Now back to my 2010 games. We're in the fall now. At my lab, my supervisor has a massive collection of games that he lets people in the lab borrow. We also have a (backwards-compatible) PS3 in the office. And, as much of a gamer as I call myself, I never actually owned a PS2. So I decided to start off the fall with some PS2 games which I had wanted to play but never got around to.
Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
16 Colossi? I can do it in a day. And so I did, I decided I'd attempt to beat the game in one sitting (discounting food and bathroom and such). And indeed, I had a ~10 hour power session where I played the game start to finish. I'm lucky the PS3 didn't burst into flames after so much continuous play. But it was extremely easy to play the game for a stretch like that. You don't NEED to take a break from the game, you can just keep playing and playing...I was really impressed by this game, and my only disappointment is that it took me so long to play it.
Art Games
When people ask the question "Are video games art?," this game always is brought forth as supporting evidence. Playing this game, it's very easy to agree with that sentiment, but it's much harder to dissect it and figure out exactly WHY it feels like art in game form. And I don't pretend to have a good answer for how to craft an art game, but I'll make a few observations. It's a very lonely game, you often find yourself traveling with just your horse across a huge landscape. A lot of games don't really give you an opportunity to reflect while playing (without becoming boring), but this game hits a sweet spot there. Mechanically, it's extremely simple and consistent. You retain the same set of skills throughout the game, but you're provided with different scenarios with which to use those techniques. Also related to consistency, the feeling of grandeur is extremely persistent, from the temple, to the landscape, to the colossi. It's one thing to scale up your art assets, but to create that feeling of battling massive foes as well as this game does is quite a feat. And, while not an extremely short game, there is no "fluff" present, I'll be very angry if someone claims that the traveling is fluff. Another game I've heard called art is Portal, and indeed, there are some similarities with what I've mentioned - simplicity, consistency, lack of "fluff." I don't really know what it even MEANS for a game to be an "art game", it's kind of an I'll-know-it-when-I-play-it thing, far from a universal standard, but if it means more games like this then I'm all for it.
Spoilers Ahoy!!!
I've played plenty of video games which have featured character deaths. At the risk of sounding cold, it rarely fazes me. But when Agro "died," yeah he survived but I didn't know that at the time, I was so incredibly shocked and upset. That horse was really your character's only companion throughout the game, and he "died" in a last ditch effort to save his master and friend. I hated the colossi at that point, and was ready to make the final push to finish those bastards off. Also, while I'm talking about spoilers, that ending sequence - becoming a colossus, struggling in vain to escape the vortex, fantastic. I don't believe that scene would have been nearly at powerful if it was in a cutscene. But they let YOU be the colossus, and YOU can resist the winds of fate in vain. Can you tell that this game actually managed to manipulate my emotions? Games just never do that for me, I loved it.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (PS2)
My prior Metal Gear experience was Metal Gear (NES ) and Metal Gear Solid (PSX). And I really loved both of those games, so this seemed like a fine choice to continue my progress into the series. I really enjoyed the game and saw a lot of content, but I definitely owe this game a replay, it seems that there was a lot going on that I wasn't aware of. Apparently there's a lot to be found by interrogating people, I sort of never figured out how to do that... So while this is still a remarkable game at face value for those who do a standard or slightly-investigative playthrough, I don't have a lot to say about many of the more subtle intricacies of the world. I will report back when I get a chance to continue that investigation.
The Story
It'd be hard to talk about this game without mentioning the story. I'm not going to walk through the whole plot, I'd probably need a refresher anyways, but this game's story is fantastic. Yes, you will spend a good chunk of your time watching cutscenes, but it's totally worth it here. Spoilers ahead. It had so many great characters and scenes - I was definitely a fan of one set of scenes in particular. First, Snake loses his eye in the torture chamber. Later, he is with Eva, and a butterfly flies by. He tries to grab it, but is depressingly unable to with his now impaired depth perception. But they gave this little scene closure, he later molds C4 into a butterfly shape, tosses it high, and catches it. It was a small scene but it was just right.
The Quirky Gameplay
Consistent with my other Metal Gear experiences, this game has it's fair share of innovative and quirky gameplay moments. Consider in MGS1, when you get taken prisoner and your inventory is stolen, upon its recovery, you are being tracked because they planted a device in it. Getting rid of it is as simple as discarding it from your inventory. It's something a REAL spy would have thought of. In MGS3, one sort of quirky twist I liked was the "battle" with The Sorrow. Here, you are in some weird dream-state-spirit-world thing...whatever. But you are forced to march down a river of death, and in this river is every enemy you've killed in the game. Fortunately, I didn't have THAT many unnecessary casualties, but still, it was a long walk, and a great scene which subverts the common video game trope of killing without consequence.
The Bosses
Okay, I just wanted to make a "The X" title one more time. But the boss battles were varied and great. I just need to complain that during the final form of the Volgin tank fight the PS3 froze and sent me back to laying C4, I was quite peeved.
The Explosion
This is a real life anecdote. I was at the scene where Snake is being electrically tortured by Volgin. At the same time, the lighting in the lab is getting repaired, you might see where this is going. Anyways, after the lights were replaced in my room, I resumed playing, and the repairman left to flip the corresponding breaker back for the lights. Well, poor me is getting zapped in the game, and all of a sudden there's an explosion on the ceiling in real life and there's a waterfall of sparks raining down around me. I don't know if I've ever run so fast. The breaker tripped again, so it didn't last very long, but damn, that was absolutely perfect timing with the events of the game.
Minecraft (PC)
I'm not sure whether to love or hate Minecraft. On one hand, it brought me back to my Lego-loving childhood self, where I was just in this environment of pure creation. On the other, it siphoned away so many hours by preying on my often OCD-like habits in games. I'd say it checks out as A-OK in my book, though.
It's hard to make general statements about Minecraft - it really can be many, many things. For me, it was mostly about terraforming and building large structures. For others, it might be exploring the theoretically infinite landscape. Others might become masters of redstone circuitry. Some may dedicate themselves to destroying mob. And some still may try to make a pretty house with a nice garden in the front. Minecraft is less a game and more a possibility space. Don't let the voxelized graphics put you off, they really do have a lot of charm.
Also, Notch (Minecraft creator) has an awesome hat and accent. My stance looks kind of funny in this picture, I was leaning on a chair behind me, but who cares, I got to talk to Notch.
Rock Band 3 (360)
I fell in love with rhythm games around Guitar Hero 3. I got the game around the same time I got mono. I couldn't really DO anything for like a month, so I pretty much stayed at home and became proficient. My rhythm game career hardly ended there, though. I don't play guitar very much these days, after Through the Fire in Flames, I had accomplished my ultimate goal. But there were still so many who were better than me at guitar. I hadn't seen nearly as many great drummers, though, so I took that route, and I'd say I'm a pretty good fake drummer these days. So I've played the crap out of Rock Band 1 and 2, so I'm mostly concerned with the new stuff RB3 brings to the table.
Keyboard
I picked up this game with the keyboard bundle day 1. I decided not to bother with normal keys, it's just guitar minus strumming, so I went for pro keys. I didn't expect to be phenomenal right off of the bat, but I was failing on EASY. But I thought it was great. I haven't had my butt kicked like that since I first picked up Guitar Hero, even drums I was able to do medium well enough from the start. I've practiced a lot since and can pass slightly more than half of the songs on expert, so I'm getting there. It does have an in game trainer which I have used to practice. The most useful part of the trainer is that you can practice individual parts of the song. Since it basically has you playing a 2 octave'd version of the actual instrument chart, sightreading well is pretty out of reach except for musical prodigies, which I am not. Especially given that I have no REAL instrument experience, so I've got no childhood piano practice to build off of. It's been a fun challenge though, and I know that pro guitar is waiting for me when I want to relive that.
Pro Drums
As I mentioned, I fancy myself a drummer in these games. They added "pro drums," which adds three cymbals and distinguishes the chart appropriately. The best part of this addition is that every song automatically has a pro drum chart. I heard somewhere, no citation, sorry, that they were able to do this because the cymbal hits are stored in the animation data. Regardless, I've enjoyed replaying through my library, with an extra twist. It's generally not a whole lot harder, but the "feel" is right.
End of Part 3
And now we move towards November or so, almost at the end. To wrap up:
-Super Meat Boy
-Age of Empires 3
-Braid
-Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
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