deceiving. While he remains a big talking, macho beam saber wielding maniac deep down Travis is a disturbed and guilt ridden individual. The loose justifications he used to kill others, seeking vengeance only to create another cycle of violence and his want to escape an author created narrative make Travis one of the more complicated "protagonists" in video games today. People often look at No More Heroes' story as as kind of watered down Suda 51 experience. It isn't. No More Heroes and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle are some of the deepest games available to international video game audiences. If you dig into the characters you can find as much depth in them as Emir Parkreiner in Killer 7 or Sumio Mondo in Flower, Sun and Rain.<br /><br />No More Heroes is a series that is at the pinnacle of the self-aware video game narrative. It's an experience that knows it's a parody, but tries to circumvent whatever label is attached to it. As a "protagonist" Travis represent a video game character that has reached a kind of sentience. Throughout the series, he is confronted by characters who have already lived the game he is playing. They are just as guilt ridden as he is, and some of them want to be killed. Through Travis, the game preaches non-violence even when showing some of the most gruesome examples in video games. Like Travis himself, No More Heroes is a paradoxical entity. At once it feels like an immature series about killing, violence and assassins. It feels like a B-movie made into a video game, yet there's a depth to the experience that pulls it out of being a experience. No More Heroes is a game about the worst hero that has ever existed, and one that's one of video game's most human.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-48990228998432807432011-05-30T16:54:00.000-07:002011-06-02T15:14:37.266-07:00Been a whileThought I'd give this blogging thing another shot. It's been more than a year since the last character profile went up, and I have a few new characters that require attention. To be profiled: Travis Touchdown, Commander Shepard [female], Cole Phelps, Strelok, Alyssa Ashcroft and Vincent Brookes just to name a few. I'll be trying to get as many done as I can quickly as I can!<div><br /></div><div>Man it's been long since an update. I managed to create my own site, for at least a year until the subscription ran out and I'm too lazy to renew it. You can find it here, though it's pretty barren: <a href="http://stw.ryerson.ca/~mromara/index.html#">http://stw.ryerson.ca/~mromara/index.html#</a>. It looks a lot nicer than Liftbot, but it's really hard to update without having access to a web publishing software used on blogs like these. I'll probably renew the URL after I get a few more profiles online!</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's to more character profiles and articles on video game journalism. I've been interning at a magazine for the past 2 months and writing has been a constant. A serious case of carpal tunnel syndrome - nah, mostly procrastination - saw me looking to other sources to help get more writing done. Writing for a few different sites and sources gave me a bit of experience in the video game journalism beat. I'm still green, but everyone has to start somewhere with their criticism and observations.</div><div><br /></div><div>We'll see how this thing turns out and if I have the stamina to do as much writing as promised!</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-39889346811400042032010-02-28T12:18:00.000-08:002010-06-27T20:39:47.220-07:00Character Profile: Travis Bell<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-vMSdaVao0CVWYsbSiNe-cHtExa8b-QqEch8LUL9kWEHH60NiMMrhbdp5E624eCc-ioTc43OAdNjTXkWt32emKR1ZcKu7SgfxTVHxqkccOV2zOxSKadt69bYkAR2rrQ7qtQeLDLaGz4LJ/s1600-h/Travis+Bell.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 211px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 302px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443393130669359666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-vMSdaVao0CVWYsbSiNe-cHtExa8b-QqEch8LUL9kWEHH60NiMMrhbdp5E624eCc-ioTc43OAdNjTXkWt32emKR1ZcKu7SgfxTVHxqkccOV2zOxSKadt69bYkAR2rrQ7qtQeLDLaGz4LJ/s320/Travis+Bell.png" /></a> Straight up, being a remnant psyche would be horrible. Actually, on second thought, that could be kind of cool. It would all depend on who you followed around. Celebrities, boring; politicians, ugh; sports stars, God no; a group of professional assassins, now that could be interesting. The Killer 7 are an elite group dedicated to exterminating the Heaven Smile threat, and Travis Bell was their first target. He became the “Killer who got killed on the job,” and the group’s first remant psyche. And Travis isn’t afraid to provide harsh and relentless criticism over it. As he puts it, “Hey Smith, I ain’t letting you go nowhere.”<br /><br />As odd and eclectic as he may seem, Travis is a reliable voice. His ability to tell Garcian “Straight up” what's going on shows his insight into the government’s underground affairs. In a game as convoluted as <em>Killer 7</em>, Travis is an invaluable ally in finding the truth. He doggedly pursues any and all connections between the assassins and their targets. Travis is usually willing to share what he finds, but he’s also disenfranchised soul. This gives him a huge agency within the story. He could tell us exactly what's going on, but he won't. As a psyche, Travis could go anywhere and do anything, but he’s tethered to the group. To stick around with a bunch of assassin for a week is one thing, you’d get to know them just enough to see what they do for a living. If you spent fifty years with them, you end up a little jaded. Travis knows what’s going on in the world and can see past the hypocrisy. And why make it easy for them? They did kill him after all.<br /><br />What makes Travis so interesting is that there are three elements involved when reading him. First, there’s his posture. Each time we encounter Travis he’s always in a new position or performing some action. From pelvic thrusts to cooking to working out, he’s always doing something that’s symbolic of his mood. Second, there are his t-shirt. Like his pose, each says something about the tone of his upcoming dialogue. His t-shirts also add an unconscious layer to his tone. The third is the straight up analysis of his dialogue. For instance, in the first level he says this to Garcian:<br /><blockquote><br />“Oh, there you are! Don’t be shy, Emir! Who woulda figured you’d be the only survivor? Well, anyway, how are you getting along with the chief? Straight up, I was waiting for you this whole time. Yeah, I know… Don’t be so mad, man… Don’t glare at me like that… The chief’ll wake up. Really, I’m sorry. The other chief must be rolling on the floor with laughter.” <p></p></blockquote><br />Travis is just nonchalantly reclining against a wall waiting for Garcian Smith to show up, whatever, he’s cool with it. In reality, Travis was killed in 1969, almost fifty years prior to the incident at the Celtic Building. He’s been waiting for a long freaking time. His t-shirt has the words “Pillow Talk” written on it. This may seem insignificant, but it affects the player on a subconscious level. Travis t-shirt is saying that he's “In Bed” with the Killer 7 and he's able to share intimate details about their lives. And right off the bat, Travis’s dialogue shows that he can see through Harman’s façade. He can see into the deeper conflict inside of Garcian Smith. This shows just how much power Travis holds over the game’s narrative. The only problem is that he’s a cryptic and reluctant expositional character.<br /><br />In “Setting sun” Travis talks about the Yakumo Party Cabinet and introduces the International Ethics Committee. These are big names in the government conspiracies surrounding you. This is how Travis confronts Garcian and his identity. Travis asks us, "How much do you actually know?" and in truth we know absolutely nothing about what's going on. Garcian believes that he is working for the United States government to help stop the Heaven Smiles, he’s right and he’s wrong. Behind all of the bloodshed there's a veil of deception being pulled over Garcian’s eyes. This is the thing about <em>Killer 7</em>, you can’t know what’s going on in the game.<br /><br />Travis is one of the lucky few who were transformed into a remnant psyche. According to Iwazaru, these kinds spirits are only formed by killing them and most are either unwilling to leave their killers alone or unable to. Travis is in the former category. But we see people who we have killed returning to talk with us and give us some advice. Afterwards, they always disappear, but not Travis. He stays with us and haunts us. Travis is unable to release his grip from Garcian because his death brought a kind of pleasure. He even says, “The pain went straight up my spine, and then back down again. To be honest, that shit felt good.” You can see how Travis is able to connect his catch-phrase to the sexual pleasure/ecstasy he got from death. This is why he follows the Killer 7 around. To be with them is to be stimulated, in more ways than one.<br /><br />Travis Bell was killed on a hot and muggy summer’s night, and not without a hint of irony. He was assigned to take out the Killer 7, but got a bullet instead. Even in death Travis managed to keep his sense of humour about it. If you read <em>Hand in Killer 7</em>, you can get a sense of who he is in relation to the group, but there’s an air of mystery surrounding him. Travis has a fragmented sense of self. This is why he has to display his emotional states in his posture, in his facial expressions and on his t-shirts. Each character in <em>Killer 7</em> is obscured in some way. This is why Travis is so important. He is an expositional character, a secondary voice who is outside of the main story. As one of these remnant psyches, he has insight into the psychological condition of the characters. He knows things about him. But as a means of exposition, you’d probably be better off listening to Iwazaru than Travis. Travis is a reliable and an interesting voice, but he’s also a smartass. The thing about him is that he can see past the façade. He can see into Garcian’s true nature and the conflict he’s apart of. Near the end of the game, Travis says this:<br /><blockquote><br />“There you are, Smith. I was waiting for you. Do you remember this hotel? Let’s talk straight for a second. Well, suit yourself. It was stuck into this sofa. I found it again. What does this bullet mean? You know, right chief? The charade is all over, my friend.” <p></p></blockquote><br />Again, we can use the same method of analysis. In this dialogue, Travis is sitting in a pretty dramatic spot inside of Hotel Union. As you run through hotel, you are confronted by six different rooms each with a "soul shell" hidden inside. Each time you uncover one of these shells, Garcian, in the second part of the level, recollects the fragments of a mission he was sent on many years ago. This is how Travis confronts Garcian with the “Truth,” and he knows it’s going to hurt. Travis’s t-shirt says “New York” on it. There’s an over arcing theme in the game about the deception of the United States government. By connecting Garcian’s false identity with the word “New York” it creates a bridge between Garcian’s fragmented identity and the United States. In essence, it’s Travis attacking Garcian’s identity as a person and his role as an assassin for the US government. Travis sees past the charade and he knows how little time there is left in the <em>game</em>. This is another aspect of his character I'll be talking about a little later on.<br /><br />As a remnant psyche, Travis Bell is nothing more than a figment of Garcian Smith’s imagination. This is what makes his character so interesting. Travis is aware of his existence as a videogame character. In "Alter Ego" he comments on how stupid collecting the colour samples is. He says something like, "What's a pain in the ass! What's with the design of this studo? Straight up, this sucks ass. Pissing me off, I tell ya." He is aware that collecting these samples if far too complex for any real world security system.<br /><br />To say that <em>Killer 7</em> is an accessible game is like saying Goichi Suda and Shinji Mikami are mainstream developers. The more you think about the story the less it makes sense. Garcian Smith is fragmented along the lines of his personality, his psyche and his identity. So, in order to fully understand Travis, you have to look to the source of his creation, Emir Parkreiner. <strong>Major spoilers</strong> ahead, I’ll do a small recap of Travis below.<br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 3px; WIDTH: 360px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 220px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5443408802875633730" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOnRsdujfkGjUbW8mxGT5URrtOnLsCaOqngtg9KC_8ZYDGAFFydjJmNUNeR9mogXVNuFPAIcXyNT8J24jqh65v-PaDJFu3pcGn3VZNffI1zf8PGQUUJBZuvbS-uA6Ys4t2yaNXGKL3r9Lx/s320/killer7fd.bmp" /><br />Travis Bell is a remnant psyche who can see almost everything. He’s willing to share his knowledge, and right from the start of the game we can see just how much he knows. He looks at Garcian and just laughs. He says, “The other chief must be rolling on the floor with laughter.” Travis is important because he can see into the conflicts surrounding the Killer 7, and ,unlike Iwazaru, he’s no servant of the Master. He can speak his mind. He has free agency to say what he wants and do what he likes so long as he follows his killers on their journey. In some ways, this makes Travis more of a prisoner than Iwazaru. He’s trapped in his spiritual form, not because he likes it, but because he can’t escape from his obsession with finding the truth behind his death. He wants to know the truth, and this is what drives him. He’s an important character because of the exposition he provides. He tells us about the alternate reality we are in and what the hell we should be doing. Travis Bell can see into Garcian’s mind and collect some of the fragments. The only problem is that picture he constructs is grotesque and unfinished. On with the profile!<br /><br />Emir Parkreiner was an assassin who was trained at Coburn Elementary school. After killing all of the school’s faculty and students, he was picked up by the US government as an assassin. Emir was then tasked with killing a group of assassins called the "Smith Alliance" that included: Harman, Dan, KAEDE, Kevin, Mask, Coyote and Con. This murder spree was later known as the Killer 7, partially due to the intense level of violence that took place but mostly because there were seven victims. After these events took place, Emir committed suicide on the roof of Hotel Union. This death of the “self” spurred the creation of a disocciative identity disorder. He thus assumed the roles of the assassins he killed and used them in his government sanctioned operations. On a spiritual level this was when Harman Smith, an ancient demi-god, decided to take in Emir as a vessel to wage his battle against Kun Lan.<br /><br />For me, understanding <em>Killer 7</em> depends on your grasp on the characters. One of my goals for doing all of these character profiles was one day to get around to categorizing and examining each of the Smith personalities. Each of them is article in and of themselves, they’re that complex. I thought starting on a smaller would be best. Travis Bell is anything but simple, his moods and thought are complex, his dialogue is insanely cryptic and his purpose in the game is somewhat obscure. Straight up, he knows what's going on. This is what makes Travis so different from the other spirits. He can see through Emir, he can see through Harman and he can see through the United State’s historical façade. Travis can see the truth.<br /><br />In Travis’s last dialogue he says, “I’m warning you, the truth is too big to even begin to scratch the surface. But Smith, I do believe that you can find the truth.” He confides in Garcian that he believe that the end is near. It’s quite a dramatic moment and it signals the death of his character. He says, in probably is the best last words in all of videogames, “I’m telling you straight up, this is about it from me. I wish you all the luck, and die like a dog. Then laugh it off. I’ll be waiting for you with a grin as wide as the truth.” What a way to go out.<br /><br />Haunting the Killer 7 would be tough. The hardest part would be trying to keep the important details to yourself. If anything, Travis helped Garcian find himself. <em>Killer 7</em> is a tough game and is practically impossible to decipher. It’s a game that no one can really understand, and this applies even to the characters themselves. Travis Bell is a minor voice in the grand scheme of things, but the fact that he can see so much makes him almost too important to be left unexplored. Sure, being a remnant psyche of an inherently fragmented person would be kind of confusing, but Travis works with what he can get. He's "The Killer who got killed on the job" and, ironically, he helped Garcian actually get somewhere.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-72178781677659331532010-02-21T18:20:00.000-08:002010-03-11T17:45:58.620-08:00Character Profile: Hunk<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhTu_t2KRZGWYaRNmVnBJLH-jDheu13eFZDDCoMMTy_eHtqPOQW0LTEVbDRUJHU6lVHLNqAy1CkYRKCvvB-AIT4xipgOdep47NReHoo3NMAqz2eWK-J8scSbJFMGHxFc9uc0IOuLNkFBC/s1600-h/Hunk2.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px; WIDTH: 195px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 281px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440896815525216338" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUhTu_t2KRZGWYaRNmVnBJLH-jDheu13eFZDDCoMMTy_eHtqPOQW0LTEVbDRUJHU6lVHLNqAy1CkYRKCvvB-AIT4xipgOdep47NReHoo3NMAqz2eWK-J8scSbJFMGHxFc9uc0IOuLNkFBC/s320/Hunk2.bmp" /></a> The Mercenaries introduced me to the neck-snapping and silent Hunk. It took me a while to get used to him, but he turned out to be the character for those tense trapped-in-a-corner moments. The problem with Hunk is unlike Leon, Krauser, Wesker or Ada, he doesn't have definition as a character. I was making him go into insane and zombie-filled situations without knowing the real history behind him. I'll admit, I thought he was a little bland. Then I started opening up his character and exploring the man behind the gasmask. Though he may lack a voice, this doesn’t mean that Hunk lacks a personality. In fact, it means that there’s a wide range of speculation for his profile. And though most of what you see is really what you get, especially in the Mercenaries, his character goes much deeper than his outside appearance. Underneath the combat gear and silent façade, he’s a character obsessed with death and a character who suffers from a number of psychological delusions in order to cope with his job. He's called Mr. Death after all.<br /><br />Two months after the first incident in 1998, Hunk was a part of an elite unit sent to recover the G-virus from an underground lab. He was the only one to survive. About three months after that, he had a hand in the mission to deliver the T-virus to Rockfort Island. For a character who’s so seemingly minor, Hunk has really gotten around in the Resident Evil universe. This is what makes his character so interesting. He’s practically a ghost when it comes to the operations he’s been involved in, yet you can see the impact it has had on everyone. He’s a behind the scenes kind of mercenary. Whenever he goes on a mission, he completes it with deadly precision and what makes his tactics so interesting is that he’s always the only person to return from his squad. This happens because all he knows is the mission. He’s got a serious case of occupational tunnel vision. What kind of personal life could that make for? Being known as a reaper could do some serious psychological trauma to a person’s sense of self. There are a few theories about his character, two of which I think are probably the most sound.<br /><br />Hunk’s a cold-blooded assassin who exists for the next objective. Through this “mission only” mentality, he’s able to justify the use of his Death persona. It’s an efficient mindset for killing zombies and the occasional tofu monster. Hunk was originally trained at Rockfort Island and there he learned how to kill quickly and ruthlessly. Now, working for the Umb<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWHDIXwIqBoUxWreKS1VBIxK5z5A44316GGvfATyVCjjuuWj8XYKLcHHIhddkrGkIN9nkejJwVFBGZl-4W0ppE_0zvTyjc_LNSSi31BZAKo6Q_-aFQpVXwWrdlI2aifagaccSpdj1ANMi/s1600-h/Hunk1.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 242px; FLOAT: right; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5440890091177281074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghWHDIXwIqBoUxWreKS1VBIxK5z5A44316GGvfATyVCjjuuWj8XYKLcHHIhddkrGkIN9nkejJwVFBGZl-4W0ppE_0zvTyjc_LNSSi31BZAKo6Q_-aFQpVXwWrdlI2aifagaccSpdj1ANMi/s320/Hunk1.bmp" /></a>rella Corporation as a scientist is pretty dicey. You’re exposed to lethal viruses, there’s a pretty good chance of getting mauled or going insane, but at least the danger isn’t imminent. Working as a mercenary for a company who dabbles in necromancy is going to be filled with death and your conscience is likely to be laden with the guilt of what you’ve helped do. Hunk is something special. Using his persona as Mr. Death, he puts himself into a mindset where he becomes more than a merchant of death. He thinks that because he is the only one ever to come back from the mission that he’s an invincible spectre, a character who has achieved “god mode” status. This is a really interesting way of looking at his psychology.<br /><br />Another is to look at his exterior persona as nothing more than a façade. If we look at his character history, so much has been protected. We don’t even know his first name. The persona as Mr. Death and Hunk could be his way of protecting his identity as an individual. This has to do with his psychological conditioning. On one hand, his identity as Hunk could have been created through warfare. On the other hand, his persona could have been created during training in order to protect his identity as an individual. I like to think of his gas mask as a physical manifestation of his obscurity of self. It’s him protecting his identity and keeping his person separate from his persona’s actions. You can see how his character is open to a scope of speculation.<br /><br />You can see some similar psychological profiles in other characters in the series. Ada Wong has a very similar attitude about her identity as Hunk. Her prologue in Resident Evil 3 says:<br /><br /><blockquote>A woman looks at herself in the mirror. She used to be called Ada Wong… but this morning she will say good-bye to that name. “I’m not Ada anymore.” She feels her ab and thinks “This is Ada’s scar, not mine.” And as she says good-bye to Ada Wong, she can’t stop her tears. However, there isn’t much time left before her next mission.<br /><p></p></blockquote><br />This could be me reading way too much into things, but it looks like “Ada Wong” is just another created persona. She seems to have created a second self in order to deal with her role as both a tool for the Umbrella Corporation and Wesker. This kind of disassociation is related to a real psychological disorder called Dissociative Identity Disorder. With Hunk, we see another and very similar epilogue:<br /><br /><blockquote><br />“Once again, only your survived, Mr. Death,” the chopper pilot speaks with cold bitterness. “Always, only your, survive, Mr. Death,” the pilot continues. But Hunk does not respond to the pilot. He doesn’t care. “The Death cannot die…,” the survivor thinks to himself with a warm smile…”<br /></blockquote><br />Unlike actual cases of DID, Hunk and Ada are aware of their actions and aware of their seperate personalities. Hunk may be a little more schizophrenic than Ada, but without any real kind of definition of character it’s hard to come to a real conclusion about his psyche. Being deluded into thinking that he is more than just a merchant of death, but Death itself could obviously create some psychological trauma. Or it could just be his way of coping with his work. Ada and Hunk aren’t at the level of disassociation as Alfred Ashford. Through Alfred, we can see that there is a history of this character creating process in the Resident Evil series. Hunk is just a little more obscure in his motives.<br /><br />One definitive aspect of Hunk is that he’s a veritable badass. He is a trained solider who has undoubtedly participated in many combat situations and recovery operations. We see how effective of a soldier he can be when fully utilized in the Mercenaries and we see how clean his methods are in the Fourth Survivor. What makes his character so unique and standalone is that no matter how invincible he may be or how important he is to the canon, he has been left undeveloped. And this is a good thing. His ambiguity is what makes him such an interesting character to read into. All we have from him are a handful of quotes and a few case histories of his operations. That’s about it! He’s a hunk of combat gear and death!<br /><br />I’m certain that Hunk has a life outside of the Umbrella Corporation. Somewhere in the Resident Evil canon there’s room to give this character a little more definition, but there is a slight problem with this. Imagine what would happen if we were to learn about his family. In the Resident Evil universe, the individual is always a target and family is right at the core of most characters. Another theory about his lack of definition is that he is trying to protect, not only his self, but his family. By withholding information about his personal life, he is protecting those who he might love. It’s a little bit of a cheesy theory, but it would help explain his deadly mindset and his creation of the Hunk persona.<br /><br />Everyone always seems to complain about the campy writing in Resident Evil. The dialogue can get a little corny every once in awhile, but on the whole characters of the series are well defined, deep and interesting. Hunk is unique in that what little definition he has says a lot about his personality. Through just a few lines of dialogue, we can find so much detail about this silent assassin. I just hope he doesn’t get a gritty reboot any time in the near future. He’d probably have to kill the writers.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-14485292115398156092010-02-18T18:39:00.000-08:002010-02-22T15:57:46.758-08:00Character Profile: James Sunderland and Angela Orosco<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Bu4i7D_eoLuGxV9rtQ1hcugV91KbzlnLSIZa01HjE1kgmQsXjyafFs_DWKzVtrC09jSFxvb1__X1PQr2Eb6u-5oKyOf3dTzbIU7DYE9UD7LVZKcUbwJhpeIxGsSgEGyCDERhV-jDuyUz/s1600-h/Angela+Orosco.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px; WIDTH: 185px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 199px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439780805018933906" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_Bu4i7D_eoLuGxV9rtQ1hcugV91KbzlnLSIZa01HjE1kgmQsXjyafFs_DWKzVtrC09jSFxvb1__X1PQr2Eb6u-5oKyOf3dTzbIU7DYE9UD7LVZKcUbwJhpeIxGsSgEGyCDERhV-jDuyUz/s320/Angela+Orosco.bmp" /></a>Like the town itself, there’s a mystique surrounding the characters of <em>Silent Hill</em>. But before I get into this profile, I’ve got something to get out of the way. I love these games. Everything about the series just makes me pulsate with excitement. I recently played through <em>Silent Hill</em> and <em>Silent Hill 4</em>, which were both amazing experiences, but my mind was always wandering back t<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj90KwSGqUwjWaWk7j41lGnAEmD6MSUgbmc9NZe5hyphenhyphenH8uFPFhb1unum_Ru4rH6mBq2Z8oHbz9YLu7MSpOv8xBklQE_VN9EWI3IGXWZg6eUqEUqKeXQS76XRzhO0PfLnzRQ69FSJYhwc65_R/s1600-h/Angela+Orosco.bmp"></a>owards <em>Silent Hill 2</em>. In most players’ minds, the second game is definitely the best. James Sunderland is an enthralling protagonist because of his ambiguous nature and segmented psychological profile. He has lost his self within Silent Hill. He’s really just a big, metaphorical question posed to the player. The town itself is a reflection of his psychological state, but one character stands apart from it. Angela Orosco is in her own Silent Hill, and she’s going to be the main focus of this article. But to understand Angela, we first have to look at James.<br /><br />James has just received a letter from his dead wife Mary who said to meet her at their “special place.” James immediately sets out for Silent Hill, a resort town located somewhere in the United States. This game starts off much like the first. James finds himself walking through the fog filled and deserted streets of the town looking for someone. This is the first time his psychological state becomes apparent. When he looks into the mirror at the roadside stop he sees himself, but as we go into the town of Silent Hill it begins to fill with fog. This is James’s “Fog World.” It is the essence of his confusion and his muddled nature. His world and its inhabitants represent all the desires he has suppressed and memories he has compartmentalized throughout the course of his life. His memories, his anger, his sexual frustrations, they are all hiding and lurking within the fog. The first real manifestation of this is the straight-jacket creature. It’s called the Lying Figure and it’s symbolic of James’s internal suffering, but it also plays another role. It introduces the player to the kind of experience you are about to embark upon. The survival horror genre is as much about constraining the character as the player. Let’s look at another example.<br /><br />The Mannequin is constructed of the bottom half of two women, you probably get the picture and you probably see what key desire James has been suppressing. Everything in Silent Hill: the town, the people, the fog and the creatures are all apart of James’s psychological state. And this brings up another interesting and unavoidable point. The people who James meets in Silent Hill are all constructed from his mind. Maria is extremely sexualized and for a good reason, she is the ideal state of his dead wife. She is what James desired most out of Mary. He wants Mary to be her sexually active self. Quite Freudian if you ask me, but I digress. Every character and every monster in his town make James whole, it’s like they are his manifested persona. The obscurity of the self becomes a major theme of this game and this is reflected in its characters. James can be broken down into his id, ego and superego. Eddie is his id, Maria is his ego and Silent Hill is his superego. Without getting into a deep Freudian reading of his character, you might want to take a look at this: http://www.shadowcouncil.org/randy/archives/003127.html. There are certain things I agree with, especially his reading of Eidde, and there are other things I disagree with this analysis of the game. Whoever wrote this has disappeared since 2008, but I think he has a pretty good understanding of Silent Hill.<br /><br />The problem with taking a reading of <em>Silent Hill</em> from a “James Only” perspective is that we assume his quest is central to the game. Of course it’s the main focus, but Angela Orosco begs an important question. What is the true nature Silent Hill? I’ve always thought of it as a transformational area, a place where a person’s subconscious manifests itself into a physical form. Just take a look at the first game. Alyssa’s Silent Hill is filled with fog and cold. She was trapped within a hospital for almost her entire life and had a limited view of the world. The fog would only come naturally to someone like her who has been trapped within a room for ages. Henry Townsend from <em>Silent Hill 4</em> has a very different view of Silent Hill. Like Harry Mason, he has an outsider’s perspective on the town and its surroundings. What separates him is exactly just what I just described, they are outside of the psychological scope of Silent Hill and they are experiences another person’s manifestation. What makes Angela so interesting is that her reality runs parallel to James. She has her own Silent Hill that actively engages with his.<br /><br />Angela is a 19-year-old runaway, she’s was also abused as a child and it’s alluded to that she was repeatedly raped. She came to Silent Hill looking for her mother, but she is unable to find anyone. What makes her reality so interesting is unlike James’s fog, she has her fire. There’s a piece of dialogue right at the last time we see Angela where James remarks, “It’s hot as hell in here” to which she responds “It’s like this all the time for me.” Her Silent Hill is filled with engulfing flames that are constantly trying to catch her. It’s all the pain of her life manifested into something terrifying and encroaching. As James has his confusions, Angela has her pain. Unlike Eddie, who is a manifestation of James’ id; Laura, Mary’s innocence and Maria, James’ sexual frustration, Angela totally stands a part. What has to be understood about her is that when she is with James their realities merge. In some of the scenes where they interact, she acts as though she does not know James, as if they had never met. She acts confused and muddled, like she’s suffering from smoke inhalation. This is how James affects her. This is also what separates her from his reality.<br /><br />What does the Lying Figure or the Mannequin mean to Angela? Absolutely nothing, but that’s not necessarily the case. If you take a reading of her character you can see that the characters who exist to James are of no consequence to her. If Eddie was really a person, why don’t we see any interaction between him and Angela? Why doesn’t she know about Laura? Why is it that whenever the two meet, she moves onto a separate path unavailable to James, it is because she has her own hell to go through, she has her own memories to conquer. This is what makes Silent Hill as a transformational environment so interesting and a character like Angela so intriguing.<br /><br /><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5439780981275124626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFs1BVU203d6yzb5sjmz0POjuqLzYXvwy5Q4av_QuC_nee506l0b3xW6HxPDFzJtk8EVXTDk0kysEjBv5EU7SDN_-jBqhq5lNekfJdo4WvHXS2Xdy2Hi3_NqoUjIsinzMZP1-DC7jNf2Of/s320/Angela+Silent+Hill+2.jpg" /><br />What would it have been like to have played through her experience? I remember playing through Maria’s <em>Born from a Dream</em> and feeling kind of disappointed. It really didn’t add any depth to <em>Silent Hill</em> even though it helped explore Maria’s character. To have played through Angela’s journey would have made for a better experience. The only draw back is that this article would basically be useless, and you wouldn’t want that. What Angela represents is another lens through which to understand <em>Silent Hill</em>. It’s kind of like a purgatorial quest. I always thought that James and Angela are together because they had died at the same time. The only problem is that purgatory for them is a symbolism filled hell.<br /><br />Angela is a rape victim. This is what drives her psychological state. There’s a scene in the game where she is being attacked by a monster called the Abstract Daddy. In walls of the flesh-coated room metal pistons steadily pulsate in and out of small holes. When James kills the monster, Angela lashes out against it and viciously attacks it. We can see here that the Abstract Daddy is her manifestation because it only has a small representative nature to James. After the fight, she accuses James of hating his wife and then disappears. Through her lens James is a representation of her oppressor, he is her father. Every time he reaches out to her with compassion and caring, she recoils because her father and her mother were unlike that. One part of the human psyche is developed through our interaction with role models and parents. This is the superego. The values that are passed on by our parents act as a mediator between the ego and the id. Her ego and id are out of sync with one another because of her lacking of a superego. This isn’t her fault; no one can say that what happened to her was her fault. This is also what makes her character so tragic, her mother also blamed her. This is her pain, she’s running away from the memory associated with her rape. It’s quite sad.<br /><br />What makes all of this so important is that she solidifies the nature of Silent Hill as transformational. I could write an entire character profile on the town itself and one day I might, but right now I’ll keep the focus on James and Angela’s relationship. This is an easy way of visualizing it. Imagine that they exist within two spheres. Both spheres have a separate theme and effect on the surrounding area of Silent Hill. James’s clouds everything within fog and Angela’s creates walls of flame. When the two spheres interact they merge and create a middle ground for both characters to interact with. You can see this in their last scene together. Angela mistakes James for her mother while James comments on the intensity of the flames. Utter hopelessness is the feeling that can encapsulate that scene. As a player, the only thing I wanted to do at that point was run up those stairs and tells Angela that wherever she is going isn’t the right way. Burning to death in your own fiery hell isn’t the right way of dealing with pain, but James really isn’t a character who can relate to this.<br /><br />Spoiler alert! I’ve alluded to this a few times before, but just in case this next part will be covering a few endgame events. I’ll do a small recap right now of what I’ve covered just to make sure everyone gets my point. Angela is equally as important as James because she has her own path. Unlike Eddie or Maria, she is her own person constructed of her own memories and schisms. Everything about her stands in contrast to James’s character and she acts as a reflection to his plight. He has his Mary, she has her pain. What makes her so important to the series as a whole is because she changed Silent Hill. Instead of it being a simple little town somewhere in America, she transformed it into an allegorical place where lost souls go on a purgatorial journey. James did play a big part in developing this, but she solidified this theory about Silent Hill being more than just a special place.<br /><br />On with the article.<br /><br />James killed Mary. He killed her because he was tired of her being so sick and being a burden upon him. He felt that by ending her pain she could finally rest, but he also had an ulterior motive. He hated her for stealing away his life, he felt that he had wasted so much of his energy and what he had keeping her alive within his heart. When I said, James can’t relate to Angela, I meant that the way he dealt with his internal pain was no better than Angela’s contemplation of suicide. At least her way is morally neutral, but murder is a sin, it’s something that goes against most laws and tenets of society, it’s something that will land you in Silent Hill. This is why the “Leave” ending is the true ending. He reveals all of what he felt to her and then leaves Silent Hill with Laura. James casts away his guilty conscience and moves on with his life. It’s a sad ending, but one with some closure.<br /><br />Angela doesn’t get any of this, and this is why she’s a tragic figure. Unlike James, she is left undeveloped. We only meet with her four times each of which only last about five minutes. That’s not a lot of time for her to develop, but that really all she needed to become one of the most engrossing and interesting characters within the series. When she walks up those stairs no one can really tell what awaits her. Maybe she was able to confront her father and mother like James and Mary or maybe she found her way to the afterlife. This is why I like Angela so much. She’s an ambiguous character. Characters like her have been lost in modern videogaming, and it’s kind of sad. Everything always has to be explained and there’s hardly anything within the subtext. She is something special when it comes to character creation and development. Her ambiguity is her biggest draw and her depth leaves the player wanting more.<br /><br />I love <em>Silent Hill</em>. It’s a series laden with meaning. The latest instalments, not so much, but every game up until four is filled with interesting characters to profile and to examine. Angela and James are just two characters, but two of the most interesting. How they interact with Silent Hill is truly remarkable and how they interact with each other speaks worlds about their personalities. They are tormented, confused, angry and filled with sorrow. They are thoroughly human and they remind me why <em>Silent Hill 2</em> is one of the best games ever made.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-85022771690877478782010-02-11T16:08:00.000-08:002010-02-23T14:50:17.279-08:00Games with EmotionVideogames have a specific lens that we see through. As players, we usually think of games as entertainment, a kind of interactive play, but what happens when a game stops being fun? The games on this list will make you feel bad, they will question your thoughts on death, life and the world and they might even dredge up old feelings or nostalgia for days long past. These are masterpieces in their own right, and rarely have I felt worse and consequently more human after having played them. Almost all of the ten games are available online for free. Try them out and see what you make of them. You might not have fun, but they’ll make you feel differently about videogames and the emotional impact they can have.<br /><br /><u><span style="font-size:130%;">Passage </span><br /></u><br />Jason Rohrer’s <em>Passage</em> takes five minutes to finish, but it will stay with you forever. This game was a significant step forward in changing my perspective on videogames. I had been emotionally distanced from gam<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TWb0QiKDgZR6dr3TleGGuM26_nwIm0yUVFIhoUXjhQyI-R8QSanUdXF3SUEvCyvuxnSA_nK9I4Ygyf1TJXYbEMIyeNVYZzPekvX1Uz7HBmM-87UUMZZHCP1PBfDdZiNxxT968tfH6iQs/s1600-h/passage500.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 0px 0px; WIDTH: 307px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 179px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437208497701845842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0TWb0QiKDgZR6dr3TleGGuM26_nwIm0yUVFIhoUXjhQyI-R8QSanUdXF3SUEvCyvuxnSA_nK9I4Ygyf1TJXYbEMIyeNVYZzPekvX1Uz7HBmM-87UUMZZHCP1PBfDdZiNxxT968tfH6iQs/s320/passage500.bmp" /></a>es before and this was the first time one had hit directly at home with my emotions. Love is powerful. And <em>Passage</em> is able to express this in a clear and distinct way.<br /><br /><div>As you walk, a number on the screen slowly rises. If you are alone your score goes up by one. If you are together it goes up by two. The numbers express something profound about the game’s mechanics. Certain passages are only traversable alone. If you are together, you then have to walk around the roadblock and try to continue on. It’s like a roadblock during a relationship. As well, the 2D horizon is blurred. Time has a funny way of making us think about life, whether in the future or past tense. As you play, the horizon makes you believe you might be able to see into the future. The origin becomes more and more blurred as you age.<br /><br />My brother suggested that I play <em>Passage</em>. After, I sat at my desk asking him over and over, “Why did you make me play that?” There is a profoundly sad moment in <em>Passage</em>. I won’t ruin it for those who have yet to experience it. It is one of those things about the game that has stuck with me and has consequently made me stay away from it. Not in the way that I don’t want to experience the emotions again, but that if I do a repeat might lessen its impact. Play through the game once and think about it for a while.<br /><br /><a href="http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/">http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/</a><a href="http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/passage/">rge.net/passage/</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Home</u><br /></span><br />Age is something that we’re all going to face and living in a retirement home, especially in the West, seems inevitable. With high living costs and an aging population, homes are being built everywhere. Residents aren’t neglected. They’re cared for and generally made to be comfortable during their stay. But my grandfather said, “Don’t you ever spend your retirement in a place like this.” And I’ve taken that to heart, and that’s why this game hurts so much.<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCz4kBO4EXIuyhFMHrfuPz763hc0rtTCUmHYQCC1qnk-Arv-pH_pLdn3RfgQ8Gle6C-VbQEl6X01J3j6zkVoTQTGu5XgzYcyt7iY8XlQgz7hL55CkyTYuFH0FujduJP_Kr3KRyWX1h0qy5/s1600-h/home3a.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 213px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437206374190706546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCz4kBO4EXIuyhFMHrfuPz763hc0rtTCUmHYQCC1qnk-Arv-pH_pLdn3RfgQ8Gle6C-VbQEl6X01J3j6zkVoTQTGu5XgzYcyt7iY8XlQgz7hL55CkyTYuFH0FujduJP_Kr3KRyWX1h0qy5/s320/home3a.bmp" /></a>There are a few moments in the game that resonated almost too deeply with me. The game is designed around needs. You need food to live, you need to use the washroom, you need to sleep and you need to talk. Interaction is probably the most important of the group. It’s one of those things that keep us human. When Charles speaks to Moira for the first time, he comments on the sound of the rustling trees and on how quiet the retirement home is. At first, she corrects Charles when he mistakes her name. The third time you speak with her, she doesn’t correct you. She acts like she’s given up on helping him to remember, and memory is something extremely human.<br /><br />Charles asks about Moira’s dog. She says that he’s always asking about him, it makes me wonder if he always asks about his daughter too. And when his daughter comes to see him, he doesn’t remember how long he has been inside of the home. I don’t know what’s worse, the sense that Charles is losing time or having him suffer the indignity of wearing diapers. It’s a game to play but with some caution. It stirs one of our deepest fears out into the open.<br /><br />http://www.increpare.com/2009/10/home/<br /><br /><u><span style="font-size:130%;">And everything started to fall</span></u><br /><br />Time moves fast.<br /><br />We’ve all felt hurried through life. Whether it’s from work, school or just plain growing up, there’s an expectation in life that everyone has to grow up into an adult. I never want to grow up, who does? And playing this game made feel like my time was running out.<br /><br />We are all sped along so fast in our society. Our childhoods are short and punctuated by our experiences in school, our teenage<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75IhLLHCWtGZCJnjGJp-KNWB9hVvSeKuzCqIloUBugDRQmpKYx_2UrN-TNyD3XZ5BQ4vapJRAtMA4QXy6FXSUdaz5sbFv9xr96u9QjcVb-NUkxqympcuL4ZWkaYMzse1RIXyvF_566w9n/s1600-h/screen_new.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 329px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 197px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437206543483005602" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi75IhLLHCWtGZCJnjGJp-KNWB9hVvSeKuzCqIloUBugDRQmpKYx_2UrN-TNyD3XZ5BQ4vapJRAtMA4QXy6FXSUdaz5sbFv9xr96u9QjcVb-NUkxqympcuL4ZWkaYMzse1RIXyvF_566w9n/s320/screen_new.bmp" /></a> years are all based on choice and how we relate to others and our adult life is filled with the death of our loved ones and the slow degradation of our bodies. This game makes you think. How many hours have I wasted doing little insignificant things? In the end, nothing really matters because we’re all headed for the same end. And it doesn’t help with the subways here in Toronto, everyday we pass a cemetery, our daily reminder.<br /><br />There’s a synopsis of the game’s intended purpose and message. The explanation is extensive and it reveals a lot about what the game tries to do. There are a few things it doesn’t mention. One, which I believe to be an important symbol, is the tree right at the end. It looks like it is reaching up towards the sky. Even though the person’s time has ceased, he still wants to continue on. The choices you make on Earth really determine what you think the afterlife will be like. Either way, he grows up and dies. Kind of depressing, isn’t it?<br /><br />http://gamejolt.com/freeware/games/platformer/and-everything-started-to-fall/1262/<br /><br /><u><span style="font-size:130%;">Everyday the same dream</span><br /></u><br />Monotony is the working world. This game actually complements the one above, so play them both and it makes for a good comparison.<br /><br />“Five more steps and you will be a new person,” if only it was that easy. Have you ever taken a minute just to reflect on life? W<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupFGyHldFfW0OwI8HI_8lAsNczaRclydSCnQRA1freILMe2lcTsCYK6Mb-3qkwiuwqAuvdplPpxohaf11FC-7-ZXlHgRZJk_WCSNgtDBp9VdoQnrzemey-jnjDFZOVTmkdJIekMwwaB1z/s1600-h/ds.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 117px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437207141629388114" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhupFGyHldFfW0OwI8HI_8lAsNczaRclydSCnQRA1freILMe2lcTsCYK6Mb-3qkwiuwqAuvdplPpxohaf11FC-7-ZXlHgRZJk_WCSNgtDBp9VdoQnrzemey-jnjDFZOVTmkdJIekMwwaB1z/s320/ds.jpg" /></a>hen we’re all so busy running around trying to make sense of our existence, it is the little things that remind us why we exist. This is what <em>Everyday the same dream </em>wants to show us. I’m not going to say much about this game, except that I know the feeling it is trying to evoke. That day after day grind that is life should always be highlighted by even just a second of clarity. Reading a book, talking to someone special, eating chilli made just right, you’re supposed to feel that one second of pure sense, of awareness of the world around you. It’s hard to find that in this world. You just have to find someone or something to confide your emotions into.<br /><br />The game is a commentary on how desensitized we are in the world. It comes from work, it comes from stress, it comes from just plain old living, but we always have to find that one little release. Fortunately, mine is writing and now you’re helping out in my secret dream away from school, essays and stuff like that. The ending of the game packs quite a punch. It made me stop and just stare. The implications are heavy. There’s always a balance that has to be found in work and in play. And that’s no way to find a release.<br /><br />http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Gravitation</u> </span><br /><br /><em>Gravitation</em> puts you into the shoes of a dad. What we experienced as kids really helps determine how we feel about this game. Kids want attention, they need role models to show them right from wrong and you need love. You also have to look at this game from another perspective. Being an adult is hard. </div><br /><br />When I first played, I tried to strike a balance between work and play. In the real world, you have to work in order to have money, and you need money to make sure your family doesn’t starve. In <em>Gravitation</em> <em>if you play through </em>the <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8C7dgW7HCVsEIQ-iAaUu4tN4npjv5mF8z9WSPvGAOl1W28kDHlQ2zXuFx8jZlVgFbrAtiREj_h0Ba4_qa9FI5JgN4ZshnIuJHHMCpBBRGk2_-g-fWRVQRSyfUL7gba0f9yhcbAhDjbqbm/s1600-h/Gravitation.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 210px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437207341439921842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8C7dgW7HCVsEIQ-iAaUu4tN4npjv5mF8z9WSPvGAOl1W28kDHlQ2zXuFx8jZlVgFbrAtiREj_h0Ba4_qa9FI5JgN4ZshnIuJHHMCpBBRGk2_-g-fWRVQRSyfUL7gba0f9yhcbAhDjbqbm/s320/Gravitation.jpg" /></a>mindset of a videogamer you will alienate your daughter. Soon the ice becomes too thick to melt and she disappears. While we were out collecting all those stars, she lost not only her father but her childhood. Seeing that little red ball lying there, I can’t really describe it. It’s a part of life, but you wish it wasn’t.<br /><br />You can stay and play with her forever, and that’s exactly what I did when I came back to <em>Gravitation</em>. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s technically an option in game, but it’s not something feasible in real life. Everyone has to work and they run the risk of alienating those they care about. The difference is that in this game you are given choice. There’s no consequence to just playing and watching her heart grow and grow.<br /><br />But that’s not life.<br /><br />http://hcsoftware.sourceforge.net/gravitation/<br /><br /><u>Whe<span style="font-size:130%;">n God came to the Cave </span><br /></u><br />Packing for a trip is always a solemn occasion. You’re going away from home and comfort to live somewhere else. Your family and friends will all be left behind. You feel sad because you’re going away, but excited knowing that <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Kuw8NUgwnhiDWXhBtp64zLH3Q7jrql-x5WiIoZlC32w9CacEGnvFEL70B_wq7kZAHw_YXPFlwQ2Ly2Nkaq_fsRRmqqP6VcRfoJgTLPyuu22HGBh29rfgFtq7bBARDBUfuM3bW3llRSGf/s1600-h/When+God.png"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441571566816356274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Kuw8NUgwnhiDWXhBtp64zLH3Q7jrql-x5WiIoZlC32w9CacEGnvFEL70B_wq7kZAHw_YXPFlwQ2Ly2Nkaq_fsRRmqqP6VcRfoJgTLPyuu22HGBh29rfgFtq7bBARDBUfuM3bW3llRSGf/s320/When+God.png" /></a>you’re about to experience something different, something great. <em>When God came to the Cave</em> prepares you for another kind of journey and it explores how we reconcile with it.<br /><br />You collect parts to construct the form of a man. I won’t give away the ending, but it might leave a few people puzzled. Your person can be deconstructed into several parts: your body, your mind, your soul and your memories. You have family, relationships, emotions, friends and thought; these are parts that make a person whole. By constructing the figure you are preparing him to move on out of the cave and onto the afterlife. The little sprite that you play as could be the last bit of consciousness he has or his soul looking for a body to live within. I just find it sad that you have to be prepared by what seems like a fatherly figure throughout the game. There’s a sense of loss as though someone has died or is dying and being prepared to move on.<br /><br />You can look at this game in two ways. The journey you take prepares this person for the afterlife or the journey has helped give you a sense of identity of who you are. This is just a reading and if anyone else has another feel free to comment. Cactus’s games are always fun to deconstruct and they always need a lot of analysis.<br /><br />http://www.cactus-soft.co.nr/<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Fathom</u> </span><br /><br />I never had fish back when I was a kid. They die too quickly, and I guess I have to thank my parents for that. I’m not sure how I dealt with death back when I was a kid. I was one of those odd ones who never saw <em>Bambi</em> and never realized that I mortal until about age eight. Though, I’ve always had videogames and watched characters die over and over again just to rise up and keep on trying. In hindsight, it seems a little cruel to present mortality in that way. Death in videogames is always presente<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvuLFnPLWt3z2hAn_zTQhPRPxG35G_xW6laryhlM08ttF1ZYrU43nyzWcVFViwtltUd6dGgjVsJ1aDpBnyn1kkM_1s_1WYf5VBhQIT3DweIVIgf3lHm-uHh9G_12VhWNGq8ssn3k2DF6P/s1600-h/fathom-game.bmp"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 331px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437207698061067298" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvvuLFnPLWt3z2hAn_zTQhPRPxG35G_xW6laryhlM08ttF1ZYrU43nyzWcVFViwtltUd6dGgjVsJ1aDpBnyn1kkM_1s_1WYf5VBhQIT3DweIVIgf3lHm-uHh9G_12VhWNGq8ssn3k2DF6P/s320/fathom-game.bmp" /></a>d as a kind of surpass able obstacle, it’s something that we can always overcome. <em>Fathom</em> shows us what death is in the real world.<br /><br />In the game you play as a character with a helmet, a shotgun and a vest. He’s rather endearing for the little time that we spend with him. He reminds us of the character figures that we played as kids. Unfortunately for him, the final boss is just too hard. He falls down and ends up underwater.<br /><br />Falling into the water is symbolic of his loss of self. As he goes deeper into the water, it becomes darker and he needs to use the flashlight to see. As he collects fish, his point score increases, showing that he is still on the mission. Play the game, I don’t want to ruin the ending for anyone.<br /><br />http://adamatomic.com/fathom/<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Seven Minutes</u><br /></span><br />Nihilistic is one way to describe <em>Seven Minutes</em>, insane is another. We’ve all felt like things aren’t going well or that times are too hard. Wor<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlG8WCPe8s2FxzcXcDTci5eeFT4K4Kj4HBw1oVz3oHfkz2fq4kB2Jq1wonXwawMjrJC8v5J8XJL1rBIVy1tGlKVg59vxY_jq0-0QA5V3rKGT0ikTPgvu4NXcBPke-7n_kQFYO-R3qSplW/s1600-h/Seven+Minutes.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 200px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441571570124483410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOlG8WCPe8s2FxzcXcDTci5eeFT4K4Kj4HBw1oVz3oHfkz2fq4kB2Jq1wonXwawMjrJC8v5J8XJL1rBIVy1tGlKVg59vxY_jq0-0QA5V3rKGT0ikTPgvu4NXcBPke-7n_kQFYO-R3qSplW/s320/Seven+Minutes.jpg" /></a>k is difficult, relationships are tough, time is counting down, but how often are we pressured into fixing any of these problem?<br /><br />It’s interesting that when you touch the flame, the head tells you that your exploration will lead to your death. We don’t chose to be born and we don’t chose to be mortal, and his voice is the symbolic representation of our mortality.<br /><br /><em>Seven Minutes</em> gives you seven minutes to make your way through a complex maze of platforming. It’s nihilistic in the sense that almost every misstep that you take leads you closer to your death It’s a game that has to be played a few times to be fully understood. And then you’ll look at life like it’s just a big videogame with only one outcome.<br /><br />http://www.virtanen.urli.net/<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Dear Esther</u><br /></span><br /><em>Dear Esther</em> is one of those games that’s impossible to talk about. It’s written in such a way that its content is far more<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2DbMJlo6f6viDGT-4wmXM0Nl8K3Wmiu8L0gJ1iYkF5o0LdFzHeE2_Zrs_D0g67r599d_B9OMb3XIBXPSmDeOSZrrt00vXsihx2Fr59E9lH6GPwuSBR8hFH-tyngwcMMWoZ48q7POoBd3/s1600-h/001.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 326px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 202px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437207708186270146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2DbMJlo6f6viDGT-4wmXM0Nl8K3Wmiu8L0gJ1iYkF5o0LdFzHeE2_Zrs_D0g67r599d_B9OMb3XIBXPSmDeOSZrrt00vXsihx2Fr59E9lH6GPwuSBR8hFH-tyngwcMMWoZ48q7POoBd3/s320/001.jpg" /></a> profound than almost any other narrative available in the medium. It can be best described as a post-modern work that uses the medium to deliver more of a narrative than a videogame experience. And you really can’t define <em>Dear Esther</em> as a kind of play.<br /><br />Unless you have Steam and a copy of <em>Half-Life 2</em> you might be able to download this game, but check this out: http://www.moddb.com/mods/dear-esther/downloads/dear-esther-script. The link goes to a downloadable version of the game’s script. It’s worth taking a look at.<br /><br />The game is an article in and of itself. You can look forward to something about it in the near future.<br /><br />http://www.thechineseroom.co.uk/esther.htm<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><u>Where</u><br /></span><br /><em>Where</em> is mystifyingly beautiful.<br /><br />You might be in awe for the first few minutes of the game, but you’ll soon find yourself obscured in the game’s purpose. Most games centre on the idea of the goal. You might think that the balloon is your intended goal or target, you might be right or you could be wrong.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDFSNjTR3vKKAtoFQ82yTV93p7LWOKF1LEd7dkS1zKnJq64AFNesWX8Htu_kFgEqvJrIfAAmhMXdz-3FNLv3usTUZ2t5dmlgSoGjAMbXRZvHz0Rm-fmOxVh6hMlzMF1vQgM_8KCkpMtBaz/s1600-h/Where__Short_Game__by_Mikeinel.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 3px 0px; WIDTH: 312px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 189px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5437207705846834450" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDFSNjTR3vKKAtoFQ82yTV93p7LWOKF1LEd7dkS1zKnJq64AFNesWX8Htu_kFgEqvJrIfAAmhMXdz-3FNLv3usTUZ2t5dmlgSoGjAMbXRZvHz0Rm-fmOxVh6hMlzMF1vQgM_8KCkpMtBaz/s320/Where__Short_Game__by_Mikeinel.jpg" /></a><br />When I first played <em>Where</em>, I began to question if I was really playing. The game’s changing aesthetic gives you the ability to cycle through four unique settings. Each one evokes a different kind of feeling. One is white and sparse. It feels open and yet closed off as the walls surround you. Two is blue and cold. It reminds me of those days when the snow just drifts down from the sky. I ever started to feel cold when listening to the music. Three is red and warm. It looks, sounds, and feels like a romantic place. Its atmosphere is calm and just lovely. Four is black and open. You can see the stars. Living in the city, I miss them and it gives a good feeling of nostalgia. Each setting has a similar emotion attached to them, longing.<br /><br />http://mikeinel.deviantart.com/art/Where-Short-Game-108706285Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-58483242046767261702010-02-01T21:10:00.000-08:002010-02-19T10:07:56.516-08:00Character Profile: Tommy Angelo and Sam<img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 273px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 266px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433511606189529490" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyMdp_anKCnYc3mQCGPnTQZ45XkiW194hPDoaxeB1-SFhEXRkIn-6SvYsKE1LIJMHHE0IdhhM3OpzLL3uu_7ZvAOPqyzURwp6eL8DVuFaOpg1oCUY2wvDAbJEOZVkCZCm8Djbnrghdoxq/s320/Mafia+Sam+1.jpg" /><em>Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven</em> (2002) is one of those titles that all gamers can appreciate, at least those who bought the PC version. Its story and its characters are brilliantly designed around delivering an intense and deep experience. Before I go off on a tangent about how much I love <em>Mafia</em>, I’m going to get a start on this. This article is going to be a close examination of Tommy Ang<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0RkTPrnPv4dYzauaqERvjDRIbL2JUTvN0X7NTemdTU9mtHZMIZlT9VJuCxcWYKXLiFwsLpejTJ3IrwPpmw_C8OW8SFSTVHLzU53t9whGH3QG0PBPeeKzbmDUemuvGTvQvDJgZjKsRsBUp/s1600-h/Tommy+Mafia+1.jpg"></a>elo, Sam and their conflict. When I first played the game, I automatically took Tommy’s side. He’s the protagonist and as players we’re supposed to relate to his struggle. I’ve been thinking about Tommy’s motivations and though he may be the only angel in the city of Lost Heaven, he’s also an angel of death.<br /><br />Tommy Angelo isn’t your normal protagonist. Sure, he’s got the strong look, he has the attitude and he’s under the player’s control, but what’s he really like? Tommy joins the Mafia because he needs their protection. He slides into his position as the capable wheelman of Salieri’s mob, but he does more than just drive. There’s strength in numbers and it turns out that he’s a real team player. In “Ordinary routine,” Tommy gets his first gun and he ends up killing about 15 people. Any normal person one might go, “Whoa, I just killed a lot of people.” Not Tommy. He says, “You know, I ain’t one of those people with a thirst for blood. I don’t need violence in my life, and I don’t look for trouble, but I also don’t have any remorse.”<br /><br />For a protagonist, Tommy makes some seriously immoral choices. He doesn’t condone hurting women and children, he spares a priest who witnesses a mass murder and he makes some morally good choices, but in “Whore” he plants a bomb in a hotel and blows it up. This sets fire to the building and probably sends shrapnel careening through the halls and adjoining rooms. Who knows how many innocent people were killed in that incident. Tommy eventually has an epiphany and it makes him realize the error of his ways. He escapes, talks to the police and decides to take the Mafia down before they can get him and his family. Tommy is seen as the “good guy” and his actions are always justified by the simple reasoning of protecting his wife and child or himself. There’s nothing wrong with that, but though he wants to protect his family, he ends up alienating his first one, the one that initially protected him.<br /><br />I always felt bad for Sam. In “The Death of Art,” Sam dies bitter, angry and betrayed. My initial reaction, like most players was, good now Tommy is safe. Now that I’ve gone back and played the game again, I find myself questioning why Sam was killed. Players always need a justification to commit murder or to use violence. In Mafia, everyone you kill helps to circumvent Don Morello’s power. When Frank Colletti goes against the Mafia, he becomes a target. Now, deep down Tommy is a good guy, his Mom probably helped with that, and he knows not to kill Frank. He has a wife and a kid, and if anything he’s a reflection of what Tommy’s future self. Tommy like Frank wants an escape. For a character like Sam who doesn’t have a girlfriend, who doesn’t have a wife or kid and doesn’t even have a last name, all he has in the Mafia. Killing Sam, who honestly believes what he’s doing is ethically correct, seems a little unfair. To have just let him go might have been a better alternative than killing him in cold blood. Tommy had a right to avenge Paulie’s death, but Sam was just doing his job.<br /><br />Sam is driven by a strict work ethic. He’s always there to do a job, not to have fun. He’s a Worker as well as a Mafioso. Unlike Tommy and Paulie, who are always in the spotlight, Sam constantly finds himself out of the action. On two occasions, Sam is taken away, beaten and interrogated. He finds his purpose obscured and placed into the background against the dominant central characters of the story. He only finds usefulness as an occasional tough guy and as a temporary auto mechanic. In the missions leading up to their conflict, Sam is given a specific task by Don Salieri. He’s told to keep quiet about the diamonds that are hidden inside the cigar cartons. Tommy and Paulie feel betrayed because they weren’t told what was at risk during the mission. They decide to rob a bank and blatantly disregard the organizational structure of the Mafia. This, of course, presents its problems.<br /><br />Tommy is one of the lucky ones, he managed to get Sarah, Luigi’s daughter, and secure himself a nice little spot in the organization. Sam even says that Don Salieri thought of Tommy like a son, and this is what makes his betrayal of the Mafia so heartbreaking. Whether or not the Don was being honest or just vindictive, the friendship between Tommy, Sam and Paulie was a tangible relationship. There’s a moment in the game where you learn that Salieri and Morello used to be best friends. And even the best of friends can find themselves at each other’s throats. There’s no evidence to suggest that Sam was even told about Frank, Sarah’s friend and the other screw ups Tommy has been apart of. It’s entirely possible that Don Salieri told Sam about all these incidents to fire him up to kill Tommy. It’s a complicated affair.<br /><br />For me, their conflict is more than just a case of relativistic morals and ethics. The Mafia in Lost Heaven can in no way be considered the “good guys” and their activities can definitely be seen as morally questionable. Prostitution, drugs, gambling and bootlegging are all bad things, and even though we don’t see Tommy or Sam involved in them that doesn’t mean that they were indirectly tied to them. Tommy and Sam are just pawns in overall structure and when one of them gets a chance to ascend through the ranks, they vie for it. This is what makes Sam’s participation in the diamond scheme okay.<br /><br />Sam’s always in the background. This is finally his chance to make a name for himself as a “good guy” within the Mafia. Tommy and Paulie have threatened both Sam’s chance of making something of his purpose in life, but they are also threatening the structure of the Mafia and thus Sam’s purpose within the narrative. What does Sam really have? He has his clothes, sometimes he has a gun and maybe a little respect, but overall he doesn’t have anything other than the Mafia. This is what makes Tommy’s betrayal so tragic. The Mafia didn’t betray Tommy, Tommy betrayed the Mafia. He acted selfishly and ended up getting Sam killed. Tommy said he didn’t have any remorse about using violence as a means to an end. This time the consequences go deeper than just a question of morals and ethics, it affects someone outside of the scope of relativism.<br /><br />This master piece of dialogue was read by Tommy at the end of the game, check it out:<br /><br />"You know, the world isn’t run by the laws written on paper. It’s run by people. Some according to laws others not, it depends on each individual how each his world will be, how he makes it. You also need a whole lot of luck, so somebody else doesn’t make your life hell, and it ain’t as simple as they tell you in grade school. But it is good to have strong values and maintain them; in marriage, in crime, in war, always and everywhere. I messed up, so did Paulie and Sam. We wanted a better life but in the end we were a lot worse off than most other people. You know, I think it’s important to keep a balance in things, yeah, balance, that’s the right word. Because the guy who wants too much risks losing absolutely everything; of course, the guy who wants to little from life might not get anything at all."<br /><br />Tommy always seems to get the last word. He’s a big character with an indomitable personality, but he’s also not the protagonist his appearance makes him out to be. He may have all the characteristics of a “good guy,” but he’s also a Mafioso. He may have Sarah and his daughter as the moral backbone of his epiphany, but characters like Paulie and especially Sam suffered because of his selfishness. Sam was always in the background and when it came for his time to be in the limelight, one of his best friends stabbed him in the back. Of course, this is just one reading of their conflict. <em>Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven</em> is a deep game and is always a pleasure to sift through all the little intricacies that make it a masterpiece. Emotion runs deep within each character and the relationships they have. Tommy and Sam both screwed up and paid for their crimes, not a fitting end for two of the best characters in all of videogames.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-34176611947833664982010-01-26T09:36:00.000-08:002010-02-19T10:08:07.200-08:00Character Profile: Norton Mapes<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAroME-dFcg_l7ruc0miIGNKjfK1F2gabmXVhHCFhGZ6hvfQE2MYN5t8n7yX3lCJIBD6j-s3JgTH9GBPtGY_4RmdKXY-0atF6-tOTqqfJAqhnQCDaXHVdEuGqz_9hsI_TQNnXWdt-ly0q/s1600-h/180px-Norton-Mapes.jpg"><img style="MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 250px; FLOAT: left; HEIGHT: 250px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431104900140234610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAroME-dFcg_l7ruc0miIGNKjfK1F2gabmXVhHCFhGZ6hvfQE2MYN5t8n7yX3lCJIBD6j-s3JgTH9GBPtGY_4RmdKXY-0atF6-tOTqqfJAqhnQCDaXHVdEuGqz_9hsI_TQNnXWdt-ly0q/s320/180px-Norton-Mapes.jpg" /></a> F.E.A.R. (2005) and the Breakdown (2004) changed the FPS world. Instead of being stuck in first-person perspective unable to fully interact with the environment, your proverbial box had holes cut for arms and thus a whole new way of looking at the world. The unfortunate part is that F.E.A.R. lacked a strong narrative backbone to reinforce the innovation.<br /><br />The Point Man is a wholly unremarkable. What little character he has is just user manual material. He just transferred to F.E.A.R. and has been made the point man of the team. We also know he has a brother and at some point he was genetically modified to have faster than human reflexes. Your teammates, most of whom disappear, have little to no effect on the story’s progression, unless you count Jankowski’s ghost.<br /><br />The only character who has any notable personality traits is Norton Mapes.<br /><br />On the whole, Norton is left unexplored. We know that he’s a computer engineer working at Armacham and he likes Cheezee Pooz. He’s basically the result of Wayne Knight from Jurassic Park and Cartman having a kid. Of the characters in the game, that, for the most part, are bland and without definition, he is the only one that has any definable characteristics outside of the norm. He’s both a good and evil. He displays two sides, one in the destroying vital documents that could help reveal the Point Man’s identity and the other in his almost insane devotion to Armacham.<br /><br />Norton is bumbling. He hides under a cactus for God’s sake. He makes me and almost every-other-person in the world feels. He’s a character designed around antagonizing you. For all of the Replica soldiers, tanks and assassins you kill, Norton is somehow able to evade you. This fat and obnoxious character undermines your integrity as a video gamer, and that’s why I like him.<br /><br />As a character defined by a certain purpose, Norton fulfills it in almost every respect. What makes this worse is that he’s virtually untouchable, unless you count his appearances in the expansions where you get to wreak sweet havoc against him. He’s not an antagonist. He’s a secondary character that somehow manages to force his way into your path. It’s not that he’s not important, it’s that he’s important enough to be there for the developers to make us angry and indestructible enough to ensure that he survives even until the end of the game. He intrudes upon the experience to do nothing important except make you slightly annoyed. What makes Norton a weird character is that he seems to be just an elusive an indestructible as Fettel. In this way, he begins to fill in as a scapegoat for all the player’s anger and frustration. In that, he does a fine job as a character.<br /><br />If you look at the way he is designed you can almost taste him. That sounds kind of gross, but you can just imagine what the developers were trying to get at. Norton is the stereotypical computer geek. He eats Cheezee Pooz, he has an obnoxious RTFM belt and he’s fat. This seems to be one of the qualities that are a little unfair to his character.<br /><br />Making Norton so obese has an effect on how we view him. It makes him into a kind of jester or joker during the game. Not in the way that he becomes the comic relief of the game but an object of pity. Yes, it’s kind of funny that he gets stuck in the air vent, but it’s also a little sad. A character like him that generates so much ire, he makes you feel guilty for getting angry at him. It’s kind of sad and kind of pathetic, but that’s his character.<br /><br />We don’t see Norton for more than thirty seconds at a time, but in that time he manages to get us to do a lot. He makes us open doors, he makes us angry, he makes us laugh when he ends up getting shot and then making us feel a little guilty when you realize he actually helped us out.<br /><br />Norton has an amazing affect on the game’s story. If you look at what he does, just because of his general build and constitution, he managed to get past several replica soldiers, makes his way to Alma’s prison and still be alive after being shot to help you into Origin. A character should always have some redeeming qualities. Norton helps you out in the end, but that didn’t stop me from unloading a couple rockets his way when I finally got the chance to. We’re supposed to hate him and pity him.<br /><br />Norton is portrayed both as an object of pity and an object of our hate. We both love him and we hate him for making us display any kind of sadness for his supposed demise. When he’s lying there bleeding after being shot in the chest, you sort of just stand there listening to him wondering when he’ll shut up and when those feelings of regret might go away.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-2678861380120088242009-12-26T21:33:00.000-08:002010-03-12T11:47:33.878-08:00Game list: the best overlooked soundtracks<strong>Lords of Thunder: TurboGrafx (1993) and Sega CD (1993)<br /></strong><br />Think <em>Dragonforce</em> meets <em>R-Type</em>, but with more dragons, wizards, and swords. Way back before the Sega CD was released in 1992, console developers had to worry about the memory limitation on cartridges. After the console's arrival, game developers were no longer limited in terms of memory or forced to compress their games. Games like <em>Lords of Thunder</em> reflect this jump in sound quality from midi based synths to CD quality music.<br /><br />The <em>Lords of Thunder</em> soundtrack is an amazing collection of power metal. Its intense soundtrack reflects the epic struggle of your characters as they blaze through levels defeating enemies and slaying bosses. Listening to this soundtrack on the bus just makes you want to rock out with a guitar in one hand and a battleaxe in the other.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoIg45meBbg&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QoIg45meBbg&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Rez: PS2 (2001) and Dreamcast (2001)<br /></strong><br />Even today, <em>Rez</em> remains a technical and artistic marvel. It’s a trippy game and has an aesthetic style similar to <em>Tron</em> and is vaguely reminiscent of <em>Starfox</em> for the NES. <em>Rez</em> is an experimental shooter, but what makes the soundtrack special is that the player helps to generate it. Each time you shoot down a target, the game adds a beat or a slice which complements the in game music. Along with the trance vibrator, the game is able to create a synasthetic experience not seen in many other games.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/q8vJAs2BjRE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/q8vJAs2BjRE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Snatcher: PC-88 (1988) and Sega CD (1992)<br /></strong><br />Thoroughly cyber punk and hardboiled in every way, Hideo Kojima’s <em>Snatcher</em> is <em>Blade Runner</em> for gamers. The game’s soundtrack highlighted the technical capabilities of the PC-88 and the Sega CD through their use of CD quality audio. The gruesome settings you enter are set to a backdrop of cyber punk and moody tracks. And it’s also a damn fine game. Voiceovers and atmospheric themes help to develop the hardboiled detective narrative of synthetics and snatchers.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_S8LiWZepw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/2_S8LiWZepw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Summer Carnival ’92 Recca: NES (1992)and MSX (1988)<br /></strong><br />Some of the most frantic and pulse pounding videogame music comes out of schmups. <em>Summer Carnival ’92 Recca</em> is a frantic, fast paced and a bloody hard shoot ‘em up. Released in 1992, <em>Recca</em> pushed the NES’s sound board to the limit. Up until that point, few games had pushed the NES to that frenzied limit.<br /><br />This is a fast game. Videos of <em>Recca</em> online are not sped up or time-lapsed, they show the actual in game speed. The music complements this by ramping you up so hard that by the time you’ve lost all your ships you’ll have gritted down your teeth to a fine powder.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IoySgoAHxTs&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IoySgoAHxTs&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Mystic Ninja: SNES (1992)<br /></strong><br />This game is odd. I can say that I only half-understand what’s going on most of the time. But I have fond childhood memories of this game and the music which complements the zany atmosphere. The mixture of shamisen and kabuki theatre music which at times is fun and light and at other haunting and intense, has stayed with me. From the rural Edo villages to the trap-laden castles, each environment has a specific and memorable sound to them.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8HkyAiV4Kbc&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8HkyAiV4Kbc&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Interstate ’76: PC (1997)<br /></strong><br />Just listen to the soundtrack, and you’ll get why I put this up here. The mix of badass funk recorded using vintage instruments and recording technology creates a genuine 1970’s atmosphere so ultimately chill that you will sit for hours listening to the loading screen. The excellent voiceover by Greg Eagles and his spoken word poetry that he whisper’s over the in game radio complements the smooth soundtrack.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/C1L69-3OqaU&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/C1L69-3OqaU&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl: PC (2007)<br /></strong><br />With a mix of neo-folk done by <em>Firelake</em> and atmospheric sounds by <em>MoozE</em>, <em>S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl</em> creates a lonely and isolated post-apocalyptic atmosphere. What really stands out about this game’s soundtrack is its delivery. When you play the game, Firelake’s Dirge for the Planet and Against the Ionized Odds can only be heard over loud speakers and radios located throughout the world. The soundtrack gets overlooked and you might not even notice the tracks by <em>MoozE</em> as they are so well integrated into the environments. There are no musical tracks following you around the ruins of Chernobyl. As well, the ambient sounds of acoustic guitars played by fellow stalkers add to the post-apocalyptic feel the game aims to create.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/INw6IC3lVK0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/INw6IC3lVK0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Psychosomnium: PC (2008)<br /></strong><br />The soundtrack in <em>Psychosomnium</em>, an indie game created by Cactus, has a nostalgic and a depressive quality to it. You could spend hours sitting and listening to the games chiptune theme loop over and over. Cactus was able to integrate this simple and haunting song into Jimmy’s dream world.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BYYmXwACWTw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BYYmXwACWTw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Comix Zone: Genesis (1995)<br /></strong><br />The jukebox, do you remember the jukebox? I first played <em>Comix Zone</em> in 1997, and I always paused at the menu to listen to the hard rock theme. This game really shows off the technical abilities of the Sega Genesis. The music was composed by Howard Drossin and his grungy riffs complement the comic book style of the game. With each new environment came a setting appropriate track. The sewers had a dank and gross sound, the temple had a pseudo-Asian theme, and the results screen picked up your spirits after having your ass handed to you by the insane difficulty.<br /><br />As well, having the jukebox allowed the player to enjoy the soundtrack without having to play through this brutally difficult game.<br /><br />And a free CD came with the cartridge, what’s there not to like?<br /><br /><p align="left"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gLBAJC9P1Uo&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gLBAJC9P1Uo&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object></p><strong>Killer 7: Gamecube (2005)<br /></strong><br />The trip-hop, techno, country, and sentai theme song inspired soundtrack of Suda 51’s <em>Killer 7</em> reflects the disjointed and schismatic nature of Emir Parkreiner’s mind. Masafumi Takada really went all out on this game. The game’s diverse range of music from the trippy Rave On to the beaty Russian Roulette theme, Takada created an insane soundtrack for an insane game. He went on to create the soundtrack for Suda 51's <em>No More Heroes</em> a few years later. This soundtracks remains one of my all time favourites because of its diversity and insanity.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8Xi-CxR-a2o&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8Xi-CxR-a2o&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p><strong>Grim Fandango: PC (1998)<br /><br /></strong>It’s all in the title. The mix of mariachi music and festive tunes complements the atmosphere of Tim Schafer’s <em>Grim Fandango</em>. This game has one of the most memorable sound tracks because of how Schafer attributed music to characters. From the jaunty Casino Calavera to the sinister Swanky Maximino, <em>Grim Fandango</em> does a good job of creating catchy and memorable themes. I’ll always remember the Blue Casket Bop because of all the time I spent forcing Manny to recite spoken word poetry to the angry hisses of the hipster crowd.<br /><br /><p align="center"><object style="WIDTH: 327px; HEIGHT: 277px" width="327" height="277"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/QVggc7SUhj4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/QVggc7SUhj4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5726146179648360236.post-88197394051063523652009-11-29T12:08:00.000-08:002009-12-27T16:58:25.661-08:00IntroHey Internet,<br /><br />My name is Matthew and I’m a journalist who loves videogames. This blog is going to be a creative outlet as I write my way through school and towards some kind of journalistic fame or notoriety.<br /><br />I’m all about examining videogames at their core and seeing what makes them such intricately designed systems of thought, storytelling, and narrative. I’ll be updating the blog with features every week I can, and I’m also going to be posting really quick and content-packed lists just in case my writing ends up boring people to death. I’m a researcher at heart.<br /><br />All are welcomed to comment or drop me a line.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0