Sunday, October 25, 2009
Changing Tastes, Burning Rubber
I've fallen ill again. No big deal, it's clearly just a cold (and a mild one at that) but a stuffy head is a stuffy head so I've been feeling pretty tired the last twenty-four hours or so. Mako took Go to her parents' house, giving me a little peace and quiet which is nice. I know the baby has to get a cold someday but there's no need to rush things.
Unfortunately, my cold arrived at the same time as Alex's friend Darren arrived from the UK. Alex had talked to me about a variety of activities with his friend/podcast partner so I was really looking forward to the visit even though (or maybe because) I've never actually met or spoken to Darren myself. Since I wasn't feeling so bad yesterday and I really had an errand to run in Osaka anyway, I put on a surgical mask (when in Japan...) and went into the city to meet them.
I won't get into what exactly we did because I know Alex has plans to make audio/video materials out of it for his website, but I will say that at his house there was a kind of rapid-fire session featuring a number of video games, some that I knew but many that I never played before. Alex keeps himself very busy on the gaming front and he had a number of brand new shrink wrapped titles just ready to be played, yet he still bought Halo ODST while we were in Den Den Town. It was only 3000 Yen - a bargain for a new game, especially in Japan - but I am envious of the amount of material he has at his fingertips.
Once thing I will talk about is Burnout Paradise, a game that has kept itself in the mass gaming conversation for nearly two years now. At first I ignored it because, quite frankly, I loathe racing games. It's a genre that I've never accepted at home or in the arcades because the experience never feels right to me. Even when there's a steering wheel to play with (which helps in the "feel" department) there's this gigantic gap between what I do and what the car does on screen. It doesn't help that most racing games are as shallow as possible, consisting of nothing but roaring engines and turns turns turns. Of course, I've never been much of a "car guy" which makes most of what happens in the game completely uninteresting to me.
And yet Burnout Paradise blew me away. Darren did most of the playing but as I sat and watched I found myself actually getting excited. The big difference, as I see it, is Burnout Paradise gives you an entire city to play around in. Yes, there are races you can run, but there are other events for the choosing like "road rage," an impromptu demolition derby that has you crashing into sports cars on the streets rather than inside an arena.
More importantly, the city is just there for you to explore. Most of the time we weren't doing anything but screeching around corners and looking for things to smash into. Crashing in normal racing games is a drag, a failure, something that forces you to go back and redo the whole race from the start. In Burnout Paradise you are constantly wrecking your car in awesome slow-motion and all that happens is you "respawn" with your car somewhat restored to working order.
Alex made the comparison to the Grand Theft Auto series with the caveat that you never leave your car (though you can change vehicles in designated locations). I would posit that, based on the brief experience I've had so far, Burnout Paradise is better than GTA because it strips away the drama and violence while still offering an open world for vehicular mischief. There are no people in this city, only vehicles. It's like living inside a Hot Wheels track only the toy cars move a lot faster and can easily be replaced no matter how many times you crash them into a wall at high speeds.
The best news about Burnout Paradise is that Alex gave me a copy of the game for free. Somehow he ended up with two versions of the game (one on PlayStation, one on Xbox) so he handed me the Xbox one and told me to keep it. The downside is that there's no way for the two of us to play together now but the upside is that I have something new to enjoy that smashes my own assumptions about the genre. Few things are as exciting in life as discovering something that you thought you hated but is actually really cool. I haven't been this surprised by my own tastes since I learned to enjoy green vegetables.
Oh one last thing on the subjects of games and Alex. After I wrote about The Fountainhead last week, I uploaded a slightly different version of the piece to Bitmob, adding a few paragraphs to discuss the connections between the book and BioShock. Today I learned that my work was featured in a Spotlight post alongside an item that Alex had written. Small world!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Unfortunately, my cold arrived at the same time as Alex's friend Darren arrived from the UK. Alex had talked to me about a variety of activities with his friend/podcast partner so I was really looking forward to the visit even though (or maybe because) I've never actually met or spoken to Darren myself. Since I wasn't feeling so bad yesterday and I really had an errand to run in Osaka anyway, I put on a surgical mask (when in Japan...) and went into the city to meet them.
I won't get into what exactly we did because I know Alex has plans to make audio/video materials out of it for his website, but I will say that at his house there was a kind of rapid-fire session featuring a number of video games, some that I knew but many that I never played before. Alex keeps himself very busy on the gaming front and he had a number of brand new shrink wrapped titles just ready to be played, yet he still bought Halo ODST while we were in Den Den Town. It was only 3000 Yen - a bargain for a new game, especially in Japan - but I am envious of the amount of material he has at his fingertips.
Once thing I will talk about is Burnout Paradise, a game that has kept itself in the mass gaming conversation for nearly two years now. At first I ignored it because, quite frankly, I loathe racing games. It's a genre that I've never accepted at home or in the arcades because the experience never feels right to me. Even when there's a steering wheel to play with (which helps in the "feel" department) there's this gigantic gap between what I do and what the car does on screen. It doesn't help that most racing games are as shallow as possible, consisting of nothing but roaring engines and turns turns turns. Of course, I've never been much of a "car guy" which makes most of what happens in the game completely uninteresting to me.
And yet Burnout Paradise blew me away. Darren did most of the playing but as I sat and watched I found myself actually getting excited. The big difference, as I see it, is Burnout Paradise gives you an entire city to play around in. Yes, there are races you can run, but there are other events for the choosing like "road rage," an impromptu demolition derby that has you crashing into sports cars on the streets rather than inside an arena.
More importantly, the city is just there for you to explore. Most of the time we weren't doing anything but screeching around corners and looking for things to smash into. Crashing in normal racing games is a drag, a failure, something that forces you to go back and redo the whole race from the start. In Burnout Paradise you are constantly wrecking your car in awesome slow-motion and all that happens is you "respawn" with your car somewhat restored to working order.
Alex made the comparison to the Grand Theft Auto series with the caveat that you never leave your car (though you can change vehicles in designated locations). I would posit that, based on the brief experience I've had so far, Burnout Paradise is better than GTA because it strips away the drama and violence while still offering an open world for vehicular mischief. There are no people in this city, only vehicles. It's like living inside a Hot Wheels track only the toy cars move a lot faster and can easily be replaced no matter how many times you crash them into a wall at high speeds.
The best news about Burnout Paradise is that Alex gave me a copy of the game for free. Somehow he ended up with two versions of the game (one on PlayStation, one on Xbox) so he handed me the Xbox one and told me to keep it. The downside is that there's no way for the two of us to play together now but the upside is that I have something new to enjoy that smashes my own assumptions about the genre. Few things are as exciting in life as discovering something that you thought you hated but is actually really cool. I haven't been this surprised by my own tastes since I learned to enjoy green vegetables.
Oh one last thing on the subjects of games and Alex. After I wrote about The Fountainhead last week, I uploaded a slightly different version of the piece to Bitmob, adding a few paragraphs to discuss the connections between the book and BioShock. Today I learned that my work was featured in a Spotlight post alongside an item that Alex had written. Small world!
Labels: Alex, BioShock, Bitmob, Burnout Paradise, Den Den Town, friends, GTA, Osaka, The Fountainhead, video games, writing, Xbox
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Call
What is the big news I received that I've been concealing for over two weeks? What is the nature of my upcoming trip to Tokyo? And why haven't I just said what's going on already? Those secrets and more, in today's post!
You're looking at...um, rather, you're reading the blog of a newly-minted freelance writer. I've been hired by Wired to contribute to their online coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2009. And when I say "hired," I mean I will be paid money to write about video games.
Yes.
As dreams go, this is certainly a more recent one that I all but stumbled into last year. 2008 was the year I found myself drawn back into the video game culture. It started with a resurgence of interest in PC games (thanks largely to the extraordinary experience I had playing Portal) and then I bought a PS3 to compliment our brand-new television.
Ultimately, it was the Bioshock demo last fall that really knocked my socks off and put me in an unfamiliar position: I was so excited about the game that all I wanted to do was play it and write about how it made me feel. Sure, I had been writing this blog for a few years at that point, but feeling compelled to write was an entirely new sensation.
Ever since that weekend, I've been trying to produce more "cultural" writing whenever possible, be it a game, film or television show that was on my mind. I can't pretend that I ever had a plan or a concrete goal in sight, but I suppose I might have fantasized about it leading to a job opportunity.
When Bitmob launched earlier this year, I saw it as a good place to expand my audience and possibly draw more viewers to my site. The former was a sure thing; in case you don't know, 30,000 visitors over five years is not much for a website. The latter hasn't happened yet, but at least Bitmob (along with Twitter, Facebook, and the like) helped to increase my presence on the Internet beyond this humble, archaic webpage.
Opportunity suddenly knocked last month when Chris Kohler of Wired inquired via Twitter about writers living in Japan who could help cover TGS. This wasn't the first time I saw a chance like this present itself, but this was the first time I responded quickly instead of mulling it over and letting it slip away. After a few days without a response, I figured he found someone else.
Instead, I got a message from Chris asking to see some of my work. Again, I responded as quickly as I could, explaining that I had no professionally published material but I gave him links to a few of my favorite stories, both here and on Bitmob. I didn't just focus on game writing either, I tried to show my take on a variety of topics including the birth of my son.
He wrote back and said I had the job, clearly indicating that he had read more than what I had sent him. He referenced my Super Potato story even though I didn't mention it since he had already written about that store many times before.
So here's what I know: my trip to Tokyo has morphed from "pleasure" to a business/pleasure hybrid, the likes of which have yet to be understood. I was going to attend one public day of the Tokyo Game Show and hang out with some friends. Now I'm definitely going to TGS for both press days and possibly both public days so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to hang out.
What I don't know is anything specific about the job itself. What will I be seeing/playing at the show? How many articles will I write, and how long will I have to write them? Will I need to stay up late working or will there be time for karaoke?
One thing's for sure: I'm really, really excited about getting my shot at professional writing less than a year after the idea crept into my head. What happens after the show is anybody's guess, but I know I'm going to Tokyo next week and I can't wait. Stay tuned to this site (and Wired Game|Life) to read all about it.
Oh, and play that victory sound!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
You're looking at...um, rather, you're reading the blog of a newly-minted freelance writer. I've been hired by Wired to contribute to their online coverage of the Tokyo Game Show 2009. And when I say "hired," I mean I will be paid money to write about video games.
Yes.
As dreams go, this is certainly a more recent one that I all but stumbled into last year. 2008 was the year I found myself drawn back into the video game culture. It started with a resurgence of interest in PC games (thanks largely to the extraordinary experience I had playing Portal) and then I bought a PS3 to compliment our brand-new television.
Ultimately, it was the Bioshock demo last fall that really knocked my socks off and put me in an unfamiliar position: I was so excited about the game that all I wanted to do was play it and write about how it made me feel. Sure, I had been writing this blog for a few years at that point, but feeling compelled to write was an entirely new sensation.
Ever since that weekend, I've been trying to produce more "cultural" writing whenever possible, be it a game, film or television show that was on my mind. I can't pretend that I ever had a plan or a concrete goal in sight, but I suppose I might have fantasized about it leading to a job opportunity.
When Bitmob launched earlier this year, I saw it as a good place to expand my audience and possibly draw more viewers to my site. The former was a sure thing; in case you don't know, 30,000 visitors over five years is not much for a website. The latter hasn't happened yet, but at least Bitmob (along with Twitter, Facebook, and the like) helped to increase my presence on the Internet beyond this humble, archaic webpage.
Opportunity suddenly knocked last month when Chris Kohler of Wired inquired via Twitter about writers living in Japan who could help cover TGS. This wasn't the first time I saw a chance like this present itself, but this was the first time I responded quickly instead of mulling it over and letting it slip away. After a few days without a response, I figured he found someone else.
Instead, I got a message from Chris asking to see some of my work. Again, I responded as quickly as I could, explaining that I had no professionally published material but I gave him links to a few of my favorite stories, both here and on Bitmob. I didn't just focus on game writing either, I tried to show my take on a variety of topics including the birth of my son.
He wrote back and said I had the job, clearly indicating that he had read more than what I had sent him. He referenced my Super Potato story even though I didn't mention it since he had already written about that store many times before.
So here's what I know: my trip to Tokyo has morphed from "pleasure" to a business/pleasure hybrid, the likes of which have yet to be understood. I was going to attend one public day of the Tokyo Game Show and hang out with some friends. Now I'm definitely going to TGS for both press days and possibly both public days so I'm not sure how much time I'll have to hang out.
What I don't know is anything specific about the job itself. What will I be seeing/playing at the show? How many articles will I write, and how long will I have to write them? Will I need to stay up late working or will there be time for karaoke?
One thing's for sure: I'm really, really excited about getting my shot at professional writing less than a year after the idea crept into my head. What happens after the show is anybody's guess, but I know I'm going to Tokyo next week and I can't wait. Stay tuned to this site (and Wired Game|Life) to read all about it.
Oh, and play that victory sound!
Labels: BioShock, Bitmob, TGS, Tokyo, video games, Wired, writing
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, August 10, 2009
The Era of Bad Feelings
Once again, I find myself using my abundance of time spent at home as an excuse for not getting any writing done. I suppose the reason I'm stuck at home is a factor at well.
In case you haven't heard, I'm still sick. I've never been great at dragging diagnoses out of doctors in English, so doing it in Japanese is next to impossible, but so far as I can tell I've got some kind of virus. My overall condition has ranged from "ok" to "unpleasant" over the past two weeks, with the lowest points being Monday, July 27 and last Thursday when I was feverish. That second fever sent me back to the doctor for a blood test. He insisted that I get some rest and that this virus should soon pass, but as I begin my third week of not feeling well I'm a little bit suspicious.
The good news is that neither Go nor Mako are showing any signs of catching whatever I've got, so it seems I am not contagious. During both of my fevers they escaped to her parents' house to avoid possible contamination and let me rest, but I must assume that they would have gotten sick by now if that was possible. Still, it is extremely uncomfortable to hold Go in my arms and try to sooth him to sleep when all I want to do is go to the bathroom or lay down.
Lest you think I've been writhing in agony for the past two weeks, I have managed to entertain myself with video games. I actually finished BioShock which was tremendously satisfying. Why I put that game off for so long, I'll never understand. It actually wasn't that long of a game to complete; it just took me two months because I insisted on exploring every corner of the city. Part of me is strongly tempted to start a new game on a higher difficulty setting so I can see what's different (and get more trophies) but realistically, I have so little time to play games I'm better off moving on to something else.
That "something else" could be the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum, because I felt the demo was really quite good. Sneaking up behind thugs and silently taking them down was exciting, as was the hand-to-hand parts where I just beat the snot out of three guys at the same time. My biggest concern is that the game will get repetitive since Batman can't acquire new "powers" (he doesn't really have any to being with) but the myriad of options I've had in just the demo is extremely encouraging. It turns out there are an awful lot of ways to sneak up on someone in this game, which means that there isn't just one solution to each dangerous situation. I'm just going to wait and see what people say about it before I consider buying it.
In the meantime, there will be no time for games (or writing) as my mother and sister will be arriving in Japan on Wednesday for their first meeting with Go. It will be wonderful to see them again and let them watch the baby while Mako and I relax for once. Their vacation is our vacation! I'm kidding, of course, but not about being happy to have visitors. But this is one more reason I'm not going to have much time to write, so August is looking like a pretty sparse month on the blogging front. Then again, my sister makes up 20-50% of my readership which means my posts won't be missed much.
See you soon, Salena!
つづく...(Click here to read more)
In case you haven't heard, I'm still sick. I've never been great at dragging diagnoses out of doctors in English, so doing it in Japanese is next to impossible, but so far as I can tell I've got some kind of virus. My overall condition has ranged from "ok" to "unpleasant" over the past two weeks, with the lowest points being Monday, July 27 and last Thursday when I was feverish. That second fever sent me back to the doctor for a blood test. He insisted that I get some rest and that this virus should soon pass, but as I begin my third week of not feeling well I'm a little bit suspicious.
The good news is that neither Go nor Mako are showing any signs of catching whatever I've got, so it seems I am not contagious. During both of my fevers they escaped to her parents' house to avoid possible contamination and let me rest, but I must assume that they would have gotten sick by now if that was possible. Still, it is extremely uncomfortable to hold Go in my arms and try to sooth him to sleep when all I want to do is go to the bathroom or lay down.
Lest you think I've been writhing in agony for the past two weeks, I have managed to entertain myself with video games. I actually finished BioShock which was tremendously satisfying. Why I put that game off for so long, I'll never understand. It actually wasn't that long of a game to complete; it just took me two months because I insisted on exploring every corner of the city. Part of me is strongly tempted to start a new game on a higher difficulty setting so I can see what's different (and get more trophies) but realistically, I have so little time to play games I'm better off moving on to something else.
That "something else" could be the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum, because I felt the demo was really quite good. Sneaking up behind thugs and silently taking them down was exciting, as was the hand-to-hand parts where I just beat the snot out of three guys at the same time. My biggest concern is that the game will get repetitive since Batman can't acquire new "powers" (he doesn't really have any to being with) but the myriad of options I've had in just the demo is extremely encouraging. It turns out there are an awful lot of ways to sneak up on someone in this game, which means that there isn't just one solution to each dangerous situation. I'm just going to wait and see what people say about it before I consider buying it.
In the meantime, there will be no time for games (or writing) as my mother and sister will be arriving in Japan on Wednesday for their first meeting with Go. It will be wonderful to see them again and let them watch the baby while Mako and I relax for once. Their vacation is our vacation! I'm kidding, of course, but not about being happy to have visitors. But this is one more reason I'm not going to have much time to write, so August is looking like a pretty sparse month on the blogging front. Then again, my sister makes up 20-50% of my readership which means my posts won't be missed much.
See you soon, Salena!
Labels: Batman, BioShock, family, number one son, poor health, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Blargh
I've been sick.
I woke up Monday morning feeling cold. I knew that meant something was horribly wrong, because there's no way a normal human can feel cold in Japan in summer. I took my temperature and discovered I was one tenth of a degree (Celcius) above normal. I felt funny but figured I would go to work anyway. By the time I got there I felt more funny (although part of that stemmed from waiting outside for ten minutes because nobody had a key to the school) so I checked my temperature again. Now it had risen quite a bit more, so we all agreed I should go home.
I visited a doctor who told me that the fever was so sudden that they couldn't tell if it was a flu or not, so they gave me some standard anti-fever meds and told me to come back that night (or the next day) if my condition got worse. In the meantime, Mako and Go evacuated the apartment because I really didn't want them to get what I had (especially if it was the flu, because that's bad news for babies).
I woke up today still feeling like crap, so I didn't bother going to work. I'm sure I wouldn't have been busy anyway, so that was an easy call to make. Mako and Go stayed away for one more day, just to be safe. In the meantime, my fever has completely subsided even though my head (and my bowels, ugh) are still a little..."off."
So what has that meant for me? Lots of time home alone, which means a whole lot of television and video games. I swear I saw the same episode of Law & Order: SVU four times in the last forty-eight hours. I've also been tearing through BioShock as fast as I can, which in my case is actually quite slow and plodding. I've definitely crossed the halfway point, possibly even the three-quarters point, so the end is in sight. I would love to write more about the game but the mood I've been in hasn't lent itself to writing. Just sitting here trying to finish this post has been a chore because I have constant urges to go to the bathroom.
Tomorrow a new ALT arrives and I'm supposed to be part of the welcoming committee. Will I recover in time to greet the new recruit? I sure hope so, because I've heard she doesn't speak much Japanese. Around here, that's pretty important.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I woke up Monday morning feeling cold. I knew that meant something was horribly wrong, because there's no way a normal human can feel cold in Japan in summer. I took my temperature and discovered I was one tenth of a degree (Celcius) above normal. I felt funny but figured I would go to work anyway. By the time I got there I felt more funny (although part of that stemmed from waiting outside for ten minutes because nobody had a key to the school) so I checked my temperature again. Now it had risen quite a bit more, so we all agreed I should go home.
I visited a doctor who told me that the fever was so sudden that they couldn't tell if it was a flu or not, so they gave me some standard anti-fever meds and told me to come back that night (or the next day) if my condition got worse. In the meantime, Mako and Go evacuated the apartment because I really didn't want them to get what I had (especially if it was the flu, because that's bad news for babies).
I woke up today still feeling like crap, so I didn't bother going to work. I'm sure I wouldn't have been busy anyway, so that was an easy call to make. Mako and Go stayed away for one more day, just to be safe. In the meantime, my fever has completely subsided even though my head (and my bowels, ugh) are still a little..."off."
So what has that meant for me? Lots of time home alone, which means a whole lot of television and video games. I swear I saw the same episode of Law & Order: SVU four times in the last forty-eight hours. I've also been tearing through BioShock as fast as I can, which in my case is actually quite slow and plodding. I've definitely crossed the halfway point, possibly even the three-quarters point, so the end is in sight. I would love to write more about the game but the mood I've been in hasn't lent itself to writing. Just sitting here trying to finish this post has been a chore because I have constant urges to go to the bathroom.
Tomorrow a new ALT arrives and I'm supposed to be part of the welcoming committee. Will I recover in time to greet the new recruit? I sure hope so, because I've heard she doesn't speak much Japanese. Around here, that's pretty important.
Labels: BioShock, JET, poor health, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Friday, July 17, 2009
Rapture On My Mind
The reasons why I haven't already completed BioShock, one of 2007's most celebrated video games, are unimportant. What is important to me at this time is to write as much as I can about the game I have experienced thus far, because my infant son and my exhausted wife demand my constant attention right now. I can't predict when I may have another chance at this incredible game and even though the Internet is overflowing with writers who laud and re-laud this game, I don't want a little thing like childbirth to keep me from having my say, especially since writing about BioShock is the only way I can "experience" the game for the foreseeable future.
My respect for the quality of BioShock overwhelms me; I do not know where to start in proclaiming how much I enjoy this game. Back when I played the demo last fall, I already explained how the game got me hooked right away with its distinctive art style and captivating world. For all the first person shooters set in outer space or on alien planets, BioShock is grounded on Earth in the 1960s. Admittedly, this is a steampunk/alternate history 1960s where humans have the technology to build massive underwater cities and genetically empower themselves with downright magical abilities, but the world of Rapture immediately enthralled me. Lots of video games have random stuff scattered in corners to encourage players to take their time and search their surroundings. BioShock might be the first video game I've ever played where the surroundings alone convince me to slow down and take a good look around (although there's certainly an abundance of items to be found as well).
As a game environment, Rapture is dripping with style and atmosphere. A typical first person shooter game has levels that are about as interesting as a trip to a self-storage warehouse. Graphical fidelity may offer us more visual detail than when the genre was new but few game makers take advantage of that to give their worlds character. Rapture, in contrast, is a underwater city that feels lived-in, making the chaos that tore the city apart all the more chilling. Banners hang from the ceilings proclaiming the ideals of the city's founder while hand-written protest signs, discarded luggage, and corpses litter the hallways. Audio diaries dropped in corners or left on desktops deliver stories of individual residents, warnings and cautionary tales to outsiders that never reached the surface. Was there a singular disaster that drove Rapture's citizens mad, or was the descent a long and torturous process? Did the violence and mayhem come from the top or rise from the bottom? What kind of a society would stock vending machines with food, alcohol, and ammunition? These are questions I ask myself over and over again.
For all its artistic merits, Rapture is also an exceptionally well-crafted space for the player to navigate. These are not linear levels full of monster closets and constrictive hallways, nor are they labyrinthine in their layout forcing the player to run in circles. They feel inspired by mission-driven games like GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark where running straight through to the end was not an option. In the two areas I have seen thus far, the exit has been easily accessible from the start but in order to use that exit, I had to accomplish certain tasks first. The in-game map and navigation system made finding what I needed a breeze. Also, crouching and jumping are refreshingly kept to a minimum. Ever since first person shooters realized that such abilities were necessary, game designers seemed to include lots of elaborate jumping puzzles or cramped air ducts that need to be crawled through to justify those motions. BioShock thus far has entirely omitted the former and made sparing use of the latter and I greatly appreciate it.
If the world of Rapture is what's holding my attention, it is the unparalleled emotional content that BioShock delivers that keeps me up at night wondering when I'll play it again. More than any so-called "horror" game, BioShock frightens me constantly, and not just with cheap tricks like enemies who leap into the frame. I dread each new door I open and each new staircase I climb because I fear for what I may find next. The first full area of the game is the "medical pavilion" which includes a funeral home, a crematorium, and a mad surgeon who found frustration with the human form so he just kept operating and operating until he ran out of patients. This is the stuff of real nightmares, not demons or aliens or zombies. I'm already scared of hospitals and mortuaries and who doesn't get anxious about getting anesthetized, wondering if you'll wake up or not?
Beyond the thrills and chills, BioShock also offers something few other games do: sympathetic foes. Unlike the clearly insane Splicers and security automatons who attack you on sight, Big Daddies and Little Sisters are content to ignore you as they go about their own business in Rapture. While the option to rescue or kill the Sisters is one of BioShock's most talked-about feature, it is the choice to fight or avoid the Daddies that I find more compelling. Dealing with the Sisters is not nearly as emotional as the game would have you believe; whichever you choose, it's just a matter of pressing a button and watching what happens next. The characters in the game tell you that "harvesting" the resources in Little Sisters kills the host, but from a player's perspective you never see anything unpleasant. Your character simply picks up the girl, who looks positively monstrous with her glowing eyes, and in a flash she is replaced by a slug and you are rewarded with more power. If this is supposed to give me pause or make me question my actions, it's not working.
By contrast, the Big Daddies are formidable opponents who lumber about Rapture, emitting whale-like moans and shaking the ground (and your controller) with each step. In order to reach the Sisters, you must first take down the Daddy guarding her and that is no small feat. The stakes are high when fighting a Big Daddy and as such, the choice to fight one has much more meaning than the harvest/rescue option the game is so famous for. Killing the Splicers is self-defense, killing the Sisters is abstract, but killing a Big Daddy is deliberate and in the end, they crumple to the ground with more of a whimper than a roar. The Little Sister he was guarding will run to his side and tearfully plead "Wake up, Mr. Bubbles!" Enemies that leave behind grieving children? That's the most powerful moment I've seen in a video game since Aerith died in Final Fantasy VII.
If I were to complain about BioShock, I would point out that there are some minor oddities with the controls that can lead to confusion. The SQUARE button both reloads your equipped weapon/ability and will begin the hacking mini-game when near certain machines. Since the window to hack machines can be brief, this has resulted in a lot of unnecessary reloads because I pressed the button too soon (or too late). Likewise, the X button is the generic "interact" button and is used both for searching objects/enemies and for picking up items. Holding the X button will replay the most recently discovered diary entry in your inventory. In tight spaces, the multipurpose nature of this button can lead to frustration. Say I pick up a diary that is on a shelf with other items. I cannot listen to it until I look away from everything else and press X or else I will start picking up items or searching random boxes.
Of greater concern to me over the long-run of the game is the combat, which is not particularly engaging thus far. The enemies may have lots of personality and talk to themselves for extra creepiness, but they are not very clever. They do not so much "take cover" as run in circles, occasionally disappearing behind an obstacle only to emerge from the other side. Thanks to their manic shouting, they are easy to get the jump on and they almost never ambush me. However, because new Splicers will turn up in areas I previously cleared, the tension level of the game is well-served by their blabbering. I can never feel safe in Rapture; no matter how many maniacs I put down, more will come to loot their bodies and attack me.
That raises another one of BioShock's elements of intrigue: who am I? The nature of a first person shooter is such that I cannot see my on-screen avatar; instead, I see the game world through his eyes. Yet nearly all games in the genre celebrate the hero on the cover of the box, in the main title screen or through cut scenes. Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, two of the most influential first person shooters, even included the character's face in the heads-up display. BioShock does none of these things. I have no idea who my character is, what he looks like, nor do I even know his name. He had a single line of dialogue at the start of the game, but since then he has been silent. The only hints I have received so far are the photo of his parents he was looking at on the plane and the curious tattoo on his wrist. This clever embedded mystery is yet another factor that keeps me chomping at the bit to proceed further into this world.
I could probably go on discussing minutiae but I feel like I've said what needs to be said: BioShock is an excellent video game. In a market that is absolutely swamped with first and third person shooters with increasingly interchangeable characters, settings, and stories, BioShock stands apart with its unique ideas and rich storytelling. There was once a time when all first person shooters were known as "Doom-clones" because they sought to emulate the success of that title so closely. This name fell out of favor as new ideas crept in and the genre developed. If we video gamers are lucky, we can expect some BioShock clones in our future, and I very much look forward to seeing where the genre goes from there.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
My respect for the quality of BioShock overwhelms me; I do not know where to start in proclaiming how much I enjoy this game. Back when I played the demo last fall, I already explained how the game got me hooked right away with its distinctive art style and captivating world. For all the first person shooters set in outer space or on alien planets, BioShock is grounded on Earth in the 1960s. Admittedly, this is a steampunk/alternate history 1960s where humans have the technology to build massive underwater cities and genetically empower themselves with downright magical abilities, but the world of Rapture immediately enthralled me. Lots of video games have random stuff scattered in corners to encourage players to take their time and search their surroundings. BioShock might be the first video game I've ever played where the surroundings alone convince me to slow down and take a good look around (although there's certainly an abundance of items to be found as well).
As a game environment, Rapture is dripping with style and atmosphere. A typical first person shooter game has levels that are about as interesting as a trip to a self-storage warehouse. Graphical fidelity may offer us more visual detail than when the genre was new but few game makers take advantage of that to give their worlds character. Rapture, in contrast, is a underwater city that feels lived-in, making the chaos that tore the city apart all the more chilling. Banners hang from the ceilings proclaiming the ideals of the city's founder while hand-written protest signs, discarded luggage, and corpses litter the hallways. Audio diaries dropped in corners or left on desktops deliver stories of individual residents, warnings and cautionary tales to outsiders that never reached the surface. Was there a singular disaster that drove Rapture's citizens mad, or was the descent a long and torturous process? Did the violence and mayhem come from the top or rise from the bottom? What kind of a society would stock vending machines with food, alcohol, and ammunition? These are questions I ask myself over and over again.
For all its artistic merits, Rapture is also an exceptionally well-crafted space for the player to navigate. These are not linear levels full of monster closets and constrictive hallways, nor are they labyrinthine in their layout forcing the player to run in circles. They feel inspired by mission-driven games like GoldenEye 007 and Perfect Dark where running straight through to the end was not an option. In the two areas I have seen thus far, the exit has been easily accessible from the start but in order to use that exit, I had to accomplish certain tasks first. The in-game map and navigation system made finding what I needed a breeze. Also, crouching and jumping are refreshingly kept to a minimum. Ever since first person shooters realized that such abilities were necessary, game designers seemed to include lots of elaborate jumping puzzles or cramped air ducts that need to be crawled through to justify those motions. BioShock thus far has entirely omitted the former and made sparing use of the latter and I greatly appreciate it.
If the world of Rapture is what's holding my attention, it is the unparalleled emotional content that BioShock delivers that keeps me up at night wondering when I'll play it again. More than any so-called "horror" game, BioShock frightens me constantly, and not just with cheap tricks like enemies who leap into the frame. I dread each new door I open and each new staircase I climb because I fear for what I may find next. The first full area of the game is the "medical pavilion" which includes a funeral home, a crematorium, and a mad surgeon who found frustration with the human form so he just kept operating and operating until he ran out of patients. This is the stuff of real nightmares, not demons or aliens or zombies. I'm already scared of hospitals and mortuaries and who doesn't get anxious about getting anesthetized, wondering if you'll wake up or not?
Beyond the thrills and chills, BioShock also offers something few other games do: sympathetic foes. Unlike the clearly insane Splicers and security automatons who attack you on sight, Big Daddies and Little Sisters are content to ignore you as they go about their own business in Rapture. While the option to rescue or kill the Sisters is one of BioShock's most talked-about feature, it is the choice to fight or avoid the Daddies that I find more compelling. Dealing with the Sisters is not nearly as emotional as the game would have you believe; whichever you choose, it's just a matter of pressing a button and watching what happens next. The characters in the game tell you that "harvesting" the resources in Little Sisters kills the host, but from a player's perspective you never see anything unpleasant. Your character simply picks up the girl, who looks positively monstrous with her glowing eyes, and in a flash she is replaced by a slug and you are rewarded with more power. If this is supposed to give me pause or make me question my actions, it's not working.
By contrast, the Big Daddies are formidable opponents who lumber about Rapture, emitting whale-like moans and shaking the ground (and your controller) with each step. In order to reach the Sisters, you must first take down the Daddy guarding her and that is no small feat. The stakes are high when fighting a Big Daddy and as such, the choice to fight one has much more meaning than the harvest/rescue option the game is so famous for. Killing the Splicers is self-defense, killing the Sisters is abstract, but killing a Big Daddy is deliberate and in the end, they crumple to the ground with more of a whimper than a roar. The Little Sister he was guarding will run to his side and tearfully plead "Wake up, Mr. Bubbles!" Enemies that leave behind grieving children? That's the most powerful moment I've seen in a video game since Aerith died in Final Fantasy VII.
If I were to complain about BioShock, I would point out that there are some minor oddities with the controls that can lead to confusion. The SQUARE button both reloads your equipped weapon/ability and will begin the hacking mini-game when near certain machines. Since the window to hack machines can be brief, this has resulted in a lot of unnecessary reloads because I pressed the button too soon (or too late). Likewise, the X button is the generic "interact" button and is used both for searching objects/enemies and for picking up items. Holding the X button will replay the most recently discovered diary entry in your inventory. In tight spaces, the multipurpose nature of this button can lead to frustration. Say I pick up a diary that is on a shelf with other items. I cannot listen to it until I look away from everything else and press X or else I will start picking up items or searching random boxes.
Of greater concern to me over the long-run of the game is the combat, which is not particularly engaging thus far. The enemies may have lots of personality and talk to themselves for extra creepiness, but they are not very clever. They do not so much "take cover" as run in circles, occasionally disappearing behind an obstacle only to emerge from the other side. Thanks to their manic shouting, they are easy to get the jump on and they almost never ambush me. However, because new Splicers will turn up in areas I previously cleared, the tension level of the game is well-served by their blabbering. I can never feel safe in Rapture; no matter how many maniacs I put down, more will come to loot their bodies and attack me.
That raises another one of BioShock's elements of intrigue: who am I? The nature of a first person shooter is such that I cannot see my on-screen avatar; instead, I see the game world through his eyes. Yet nearly all games in the genre celebrate the hero on the cover of the box, in the main title screen or through cut scenes. Wolfenstein 3D and Doom, two of the most influential first person shooters, even included the character's face in the heads-up display. BioShock does none of these things. I have no idea who my character is, what he looks like, nor do I even know his name. He had a single line of dialogue at the start of the game, but since then he has been silent. The only hints I have received so far are the photo of his parents he was looking at on the plane and the curious tattoo on his wrist. This clever embedded mystery is yet another factor that keeps me chomping at the bit to proceed further into this world.
I could probably go on discussing minutiae but I feel like I've said what needs to be said: BioShock is an excellent video game. In a market that is absolutely swamped with first and third person shooters with increasingly interchangeable characters, settings, and stories, BioShock stands apart with its unique ideas and rich storytelling. There was once a time when all first person shooters were known as "Doom-clones" because they sought to emulate the success of that title so closely. This name fell out of favor as new ideas crept in and the genre developed. If we video gamers are lucky, we can expect some BioShock clones in our future, and I very much look forward to seeing where the genre goes from there.
Labels: BioShock, PS3, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Thursday, June 18, 2009
I Am Dan's Sleep Starved Brain
I can't sleep. For someone with a nickname like "feitclub," this is very bad news. I'm not talking to myself (at least, not more than usual) and I haven't started plotting against society or anything, but without any self-help groups to cavalierly drop in on, I'm not sure how to correct this problem.
Oh don't worry! I mean, if I lay down in bed I will eventually fade out, but it takes a very long time and I am routinely waking up earlier and earlier in the morning regardless of when I turn in. Last night I went to bed at 11, tossed and turned for over an hour and then woke up around 4:30. I never fully fell asleep again, although I didn't get out of bed until it was almost 6. This is not enough rest for me, especially considering how much energy and liveliness my job demands.
The potential causes, as I see them, are numerous and overlapping. First and foremost is Mako and the frustratingly-unborn son she's still carrying. After her appointment last Friday and some sudden discomfort on Saturday, I was sure this kid was on the fast track for the birth canal. No such luck; it's now Thursday and she feels no closer to delivery than she did at the start of the month. She'll visit the doctor again tomorrow and we'll see what the the prognosis is, but I suspect this hovering uncertainty is definitely preventing me from drifting off into peaceful sleep since I'm so anxious about Mako's condition. The evidence supporting this theory is the fact that I sleep much better on the weekends when I am at her parents' house lying next to her.
Not helping matters is the ever-increasing temperature in my apartment. Technically speaking, Japan is in the midst of its annual rainy season, but it hasn't rained since last week. Instead, each day has been sunny and warm with a rather uncomfortably high level of humidity. I'm not at the point where I've turned on the A/C or started taking a second shower to cool down, but the bedroom is the stuffiest room in our apartment and the oscillating fan can only do so much to help me relax.
Another recent matter that might be adversely affecting my sleeping habits is my new-found video gaming time. Ever since Mako moved back to her parents' house I've been taking advantage of my audio/visual freedom and firing up the consoles on a nightly basis. For a few weeks, Richard and I were blasting our way through Resident Evil 5, so much so that the only trophy left to earn is the big one: complete the game on Professional Mode where the enemies are faster and nearly all of their attacks are lethal. The steep increase in difficulty has proven to be disheartening because the game is a lot less fun now. We've already played through all these stages multiple times to get this far, so repeated failures and restarts on Professional Mode feel like an extraordinary waste of time.
As a departure of sorts, I've finally forced myself to play BioShock and so far, it's every bit as absorbing as I hoped it would be. Indeed, the tension level is as high as any other video game I've ever played. For all the shambling zombie-like foes I've faced in Resident Evil 5, BioShock is the first game that's scared me in a long time. It's not that the mad residents of Rapture are more threatening than waves of infected Africans, it's their world that is so deeply unsettling to me. The so-called "Splicers" who roam the underwater city of Rapture all look like they were attending a party with the ghosts in the Overlook Hotel. Most of them wear odd-looking masks, which is just creepy, and they talk. A lot. Sometimes they yell at me, sometimes they argue amongst themselves, and some of them just babble and wail to no one in particular. There was a freaky moment at the start of the game where I approached a weeping woman who was fawning over a baby carriage. When I bashed her with my pipe wrench, I looked into the carriage to see what she was talking to: a revolver. That's just plain nuts right there.
Well, you get the idea of what I'm dealing with each night. Between worrying about my wife, sweating through my clothes and plugging myself into some intense virtual worlds, it's been difficult for me to just settle down and go to sleep at 11 or even at midnight. I know I should be doing all I can to sleep now before a crying baby moves in with us, but it's not like I'll be able to play many games when he's here. Either way, I'm going to be drowsy, so I might as well have my fun while I can.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Oh don't worry! I mean, if I lay down in bed I will eventually fade out, but it takes a very long time and I am routinely waking up earlier and earlier in the morning regardless of when I turn in. Last night I went to bed at 11, tossed and turned for over an hour and then woke up around 4:30. I never fully fell asleep again, although I didn't get out of bed until it was almost 6. This is not enough rest for me, especially considering how much energy and liveliness my job demands.
The potential causes, as I see them, are numerous and overlapping. First and foremost is Mako and the frustratingly-unborn son she's still carrying. After her appointment last Friday and some sudden discomfort on Saturday, I was sure this kid was on the fast track for the birth canal. No such luck; it's now Thursday and she feels no closer to delivery than she did at the start of the month. She'll visit the doctor again tomorrow and we'll see what the the prognosis is, but I suspect this hovering uncertainty is definitely preventing me from drifting off into peaceful sleep since I'm so anxious about Mako's condition. The evidence supporting this theory is the fact that I sleep much better on the weekends when I am at her parents' house lying next to her.
Not helping matters is the ever-increasing temperature in my apartment. Technically speaking, Japan is in the midst of its annual rainy season, but it hasn't rained since last week. Instead, each day has been sunny and warm with a rather uncomfortably high level of humidity. I'm not at the point where I've turned on the A/C or started taking a second shower to cool down, but the bedroom is the stuffiest room in our apartment and the oscillating fan can only do so much to help me relax.
Another recent matter that might be adversely affecting my sleeping habits is my new-found video gaming time. Ever since Mako moved back to her parents' house I've been taking advantage of my audio/visual freedom and firing up the consoles on a nightly basis. For a few weeks, Richard and I were blasting our way through Resident Evil 5, so much so that the only trophy left to earn is the big one: complete the game on Professional Mode where the enemies are faster and nearly all of their attacks are lethal. The steep increase in difficulty has proven to be disheartening because the game is a lot less fun now. We've already played through all these stages multiple times to get this far, so repeated failures and restarts on Professional Mode feel like an extraordinary waste of time.
As a departure of sorts, I've finally forced myself to play BioShock and so far, it's every bit as absorbing as I hoped it would be. Indeed, the tension level is as high as any other video game I've ever played. For all the shambling zombie-like foes I've faced in Resident Evil 5, BioShock is the first game that's scared me in a long time. It's not that the mad residents of Rapture are more threatening than waves of infected Africans, it's their world that is so deeply unsettling to me. The so-called "Splicers" who roam the underwater city of Rapture all look like they were attending a party with the ghosts in the Overlook Hotel. Most of them wear odd-looking masks, which is just creepy, and they talk. A lot. Sometimes they yell at me, sometimes they argue amongst themselves, and some of them just babble and wail to no one in particular. There was a freaky moment at the start of the game where I approached a weeping woman who was fawning over a baby carriage. When I bashed her with my pipe wrench, I looked into the carriage to see what she was talking to: a revolver. That's just plain nuts right there.
Well, you get the idea of what I'm dealing with each night. Between worrying about my wife, sweating through my clothes and plugging myself into some intense virtual worlds, it's been difficult for me to just settle down and go to sleep at 11 or even at midnight. I know I should be doing all I can to sleep now before a crying baby moves in with us, but it's not like I'll be able to play many games when he's here. Either way, I'm going to be drowsy, so I might as well have my fun while I can.
Labels: BioShock, family, Fight Club, pregnancy, Resident Evil, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Demohazard
My friend Richard, bless his heart, lives alone in Japan. We talk a lot via Skype, typically while watching sumo or insane Japanese variety programs, but Richard is more of a gamer than he is a television fan. He has been encouraging me to find time to play games with him online and I've kind of been avoiding him, mostly because our Resistance 2 sessions earlier this year put my wife into a rather sour mood. However, since she has gone to her parents' house to prepare for the imminent delivery, Richard argued that this was my last chance to enjoy any kind of online gaming for a long time. After all, when she returns there will be a new human being living here who demands constant attention.
I knew Richard was right. It was time to return to the world of survival horror.
You may recall my excitement over Resident Evil 5 late last year when I used the Jedi mind trick to convince a retail clerk to give me a demo version of the game at a time when only new PS3 owners could play it. As much fun as it was to get my hands on something rare (at the time), when I actually sat down and played it I was sorely disappointed. The awkward control scheme, the confusing lack of objectives (fight or flight? stay or go?) and the weakness of the weapons really soured me on the game as a whole. It looked great, yes, but it was neither fun nor scary; it was just annoying. Once the game actually went on sale, I heard many people echo my own complaints, reassuring me that I had made the right call.
However, there were also a substantial number of people who proclaimed that Resident Evil 5 was much better than the demo had led on. While every game, no matter how bad, is bound to have its defenders, I found that my friends were among these voices of support. There developed an odd kind of peer pressure where different friends encouraged me to buy on the game on PS3 or Xbox so I could play with them. Normally I am my own worst enemy when it comes to impulse purchases, but now I was receiving near-demands from others to join the party. Still I held out, partly because I had other games to play but mostly because I felt I had already given the game its fair shake and rejected it.
With this new-found gaming time (because Mako has gone to her parents' house) and another generous loan from Alex (thanks again, sir), I finally played Resident Evil 5 for real on Sunday. Even though Richard had completed the game already, he was happy to play it again with me, both to seek out more hidden objects and for the sheer fun of it. He tried to share some of his upgraded weapons with me but the game, rather smartly, wouldn't allow it. Having a friend with both advanced items and knowledge of the game was advantage enough; anything more than that and our survival horror would become a survival cakewalk.
I don't know whether it was having more context to the bizarre situations or simply a matter of having played the demo a couple of times, but everything about Resident Evil 5 was better than I remembered. Playing alongside Richard and knowing where to go certainly helped cut down on frustration, but more than that, the entire game just seemed more accessible and entertaining than I had previously thought. The controls no longer felt like an obstacle, probably because the demo had already made them familiar to me. Most importantly, the combat was fun rather than being a chore.
The bigger issue here is not how fun Resident Evil 5 turned out to be but how wrong I was to have judged it as I did after playing an arbitrary piece of it as a demo. One could argue that my failed experience with the demo was in fact valuable preparation time for the real thing; that is, had I never played the demo and simply sat down with the game cold, I would have encountered all of the same problems, quirks and irritants as I did before. While that might be true, there's no way to know if I would have reacted to those things in the way that I did. Also, it doesn't hold up when contrasted with my other recent video game demo playthroughs.
I was rather down on the demo of Resistance 2 that I played at Tokyo Game Show but I ended up receiving that game as a gift and playing through the entire story mode. The demo was an accurate taste of the first stage, albeit a rushed one that followed a very long wait in line which presumably put me in a bad mood. I credit my eventual seduction by that game to the excellent online co-op mode which then led me to try the single-player mode once I had no time to play online anymore.
Conversely, I absolutely adored the demo of Mirror's Edge and bought it based solely on that initial positive experience, but the real game turned out to be much more frustrating than I had previously thought. Lowering the difficulty somewhat recaptured the fun I had remembered, but I have yet to fully return to the game and play anything beyond the prologue. Then again, I haven't gotten around to playing BioShock yet either and I can't blame that on anything besides my own state of mind. The demo I played in October was phenomenal and the real game wasn't any different. I just haven't convinced myself to explore that glorious underwater world.
Looking at these conflicting examples, there's no clear connection between a good demo or a bad demo and enjoying or not enjoying the full game. Of course, the entertainment value of a video game (or any media for that matter) is not a simple Boolean matter. I can't draw a line and sort out games which are Fun versus those which are Not Fun. Taste is subjective and constantly in flux. At first I liked PixelJunk Eden, then I grew bored of it, then I suddenly rediscovered it and felt compelled to finish it. There's still time for me to enjoy Mirror's Edge or BioShock just as there's still time for me to reject Resident Evil 5.
I still feel like playing demo versions of video games is the best way to determine whether I should buy the full version or not. No amount of screenshots or gameplay footage can equal the hands-on test that a demo offers. However, it is vital that I keep in mind that a lot can change between the release of a demo and the release of the finished product. More than the graphics or the controls or the difficulty or any other technological tweaks, I can change and that's something nobody can predict - least of all me.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
I knew Richard was right. It was time to return to the world of survival horror.
You may recall my excitement over Resident Evil 5 late last year when I used the Jedi mind trick to convince a retail clerk to give me a demo version of the game at a time when only new PS3 owners could play it. As much fun as it was to get my hands on something rare (at the time), when I actually sat down and played it I was sorely disappointed. The awkward control scheme, the confusing lack of objectives (fight or flight? stay or go?) and the weakness of the weapons really soured me on the game as a whole. It looked great, yes, but it was neither fun nor scary; it was just annoying. Once the game actually went on sale, I heard many people echo my own complaints, reassuring me that I had made the right call.
However, there were also a substantial number of people who proclaimed that Resident Evil 5 was much better than the demo had led on. While every game, no matter how bad, is bound to have its defenders, I found that my friends were among these voices of support. There developed an odd kind of peer pressure where different friends encouraged me to buy on the game on PS3 or Xbox so I could play with them. Normally I am my own worst enemy when it comes to impulse purchases, but now I was receiving near-demands from others to join the party. Still I held out, partly because I had other games to play but mostly because I felt I had already given the game its fair shake and rejected it.
With this new-found gaming time (because Mako has gone to her parents' house) and another generous loan from Alex (thanks again, sir), I finally played Resident Evil 5 for real on Sunday. Even though Richard had completed the game already, he was happy to play it again with me, both to seek out more hidden objects and for the sheer fun of it. He tried to share some of his upgraded weapons with me but the game, rather smartly, wouldn't allow it. Having a friend with both advanced items and knowledge of the game was advantage enough; anything more than that and our survival horror would become a survival cakewalk.
I don't know whether it was having more context to the bizarre situations or simply a matter of having played the demo a couple of times, but everything about Resident Evil 5 was better than I remembered. Playing alongside Richard and knowing where to go certainly helped cut down on frustration, but more than that, the entire game just seemed more accessible and entertaining than I had previously thought. The controls no longer felt like an obstacle, probably because the demo had already made them familiar to me. Most importantly, the combat was fun rather than being a chore.
The bigger issue here is not how fun Resident Evil 5 turned out to be but how wrong I was to have judged it as I did after playing an arbitrary piece of it as a demo. One could argue that my failed experience with the demo was in fact valuable preparation time for the real thing; that is, had I never played the demo and simply sat down with the game cold, I would have encountered all of the same problems, quirks and irritants as I did before. While that might be true, there's no way to know if I would have reacted to those things in the way that I did. Also, it doesn't hold up when contrasted with my other recent video game demo playthroughs.
I was rather down on the demo of Resistance 2 that I played at Tokyo Game Show but I ended up receiving that game as a gift and playing through the entire story mode. The demo was an accurate taste of the first stage, albeit a rushed one that followed a very long wait in line which presumably put me in a bad mood. I credit my eventual seduction by that game to the excellent online co-op mode which then led me to try the single-player mode once I had no time to play online anymore.
Conversely, I absolutely adored the demo of Mirror's Edge and bought it based solely on that initial positive experience, but the real game turned out to be much more frustrating than I had previously thought. Lowering the difficulty somewhat recaptured the fun I had remembered, but I have yet to fully return to the game and play anything beyond the prologue. Then again, I haven't gotten around to playing BioShock yet either and I can't blame that on anything besides my own state of mind. The demo I played in October was phenomenal and the real game wasn't any different. I just haven't convinced myself to explore that glorious underwater world.
Looking at these conflicting examples, there's no clear connection between a good demo or a bad demo and enjoying or not enjoying the full game. Of course, the entertainment value of a video game (or any media for that matter) is not a simple Boolean matter. I can't draw a line and sort out games which are Fun versus those which are Not Fun. Taste is subjective and constantly in flux. At first I liked PixelJunk Eden, then I grew bored of it, then I suddenly rediscovered it and felt compelled to finish it. There's still time for me to enjoy Mirror's Edge or BioShock just as there's still time for me to reject Resident Evil 5.
I still feel like playing demo versions of video games is the best way to determine whether I should buy the full version or not. No amount of screenshots or gameplay footage can equal the hands-on test that a demo offers. However, it is vital that I keep in mind that a lot can change between the release of a demo and the release of the finished product. More than the graphics or the controls or the difficulty or any other technological tweaks, I can change and that's something nobody can predict - least of all me.
Labels: Alex, BioShock, friends, Mirror's Edge, PixelJunk, RE5, Resistance 2, Richard, TGS, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Monday, February 02, 2009
Spoiler Alert (I Must Be)
Due to the peculiarities of our little planet, Sunday night in New York equals Monday morning in Japan. As millions of Americans sat down with their delicious drinks and their salty snacks to watch the Super Bowl, I was riding a bus to Hana Town so I could get to work. Once I arrived I was forced to restrain myself from using any kind of Internet application, else I learn the results of the game before I could get home and see the rebroadcast myself. While I sat in the office, purposely isolating myself from information I wanted to know, I thought about the nature of "spoilers."
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Mako and I have just recently gotten into two American serial dramas on DVD, Prison Break and Battlestar Galactica. Admittedly, I'm more into the latter than the former (with Mako feeling the exact opposite) but we are actively renting both shows right now. While the subject matter couldn't be more dissimilar, both programs focus on a long-term story over individual, self-contained episodes and both shows are coming to an end this year. In the case of Prison Break, I know for a fact that they spend every season after the first on the run so they must manage to get out of prison sooner or later, yet I am on board for every sudden twist and failed maneuver along the way. It doesn't matter that they're going to escape, I still don't know how, when or who makes it at this point and I am really enjoying the ride.
I am one of those people who takes spoilers pretty seriously. Whether it's the end of a book, a major story arc on TV or even an impressive stunt in a film, I don't want to hear about it second-hand. I want to experience that moment, whatever it may be, on my own terms when I watch/read/play it myself. My outlook is this: people make these stories with an audience in mind. Every surprise, every joke, every tragic death has meaning only because of the narrative that surrounds it. Every element of the story is tied to some other element. The whole is more than the sum of its parts: take one part out of context and feature it in commercials or plaster it across the internet, and the whole is diminished.
Using this admittedly broad definition, it would seem that almost every detail about a book, TV show, movie or video game qualifies as a spoiler. Does this mean that every story I encounter is "spoiled" because I know what actors appear in it or how many seasons the show runs for? Not necessarily. A spoiler is not a black and white concept to me; there are many subtle levels. Given that there is so much media out there vying for my attention, I must take in a certain amount of sensitive information in order to develop an interest in any given piece of entertainment. Something must be "spoiled" in order to establish a story as one I care about.
Take Cloverfield as an example. Would I have rented that film based on nothing but the title? Not a chance, it sounds like a Jane Austin novel. It was only after I found out it was a monster movie (with a gimmick) that I decided I wanted to see it. At the same time, I can only imagine the incredible evening I would have had watching it without knowing a giant creature was going to attack Manhattan by the end of the film. There was also a substantial amount of buzz surrounding one shocking moment, leaving me to sit and wait for it to happen rather than actually be shocked when...no, I won't say it.
So where do I draw the line? What's the difference between a "enjoy the ride" spoiler versus a "sit and wait" spoiler? I wish I could tell you but there simply isn't a way to tell ahead of time what is or is not a cataclysmic bombshell. That's why I'm so cautious about investigating any story and why, once I know I'm interested, I actively avoid learning anything more. When I go to the movies, I close my eyes during nearly every trailer. When I watch Battlestar Galactica, I turn away from the opening credits because they are, bizarrely enough, packed with dramatic moments from the episode I am about to watch. And when a video game podcast starts discussing the highlights of any narrative-driven game I'm hoping to play, I fast-forward until I'm convinced they've moved onto another topic.
Video games are a curious case because they should, in theory, be spoiler-proof by virtue of their interactivity. Enjoying a video game requires you to pick up the controller and actually play through it, so no amount of plot points revealed in advance should rob you of that entertainment. I certainly can't think of any sensitive information I could have heard about Portal, a phenomenal game that I first played months after it became a "huge success," which would have detracted from the experience in any way. There are also scores of video games that have no narrative to speak of, making the only potential "spoilers" being the solutions to the levels. Yet entire websites devoted to video game strategies and solutions exist to answer players' questions. I know I wouldn't have gotten all those PixelJunk Monsters trophies without the occasional tip from GameFAQs.
Contrary to all these points, I am perhaps more paranoid about video game spoilers than of any other media. Much of this revolves around the issue of time. It takes a lot longer to finish a video game than it does a book or a movie, so it's harder to think of myself as "caught up" with what's popular. I may have a chance to see all of the Best Picture nominees by the time the Oscars are handed out, but it's unlikely I will ever finish more than one (if that) of the Game of the Year candidates for 2008. Serial television dramas are similarly hard to catch up with and can run for years, but they also unfold at a uniform pace for everyone. Nobody knows how Lost or Heroes will end yet because the public knowledge of the story is limited to those episodes that have already aired. Once a game like Resident Evil 5 hits the shelves, I expect people to be chattering about major plot points within days, if not hours.
That "chatter" is the other major issue with video games compared to other media: the integral role that the internet plays in gaming culture. The only way to be informed on what new releases look promising or potential additions/updates are available for the games you own is to be online. I don't need to visit any message boards or read any blogs to know when House airs, so the odds that I may come across spoilers is pretty slim. With games, I exist in a constant flinching state when I read through sites like Kotaku, hoping that the page I'm reading does not casually reveal why that plane crashes at the start of BioShock. Yes, it did and no, there was no warning. It wasn't even an article about the game!
Of course, when it comes to sports, the line is pretty easy to draw: knowing the final score before watching the game robs me of all interest. If I had read last year about the Giants' incredible upset of the Patriots while I was at work, I would have been very happy as a Giants fan but I doubt I would have actually turned on the game when I got home. So in the interest of enjoying this year's Super Bowl, I'm just going to shut out the world for a few more hours. I hope it's worth it.
Labels: BioShock, BSG, Cloverfield, football, movies, Portal, Prison Break, sports, television, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
Friday, October 03, 2008
Friday Night Rapture
I saw this Japanese guy the other day with "F*CK" written across the ass of his jeans. Pretty funny on its own, but what killed me was the placement of the star. It was almost dead center, lying on the seam as if it was a guide - or a bullseye - to his crack. If I had bigger balls I would have just snapped a picture but cellphone cameras are, by design, extremely non-discreet. I would have had a hell of a time explaining why I was surreptitiously photographing him from behind.
As predicted, I had a busy week. Beyond the usual work issues, the weather was so unpleasant that we had to leave our laundry hanging inside and perform multiple loads mid-week. It felt like I was coming home to a laundromat every day and nothing seemed to be drying as it should. It wasn't much, but juggling soggy shirts and towels felt a little taxing this week when combined with job stuff. Of course, the gloomy weather that forced our laundry inside in the first place wasn't helping my mood either.
Today was different. Very, very different. Sure, I was busy, but on Fridays I don't mind busy. Yes, I had to scold several children who were ignoring me or fighting with each other in class, but on Fridays I don't mind discipline. And when I was teaching class entirely by myself because the teachers either left the room or sat completely silent while I struggled to explain things in Japanese (that's their job, of course), I smiled and reminded myself that on Fridays I don't mind doing everything myself. Little did I suspect what this particular Friday would have in store for me once work was over.
I came home and clicked on the PS3 to check out what new offerings, if any, were in store for me. The PSN Store is updated every Thursday but that's on US time. Here in Japan I'm asleep when those changes are made, so my first chance to explore it is on Friday afternoon. I didn't have anything particular in mind that I wanted, so if nothing of interest popped up I guess I planned on buying Mega Man 9 so I can stop wondering how hard it might be, geek out, and just play it already. But I discovered there was something that is definitely "of interest" to me: a demo version of BioShock.
Let me explain the situation a little bit for those unfamiliar with this game in particular or video games in general. BioShock was released last year on PC and Xbox 360 to tremendous professional acclaim, so much so that its reputation as a must-experience title became a given among gamer-types on the Internet. Much like Portal, its quality was so widely praised that it became an "instant classic" of sorts and I found it repeatedly pushed before my eyes as something I should be playing. After a little research and a lot of tweaking, I did purchase and play through Portal this spring. It didn't look so hot because I had to compromise some settings in order to get it running on my two-year old laptop, but it certainly lived up to the hype. More than a great game, I felt it was one of the greatest science-fiction stories I had ever experienced. If I ever find the funds to get myself back into PC gaming-proper, I will definitely play through it a second time just to experience it again with the proper aesthetics.
BioShock, on the other hand, proved to be beyond my reach. No amount of tinkering would get it to work on my computer and it's not even available for sale in Japan, so the monetary and logistical investment needed to play that game was simply out of the question. Contrasting console platforms and PC system requirements are among the most frustrating elements of being an avid video game enthusiast, for these barriers are unique among major forms of entertainment. International-release schedules aside, there's nothing to stop me from selecting any film in the local DVD store and watching it at home, because I own a DVD player. Video games are only available in specific formats that require specific hardware. If you don't have it, you cannot play that game. I could do nothing but continue to hear of it lauded as a magical superlative of gaming while I sat around and played other, non-BioShock games.
At least, that was the case until this evening, when I discovered a demonstration version of BioShock available for download. It's coming soon to the PS3 and this was going to be my first hands-on experience with the ferociously-celebrated game. When I fired up the demo I was immediately impressed by the art-style, a kind of Miami art-deco mixed with The Hudsucker Proxy. It was a snap judgment on the most basic of elements, but I took it as a good sign.
More importantly, the publishers made sure to launch the player (um, that's me, I guess) directly into the environment while still maintaining a user-friendly system that explained to me what control options were available. I've played a lot of very poor demos on the PS3; some that felt way too hard (Mega Man 9 for sure), some that didn't clue me in on what the game was about (Mercenaries 2 and Haze just toss you straight into a war zone with virtually no orientation or guidance) and some were just plain boring (Star Wars: Force Unleashed). While I have no confirmation on this yet, I suspect BioShock did the right thing by making the demo the same as the opening of the real game. On-screen prompts and a mysterious voice on a radio gave me a steady stream of necessary info and the Pause menu featured a ton of material on the rules of the game.
Best of all, the whole thing just explodes - literally - from the start and demands your full attention. When the opening animation featured a guy sitting on a plane and thinking out loud, I was preparing myself for a long backstory or a text crawl of exposition. Instead, the plane crashed and my character was alone in the water, gasping for breath and surrounded by flames. Again, I expected some animation to show my guy find his way to shore or be rescued by a passing ship. Not at all: this is the beginning of the game. I was stunned to find myself in control when I tapped the joystick out of curiosity.
It didn't take me too long to find my way onto some sort of island where the story started to unfold one step at a time while continuing to leave me in control at all times. No long cinematic sequences (save for a brief, creepy encounter with a little girl), no prophetic documents explaining who I was or where I was going; I took what facts I could from my surroundings and kept moving forward, gathering what little new information I could. The demo doesn't go very far (as one might expect) but when it ended I felt positively exhilarated. My heart was racing and my mind was flooded with anticipation - I was, rather, I am roaring to experience more of this world. I know I've only played a minuscule portion of the game thus far and the story or gameplay may yet turn out to be more repetitive or laborious than I might enjoy, but considering the mountains of recommendations the game has received combined with the stellar opening chapter (or possibly half-chapter) I saw this evening, I am sold. Bring it, BioShock. I want it.
That would have been a very exciting end to a post mostly about video games, except my evening wasn't over. Hell, it was less than two hours later when I got the e-mail telling me I qualified for a free beta trial of LittleBigPlanet, another upcoming game I have a considerable interest in. Of course, as video games go LBP couldn't be more different than BioShock and my head is spinning from the juxtaposition of the two titles in a single night. However, it is getting quite late right now and LBP is the kind of game that needs a lot more than a summary of why I want to play with it (note my choice of words). So I'm going to go to sleep and I'll let you know what I think of that game in a couple days. It deserves that much.
Still...even at this hour I am positively blown away by what I saw tonight...BioShock...you son of a bitch...what if you are as good as they say?
つづく...(Click here to read more)
As predicted, I had a busy week. Beyond the usual work issues, the weather was so unpleasant that we had to leave our laundry hanging inside and perform multiple loads mid-week. It felt like I was coming home to a laundromat every day and nothing seemed to be drying as it should. It wasn't much, but juggling soggy shirts and towels felt a little taxing this week when combined with job stuff. Of course, the gloomy weather that forced our laundry inside in the first place wasn't helping my mood either.
Today was different. Very, very different. Sure, I was busy, but on Fridays I don't mind busy. Yes, I had to scold several children who were ignoring me or fighting with each other in class, but on Fridays I don't mind discipline. And when I was teaching class entirely by myself because the teachers either left the room or sat completely silent while I struggled to explain things in Japanese (that's their job, of course), I smiled and reminded myself that on Fridays I don't mind doing everything myself. Little did I suspect what this particular Friday would have in store for me once work was over.
I came home and clicked on the PS3 to check out what new offerings, if any, were in store for me. The PSN Store is updated every Thursday but that's on US time. Here in Japan I'm asleep when those changes are made, so my first chance to explore it is on Friday afternoon. I didn't have anything particular in mind that I wanted, so if nothing of interest popped up I guess I planned on buying Mega Man 9 so I can stop wondering how hard it might be, geek out, and just play it already. But I discovered there was something that is definitely "of interest" to me: a demo version of BioShock.
Let me explain the situation a little bit for those unfamiliar with this game in particular or video games in general. BioShock was released last year on PC and Xbox 360 to tremendous professional acclaim, so much so that its reputation as a must-experience title became a given among gamer-types on the Internet. Much like Portal, its quality was so widely praised that it became an "instant classic" of sorts and I found it repeatedly pushed before my eyes as something I should be playing. After a little research and a lot of tweaking, I did purchase and play through Portal this spring. It didn't look so hot because I had to compromise some settings in order to get it running on my two-year old laptop, but it certainly lived up to the hype. More than a great game, I felt it was one of the greatest science-fiction stories I had ever experienced. If I ever find the funds to get myself back into PC gaming-proper, I will definitely play through it a second time just to experience it again with the proper aesthetics.
BioShock, on the other hand, proved to be beyond my reach. No amount of tinkering would get it to work on my computer and it's not even available for sale in Japan, so the monetary and logistical investment needed to play that game was simply out of the question. Contrasting console platforms and PC system requirements are among the most frustrating elements of being an avid video game enthusiast, for these barriers are unique among major forms of entertainment. International-release schedules aside, there's nothing to stop me from selecting any film in the local DVD store and watching it at home, because I own a DVD player. Video games are only available in specific formats that require specific hardware. If you don't have it, you cannot play that game. I could do nothing but continue to hear of it lauded as a magical superlative of gaming while I sat around and played other, non-BioShock games.
At least, that was the case until this evening, when I discovered a demonstration version of BioShock available for download. It's coming soon to the PS3 and this was going to be my first hands-on experience with the ferociously-celebrated game. When I fired up the demo I was immediately impressed by the art-style, a kind of Miami art-deco mixed with The Hudsucker Proxy. It was a snap judgment on the most basic of elements, but I took it as a good sign.
More importantly, the publishers made sure to launch the player (um, that's me, I guess) directly into the environment while still maintaining a user-friendly system that explained to me what control options were available. I've played a lot of very poor demos on the PS3; some that felt way too hard (Mega Man 9 for sure), some that didn't clue me in on what the game was about (Mercenaries 2 and Haze just toss you straight into a war zone with virtually no orientation or guidance) and some were just plain boring (Star Wars: Force Unleashed). While I have no confirmation on this yet, I suspect BioShock did the right thing by making the demo the same as the opening of the real game. On-screen prompts and a mysterious voice on a radio gave me a steady stream of necessary info and the Pause menu featured a ton of material on the rules of the game.
Best of all, the whole thing just explodes - literally - from the start and demands your full attention. When the opening animation featured a guy sitting on a plane and thinking out loud, I was preparing myself for a long backstory or a text crawl of exposition. Instead, the plane crashed and my character was alone in the water, gasping for breath and surrounded by flames. Again, I expected some animation to show my guy find his way to shore or be rescued by a passing ship. Not at all: this is the beginning of the game. I was stunned to find myself in control when I tapped the joystick out of curiosity.
It didn't take me too long to find my way onto some sort of island where the story started to unfold one step at a time while continuing to leave me in control at all times. No long cinematic sequences (save for a brief, creepy encounter with a little girl), no prophetic documents explaining who I was or where I was going; I took what facts I could from my surroundings and kept moving forward, gathering what little new information I could. The demo doesn't go very far (as one might expect) but when it ended I felt positively exhilarated. My heart was racing and my mind was flooded with anticipation - I was, rather, I am roaring to experience more of this world. I know I've only played a minuscule portion of the game thus far and the story or gameplay may yet turn out to be more repetitive or laborious than I might enjoy, but considering the mountains of recommendations the game has received combined with the stellar opening chapter (or possibly half-chapter) I saw this evening, I am sold. Bring it, BioShock. I want it.
That would have been a very exciting end to a post mostly about video games, except my evening wasn't over. Hell, it was less than two hours later when I got the e-mail telling me I qualified for a free beta trial of LittleBigPlanet, another upcoming game I have a considerable interest in. Of course, as video games go LBP couldn't be more different than BioShock and my head is spinning from the juxtaposition of the two titles in a single night. However, it is getting quite late right now and LBP is the kind of game that needs a lot more than a summary of why I want to play with it (note my choice of words). So I'm going to go to sleep and I'll let you know what I think of that game in a couple days. It deserves that much.
Still...even at this hour I am positively blown away by what I saw tonight...BioShock...you son of a bitch...what if you are as good as they say?
Labels: BioShock, Portal, PS3, video games
つづく...(Click here to read more)
