If you’ve followed my other articles about the Half-life series up till now then my reaction to Half-life: Episode 2 might not be such a huge surprise. To quickly retrospect; Half-life is the aged original, primitive and wonky by today’s standards, but no less a cornerstone for the industry. The implicit storytelling, large, interconnected world and seamless narrative were revolutions in design at the time, establishing the franchise’s high pedigree, yet beneath all the narrative kicks, Half-life was a relatively vanilla first person shooter. Half-life 2 is the critically acclaimed band-aid solution; an amalgamation of the same uninteresting first person gameplay mixed with nifty, albeit inconsistent and tacky, distractions. These distractions segment the various chapters of the game (ie. gravity gun for this area, antlion bait for another) making the title feel like a circus of discrepant ideas glued together, still not enough overcome the lethargic gameplay, as made embarrassingly apparent by the early sections of the game. Episode One tore away from the Half-life 2’s fragmented approach to gameplay, focusing on diversifying set pieces and minor confrontations. Partner Alyx played her part as an individual catalyst for rejigging the former framework. She worked (and still works) better as a narrative piece than an instrument for the gameplay. While breaking away from Half-life 2’s cheap thrills, Episode One was an unrealized remix of Half-life 2, which is where Episode Two enters.

Episode Two is not a complete realization of Episode One’s breakaway, it’s maybe 75% of the way towards thrilling but never quite hits the spot. Still, in comparison to Half-life 2, Episode Two represents a marked improvement, a highlight in the series. Think of it as Episode Two as a streamlined version of Half-life 2, set in a completely original environment.

The last point is something that will immediately standout to continuing players. Instead of trawling the European-esque cityscapes of City17, Gordon is now out in the wilderness. This new environment is lovingly crafted with a fine layer of grandiosity characterizing the environment in Valve’s signature style. The new visual aesthetic is teamed with some impressive improvements in graphical fidelity to the Source engine, making for another visually striking entry in the series. The new style is well suited to the episodic format as it’d likely lose flavour if it were drawn out any longer. It’s aided by locales that splinter away from the Alaskan-themed forestry. Gordon is rather preemptively thrown into a series of underground catacombs, shifting gears almost from the journey’s get-go. Once he is reacquainted with the over world, the rest of the game plays out above ground, save for the interior areas of White Forrest and a scattering of small towns, outposts and camps along the way. Each of these pit stops, these changes in location, have two functions. The first is to allow the game to visually chew its food and never become to entrenched in the one aesthetic or colour scheme. Gameplay-wise the environments stake off familiarity and grind, provide their own inherent challenges for play. The caves are claustrophobic playing areas, inhabited by menacing Ant Lion Guards yet balanced by the abundance of sticky glowworms which heal Gordon’s health and light up the glossy interiors. The wilderness areas are large and expansive, allowing for Hunters to give chase or offering enough room for Gordon to drive a car around. Set piece events, such as the final defense of the White Forrest station are suited and designed around their locales. As such the environments appropriate the confrontations, ie. the crux of the game. Already we can observe how the design has been re-centred on the environment and not whatever gimmick at hand.

You see, the gimmicks employed in Half-life 2 now conglomerate to form the start-game toolset for the episodes. Some of them are sacrificed (antlion bait), some reapplied (squad-based gameplay) and others made default (gravity gun) – Valve have streamlined the experience which inevitably forces them to redesign the crux of the the episode’s design; the moment-to-moment gameplay. Meaning that since they now have a decent base to work with and Valve can finally begin to design a decent first person shooter, which Episode Two is the first of.

Additional Readings

Half-life Planet – GameSpy

Half-life 2: Episode One The Story so Far

In my lengthy editorial on Zelda: Twilight Princess‘ balance between conformity and innovation, I stressed that the game’s overall merit can be judged on the enjoyment of the inspired, new content weighed against the grind of iterated material. I probably exhausted the idea a little too extensively, all the while never sharing my own commentaries on how the game stacks up.

I’m actually a little hesitant to discuss my enjoyment of Twilight Princess, since I’m fearful that this old-stuff-new-stuff idea was just some wayward thought that got caught in my head and eventually evolved into a stigma which has poisoned my enjoyment. My thoughts have been stewing on Twilight Princess for two years now so it’s likely that my distaste for the realistic graphical style – over the cel-shaded look – has spiked the melting pot. Honestly though, I can’t let this go! Despite the occasional bright idea, Twilight Princess is monotony compared to the youthful Wind Waker. Even the abstract elements – while in some cases astoundingly brilliant – pale to the vigor of macabre which made Majora’s Mask all the more riveting. It seems like an amalgamation of Ocarina of Time (general design), Majora’s Mask (Twilight world) and some tidbits from Wind Waker (eyes, characterization) with no distinct personality of its own – let’s assign it generic Lord of the Rings fantasy, eh? It depends on how mean you’re feeling.

I’m mostly pleased with Twilight Princess and there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be – it’s objectively the most refined and endearing Zelda experience ever to come out of Nintendo. Leagues better than Wind Waker’s slim content. Sure I loved the – awfully titled – toon Link, Ayril and their melon-headed Grandma; those characters wear the largest hearts, but admittedly the game was a slouch when it came to content, unfortunately.

Sure the content was thinly spread, but the relatively little offered in Wind Waker felt completely fresh. Wind Waker introduced an entirely original world filled with water, with accommodating sailing mechanics and original characters, including a new race to the series (the Rito people) as well as the re-jigged Deku tribe. A handful of new items were included such as the Deluxe Picto Box and Deku Leaf. Link’s eyes played a significant part in the game, the combat was layered with some context sensitivity and unique enemy types. Most significant was the change in scenery, similar to Link’s Awakening, Wind Waker has a seaside theme. This was further expanded with locales sporting a real showmanship such as the Forsaken Fortress and Dragon Roost Cavern, the latter, a dungeon which weaves in and out of a giant volcano.

In contrast, Twilight Princess is more or less Ocarina of Time redux with some tweaks. The new features include the Wolf mechanics, Midna, upgrades to horseback riding, combat and some items. The locales are mostly the same and/or similar to those seen in Ocarina of Time or other Zelda titles for that matter, the Palace of Twilight proving to be a surreal exception. Sure, the differences on paper don’t match my claims terribly well, but the overall layer of difference, instilled by Wind Waker’s graphic design, coupled with copious amounts of sea voyaging makes it the most individual of the pair. Conversely, the samey-ness of Twilight Princess works in the opposite manner, layering the game in a sense of familiarity, you know, OOT just in higher res.

What this all amounts to is the obvious sense of personal conflict reflected by my writing. Wind Waker takes you by the heart strings and never ceases, until Link drives his miniature blade into the centre of Gannondorf’s forehead. Twilight Princess on the other hand is the better game and by a wide margin. Which one do I favourite? Wind Waker, of course; a preference which itself loomed over my 62hr play time in Twilight Princess. It feels like a missed opportunity which has likely been tossed aside for good except for the low-res DS titles which I wish I could make some sort of jarred, baseless assertion about.

Alas, amidst my confusion I haven’t actually evaluated Twilight Princess yet, have I? Does the new stuff outweigh the old? Well…not enough to overcome my bias that the decision to adopt realistic visuals resulted in the lack of structural innovation to the title. Yes, they’re unrelated (or at least should be treated as such), but the new material and tweaks in Twilight Princess fails to persuade me otherwise. This underlying niggle put a downer on my experience, but didn’t destroy or even pose a huge detriment to the overall game, given that I had to first place myself in the right mindset. I can play Twilight Princess and enjoy it as ‘The state of Ocarina of Time in 2006′ without my detestation getting in the way, which I guess makes Twilight Princess a pretty good game then.

Additional Readings

Behind the Legend [Zelda: Wind Waker]

Nintendo successfully did so with stealth sections in Zelda: Wind Waker. The whole adaption was one big spoof of Metal Gear and for players in on the joke it was a great joy to see the two styles collide. Besides the referential humour, the actual play mechanics felt similar yet given a whole new interpretation – one of the many fruits of the game.

Such a technique is used (and often buggered up) by western developers all the time, I think that Nintendo could craft a lot of success but exercising this technique a little more in their next title (if it were to be more-of-the same vein to TP). The trick is to understand the way the borrowed mechanics are ‘fun’ and then draw on that in a manner that is relevant to your own game. Liberally copy and pasting almost always results in a big failure because of the different contexts. Most western developers fail at understanding how the mechanic creates ‘fun’ and hence fail to reapply it properly to their own game, hence we call it stealing rather than a softener word like borrowing. Nintendo usually have have a firm grasp on their properties and what makes them enjoyable so that ought to capitalize on this technique some and see how it works for them.

After a prolonged on-off play through of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, one thing becomes remarkably clear about the whole experience. Twilight Princess ultimately strives and fails under the weight of its own legacy.

There are many prominent examples which I could use to substantiate my ideas. I’ll go with my favourite; the Stallord - ie. mega stalfos – boss from the Arbiter’s Grounds temple.

The battle begins with Stallord resurrected by the evil Zant. The creature rises then sits in the centre of a sand-filled bowel, raised only by a spine of individual bones, using his skeletal hands to support his hunch over the arena. The bowel is filled with sand which draws stationary objects away from the rim of the arena. Link uses his spinner to grind around the rim of the bowl, before launching towards the Stallord, with the aim of denting his spinal support in the centre. The boss soon summons legions of the undead to deflect and obscure Link’s spinner. The dynamic begins to play out as a sort of circular pinball machine with obstructions (the undead and Stallord’s hands) acting as bumpers to shield the spine from damage.

As with all Zelda dungeons, this boss battle works as an exercise testing the item-of-choice for each respective dungeon, in this case the spinner. It demands the player to apply their recently acquired knowledge of the device [spinner] to a practical example. As the battle unfolds and the means to victory becomes increasingly more elaborate, with a heightened number of obstacles, Link must appropriate his strategies differently in order to defeat the boss - the game incites the player to reconsider and reapply their former understanding of the game world.

This begins, as it usually does with the later Zelda boss battles, by first increasing the difficulty of the initial confrontation (ie. presence of undead minions, aggravation of the Stallord itself) before entering a second phase. Each phase requires a different problem solving technique.

It’s the design of these levels of elevation where Nintendo’s prowess comes into it’s own. The first scenario of the Stallord confrontation is concentrated in the centre of the arena - although Link twirls along the rim of the arena, the player is more conscious of their access to the spine. The player’s movement is also from vertical top to vertical bottom and from outwards to inwards, as Link glides into the base of the arena. They’re effectively using the spinner as a pinball.

In the second section, the sand sinks revealing a circular platformer in the middle surrounded by a waterless moat. The Stallord knocks Link down into the lower levels where Link must use the spinner to climb his way back to the top, before being interrupted by the creature’s floating head. Once Link leverages enough height he can transfer between rims knocking the head in the process. Somehow reminds me very much of the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin.

Here we see Nintendo applying an opposing design to the previous section, demanding the player to again re-adapt to the changing situation. The player moves from vertical bottom to vertical top and concentrates on the inner and outer rims of the moat, travelling left to right. By turning the arena on it’s head Nintendo have opened up a new design demanding the player operate on different axes of thought which inturn forces the player to think laterally as to how to complete the second phase of the battle. This time the spinner is instead used as a device to hop between surfaces.

These two parts fit together to create a very engaging and original piece of gameplay which engross deeply in the player’s mental approach to problem solving. The resurrection of the boss half-way through was, of course, a fitting surprise, but the way the game challenges the player through clever design logic which expounds the usage of the spinner is what crafts an overall challenging and enjoyable experience.

The memories that I’ll most take away from Zelda: Twilight Princess are the moments such as the above example, which are either cleverly designed elements or examples of pure creativity both implemented in a wonderfully Nintendo manner. Midna and the Twilight world, the original items such as the spinner, ball and chain and Bionic Commando-esque double hookshot, sumo wrestling with Gorons, snowboarding with a crazy Yeti, dueling Gannondorf on horseback, canoeing and the final few dungeons. These examples engaged me deeply and often made me laugh out loud at the pure ingenuity.

The more I continued to play Twilight Princess the more resounding this argument became in my head. Twilight Princess seems to be a battle between inspired and iterative capital. While not all capital borrowed from previous games is by any means bad, it is familiar territory, and for fans, a fair deal of it can be considered tired. This is no doubt exacerbated by the foundation of Twilight Princess‘ core which is -as the fans demanded- a graphically realistic, traditional Zelda experience in the vein of Ocarina of Time. Naturally, the fans aren’t game designers and their request is invariably different from their desires. The idea of a mechanically-considered sequel to Ocarina of Time (ie. not the direct-sequel, Majora’s Mask) is wrought with its own implications which defeat the prospects of a “proper” sequel. Games after all, exist within the times, and really what should be asked for is not another Ocarina of Time, no, the next Ocarina of Time - an Ocarina of Time we haven’t even imagined yet. Whether or not such a title should bear so much likeness to Ocarina is out of the question - “next” frankly doesn’t mean “same”. So maybe Zelda: Wind Waker is closer to a truer sequel than what some people might have originally believed.

A mechanically-considered sequel to Ocarina of Time – such as Zelda: Twilight Princess – is faced with numerous design challenges. Firstly the narrowing of the technological gap means that there isn’t terribly much Twilight Princess can do which couldn’t have been done on the N64, relative to the SNES-N64, and other technological jumps. The Wii motion control is the key exception here. Secondly, with more installments behind it, the foundation mechanics for the series were exhausted to a higher degree with the later Twilight Princess than with the earlier Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker, this demands an increased level of innovation in order to match the elevated abundance of increasingly laboured mechanics. Thus, Twilight Princess can ultimately be judged by fans on the disparity between inspired and tired capital.

A Brief Aside (Majora’s Mask)

Just a quick digression, I want to elaborate on my case using Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Majora’s Mask represents the converse choice to the traditional approach. The title takes the previous frameworks and twists it on its head to create a different play environment. Because the framework of the whole game is reworked, it naturally refaces the familiar content, in turn creating a refreshingly innovative interpretation of the series. For example, the Goron, Zora and Deku tribes are all staples of the series. Putting on a mask and transforming into either race, changes the way you are perceived by either culture. They respond to a Hylian very differently than one of their own and the dialogue reflects this. Further, you are now given access to the backstages of their sorted societies, which open up unique gameplay scenarios.This reinvigorates our already familiar understanding of these tribes and injects it with different angles, interpretations and information.

Back to Main Article

The reason why I care so much about the scales of innovation is because it determines the overall quality of the games, but perhaps more importantly it is proportional (or at least heavily skewed by) the relevancy that franchises such as Mario and Zelda have within the video game industry.

As you’re likely already quite familiar with, the uprising of western developers in recent years is threatening to make Japanese developers – and Nintendo’s big three - continually less and less relevant. Take the following example, back late last decade the boss battles in Ocarina of Time were considered the most intense seen in the industry. Fast forward some years and we can see a marked difference between say a Zelda: Twilight Princess and a God of War. In the years since Ocarina of Time, such studios as SCE Santa Monica have been honing their craft, a craft which - generally speaking – appeals strongly to a western audience. Last year’s E3 presentations, a pissing match between Sony and Microsoft as to who can offer the greatest sense of scale is largely indicative of that.

If we then revisit the Skullord boss battle and contrast it against, say, the Hyrda battle opening the original God of War (2005), the disparity in theatrical quality is vastly different. Whilst, Twilight Princess is no slouch theatrically, it pales in comparison to the finely executed God of War. Clearly in the span of a few years, these folks have literally gobbled up prime real estate which the Big N use to occupy. On the flipside, the Skullord is much more elegantly designed and in that sense can be considered superior, it all depends on tastes.

When it comes to Ninty domination, not only are we talking theatrics and dramatization, this is happening on many fronts; Nintendo’s key franchises are fighting to stay relevant and in my mind, Twilight Princess represents Nintendo grappling with that, slouching a little – it’s the embodiment of all this drama. Zelda, Mario and Metroid are the oldest classics in the book and they need constant reinvention to stay fresh. While Twilight Princess is the strongest embodiment of series ideals, it’s also the largest, most endearing Zelda title which are the reasons cited as to why it’s the best in the series. The clash between old and new, exhausted and fresh material represent a stumbling block in the series, as it waits for the next round of revolutionisation, but as with every title in the series, it represent something. It highlights that Nintendo should not become complacent with reusing familiar material as many have inferred the company doing so with Twilight Princess. In a sense, one might argue that fan’s wants ultimately dwarfed the series as despite it’s weaker content, The Wind Waker was a thoroughly more adventerous and innovative title than the conformative Twilight Princess.

This isn’t a cause for alarm though. If we can take anything out of this year’s E3, it’s that these western developers are now in pursuit of Nintendo’s innovation, they want to taste the success that trickles from the river of great ideas. Nintendo have forged their own trail, remarkably so, Twilight Princess (much like the Gamecube) is therefore the stepping stone required to reach that path. It’s representative of the state of Ocarina of Time in 2006. Evokes many ideas of where the series will go next, eh?

Additional Readings

Inside Zelda [Twilight Princess] - Zelda Universe

In the past week or so I’ve finished reading both of the GameSpite books (Year One, Volume One and GS Quarterly Spring 2009) which I thoroughly enjoyed – the best games writing you’ll find anywhere. I’m looking forward to rounding out some rather comprehensive thoughts on the massive Zelda Twilight Princess and possibly squeeze in something out on Super Stardust HD which was out this week on the Playstation Store for $3.50. Good news too, I’ve mostly finished the purchasing side of my gaming backlog, minus a handful of imports and rarities. That’s all the minor updates for now.

Official Nintendo Magazine (Australia) – June 2009

General Impressions

A follow up to the heavily flawed, but much adored Nintendo Magazine System, how could I refuse? ONM live ups to the Nintendo Seal of Quality lost somewhere on every front page. The magazine’s aesthetic tastefully match the new sanitized look Nintendo are going for, and the writing isn’t too bad either. The team clearly makes use of their prescribed relationship to the brand by bagging plenty of exclusive interviews, covering the digital distribution areas well, while prioritizing the best art assets. The writing is fine - falling in line with a standard good quality UK games magazine, appealing to the average enthusiast Nintendo fan more so than the expanded audience as might be infered by the neutral-esque design. The magazine’s standard journalistic fair teamed with exclusive content which make this a priority read for Nintendo fans looking for fitting copy with a wide coverage of their platforms. The magazine portions WiiWare, DSiWare and Virtual Console coverage much more evenly than other publications both online and in print, which I heatedly admire.

Overall the standard Ninty fan can’t go wrong with ONM, it’s a much more cleanly written, professional publication than NMS and covers all fronts quite admirably.

Criticisms of the June Issue

Standard fair might sound decent enough (and rest assure, this magazine is not poor by any means), but in my mind publications like this and Hyper are given a greater stature than their content earns them. While - like Hyper - I enjoyed the clean read, and have no problems recommending this to players that are solely fans of the Nintendo products, there’s plenty of holes as well as a couple of suspicions.

Usually magazines not sponsored by the brand or system they’re covering (ie. unofficial) make a holler and fuss about conflict of interest issues with these rival magazines. Basically they’re accusing their competitors of unflinching bias. Although their whiny jealousy is annoying, they do hold a weight of truth. Starting from the editor’s introduction, over the page into the news and then into previews and even reviews, the magazine can’t help but consistently remind the reader of the benefits of Wii MotionPlus. Sure, it makes sense for the MotionPlus to be a talking points in the Red Steel 2 and Grand Slam Tennis previews, but when you’re spruiking the add-on in reviews unrelated to the device, it’s annoying!

Reviewer Chris Scullion seems to have a problem criticizing the games he writes about, constantly using softeners to lower his tone when he wants to discuss a game’s weaknesses. This was most evident in the Pokemon Platinum review and other parts of the magazine as I recall. The softener “if we’re honest” doesn’t really say much, shouldn’t you always be honest to your readers?

On the topic of reviews, the crew seems obsessed with percentages. Take for example the way…oh look, Chris Scullion, makes a point to fret over what percentage he’d assign Punch-Out!! before he reached the unlocked World B mode. Further, in face-cringing fashion, the magazine even has a ‘Settling Scores’ segment in their review index, where readers propose their own score for a game in lieu of what the OMN crew awarded. It’s really petty.

The bulk of their featured content such as their 31 Reasons to Start Stockpiling Nintendo Points…NOW! as well as several news and previews pieces were well matched with good developer interviews. The Red Steel preview is thin information spread out into a feature piece. Fortunately the screenshots and interview make up for this in part. The Zelda feature is extensive, but doesn’t capture the spirit nor all of the significant details for each game, maybe they should have allowed more text on the page. By the way, I like the IGN logos in some of the Zelda screenshots. Did you try MobyGames, no tags there?

It must be some hip trend that I’m unaware of -  in the same vein as that Hyper issue I covered some months ago, ONM included a flip-over segment at the back of the magazine. Argh, I hate it when they make me flip the magazine! The flipped content comprises of a 100 Greatest Nintendo Games Ever List! feature The main problem with such mammoth lists is that within the limit of 25 pages, you’re essentially providing a list and very little explanation as to the significance of each title. Couple with a bloated number of page filling images, and it’s a rather pointless piece. Conversely I could have just said that they ranked Mario Kart Wii as the 4th best game ever released on a Nintendo platform and  you would have believed me.

Oh, the Dragon Quest guide was filled with noting but common sense too, not sure why they included it.

Lastly, I noticed that in the Australian magazine, the Pikmin 2 review states “With Australia being a nation of Wii owners”, yet this is a simple copy edit of the review featured in the ONM UK, evidence here. This is simply a ruse to throw readers away from the indiscriminate fact that ONM Australia is simply ONM UK with some edits shifted in. The cracks become obvious very quickly with the overall British flavour of writing teamed with obvious British references (.co.uk). Furthermore the most useful thing the Australian website offers is a link to the feature packed UK website. Crafty eh? Unexpected? No.

Additional Readings

Column: Game Mag Weaseling - GameSetWatch

I haven’t written a review for a long time. I usually feel rather apprehensive about writing them, since mainstream reviewing usually doesn’t gel with the flavour of discussion I have here. Readers seem to be conditioned by the lazy graphics, sound, gameplay checklist which usually only serves to affirm or negate their prior assumptions with little supportive evidence. This is fine – if you’re looking for it, but such a style fails to serve the wider market of potential consumers who aren’t already on the cusp of buying, looking for that affirmation.

I enjoy reading reviews where the writer justifies their assertions through supportive evidence and analysis, this allows readers to gain clearer insight into the game. The task of assigning adjectives and percentile grades to presentation, gameplay and sound does very little for the reader. Anyone can grade the visuals and sound from a trailer and/or screenshots, or read about the features of a game on the back of the box or in a press release. Without insight, the writer is almost useless – which most of them are.

It surprises me how this broken system doesn’t seem to be so harshly to older games, which is why I enjoy writing about them. I think I covered most of what I wanted to say on Sand of Time in my review. The platforming is delectable and the narrative a breath of fresh air, of course, I explain my point in the review, so please take a read. I’m playing through the trilogy, so I’ll likely have additional reviews once I finish the other games.

Additional Readings

Opinion: Do Video Games Over-Egg The Epic? - GameSetWatch

Retro reviewing - Retronauts Blog

Kirby’s Dream Land 2

There’s honestly very little to say about Kirby’s Dream Land 2. All you need to know is that it’s a black and white skinned Kirby title using the same template as Kirby’s Adventure. Because of this Kirby’s Dream Land 2 feels more like a sequel to the polished NES classic than the Game Boy original, and manages to individualize itself well by introducing three peripheral characters. Those characters - Rick the Hamster, Kine the Ocean Sunfish and Coo the Owl – cut in and out of the adventure and work as appropriate substitutes for a number of consumable abilities absent from Kirby’s Adventure. Since your animal friends layer on top of whatever ability Kirby has on hand they do add another tier of complexity to the title. Team this with a series of hidden rainbow pieces in each level (which open up an alternative ending) and despite it’s loftier hardware, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 is expanded enough to form a more than competent sequel to Kirby’s Adventure which, considering the polish of Kirby’s Adventure, says a lot. Other familiar tropes of the series are kept in tact such as the wonderfully characterized introductions preluding each world and mix of familiar characters.

The one thing that Dream Land 2 lacks (colour) can be compensated for on the Super Gameboy. Like Pokemon and Donkey Kong, whacking Kirby’s Dream Land 2 into your Super Game Boy will give the game a unique colour scheme different from the default swatches. Supposedly there’s some added spiff elsewhere too, not a bad deal if you prefer playing it on a TV. I played it on both.

Lastly, it’s nice to see Nintendo fix the disparity between the boxart graphic and in-game designs with this title. Kirby’s Dream Land 2 in this regard matches the game wonderfully, instead of appearing like an attempt at realistic abstract.

Half-Life 2: Episode One

If Half-life 2 were put to VHS, then Episode One would be the extended long-play. In a nutshell it’s more of the same gameplay from Half-life 2’s later half, delivered in a remixed fashion with greater emphasis on set pieces and Alyx who now accompanies you throughout the 5-6 hour experience.

One might think that her part as a co-operative buddy might work in as another gimmick to colour the vanilla base of the series - in the same way that vehicles, ant lion bait and the gravity gun operated in Half-life 2 – unfortunately her presence surprisingly affects the core gameplay very little. You don’t need to babysit her much at all. She rarely dies, always follows you and can hold her own in a gun fight.

So what exactly is it that makes Episode One all that great? As discussed previously, the framework requires some sort of gimmick to make itself interesting, so what is it this time? Well…there isn’t really any prominent tricks, per see. What Valve deliver is a greater emphasis on improved moment-to-moment confrontations, teamed with a remix of some old mechanics from Half-life 2. Fundamentally the game offers very little new material, yet it’s approach to general gameplay is greatly overhauled. In Half-life 2, the game gave you an instrument (antlion bait, vehicle, gravity gun) and then pushes you out into a landscape largely composed of filler – it’s like you have to make your own fun. In Episode One, the wide lose-yourself-in-them landscapes are replaced with tighter quarters which is mostly dominated with more interesting segments of gameplay. Filler is now the glue between the action sequences rather than the other way around. Examples of these sequences may include a scenario where the lights go out while you need to survive an onslaught on zombies, where Alyx covers you as a sniper while you barge on ahead, where you see the gravity gun to grab falling debris there’s even a similar set piece to the cascade resonance from the original Half-life. Compare this to walking/driving around for extended periods of time to stumble upon an enemy camp, shoot a handful of Combines, zombies or Combine zombies and then continue walking around in the middle of nowhere. It’s easy to see in which game the fun lies?

This new found emphasis on moment-to-moment gameplay also serves to break down the chapterized feel of the game. In Half-life 2, each chapter sported a gimmick and stuck in the player’s mind as a series of compartments which the game organized as such. In Episode One, that structure shifts to a more scattered approach, relating to individual moments more so than instruments. This makes the title, although short, feel more endearing and continuous. Unlike Half-life 2 I have a difficult time ordering the events of the game. Valve have in this sense changed to way we consume the game.

Overall though, it can be seen that Episode One should be evaluated on the moment-to-moment action. While it does provide an assortment of interesting sequences which maintain a high enough pace, Episode One flounders in the end with a lame squad shifting exercise and a shortsighted boss battle. Furthermore there’s nothing much in Episode One that wasn’t in Half-life 2, which is disappointing. The best part is ultimately the re-evaluated approach, by spreading emphasis between gimmicks and confrontations, this gives Valve greater design leverage. Episode One does a good job at capitalizing on this, but not enough so to overcome what I believe to be Valve’s persistence to make these games realistic to the point of uninteresting. It’s a more accomplished and organised title, no doubt, but it’s a game in transition.

Managing Custom Soundtracks in WipEout HD

Some months ago I discussed games in relation to music and music videos, attaching similarities between particular game titles and music tracks. Recently I’ve been engaging again in this activity for an entirely different reason. WipEout HD is the first game I own which allows for custom soundtracks, creating a phenomena into itself.

The WipEout HD playlist is unfortunately only nine tracks long. They’re good tunes but become repetitive rather quickly, meaning that you’ll want to swiftly import your own playlist. When I reached this stage I thought long and hard about the music that would best be appropriate for the WipEout play experience. That is, which songs evoked the same feelings as the feeling I get when playing Wipeout. I intially created a playlist of mostly manufactured dance/electronica music, some gelled nicely, others didn’t. I tried again and added a bunch of random favourites and found that all genres worked depending on the context. For example uplifting rock songs boded well with the plush UberMall and Sol 2 levels while not so much with the tracks that had a more industrial aestetic.

I just find it ammusing how this blog post I wrote a while ago actually attributes to a process external but relating to my gaming experience.

Chip Tunes – Tainted or Resurrected?

Wow, I’ve let this idea lie and rot for too long.

There’s an Australian TV show on the ABC called Collectors. Sure, I’m a collector myself but the usual selection of stamps and antiques featured don’t usually interest me. The show seems to be stepping up into pop culture goods. A few months ago, the show tickled my fancy, featuring the games collection of an Australian DJ. This guy also dabbles in chip tunes and although the show made viewers aware, it only discussed his profession to limited degree.

Out of sheer curiosity I tracked down some more information about this guy and realized that he’s in fact prominent Adelaide DJ, DJTr!p, and one of Australia’s leading chip tunes artist. You can sample some of his collection here.

While moseying through Tr!p’s MySpace page I scanned over his event listings and noted a series of gigs around Adelaide and the country. I then sat for a good while and tried to figure out why I honestly didn’t really care about attending any of these gigs. I thought it was cool that this local guy got featured on the show and I promote classic video games music, but I had no desire to attend any of his performances and I couldn’t figure out why.

I’m still not perfectly sure actually. My conclusion was going to be while I like classic games music, most of this new music fails to capture the elusive retro gaming appeal. I watched a segment on Good Game that previously covered Aussie chip tunes artists and to my accord it all sounded kinda ‘meh’. These guys fail to capture quality loops of retro tunes, that or like Tr!p, they are actually pretty skilled but the merging with electronica and other forms of music perhaps detracts from my personal enjoyment. I still can’t put my finger on it, perhaps like OC Remix music, I only enjoy listening to it in particularly random instances. ie. when I want to feel like “a child of the digital age” - if that makes sense. What are your thoughts on chip tunes music? Please, lemme know.

There’s a saying that won’t quite come to mind, it goes along the lines of “life is about the journey, not the destination” The Half-life series epitomizes this mantra very well. The journey of Half-life can sometimes be as much of a detriment as it is a merit, whatever the case, that’s not the discussion point for this article. Instead I want to investigate how the series crafts a believable journey.

Much of this runs parallel to the stringent realism of the Half-life games. For one, both games run in a completely interconnected world where each time Gordon is given a simple task (reach this area). While he passes into obstacles along the way, his one goal remains the same, emphasizing the bond between one journey and one outcome, rather than a series of missions with a developing goal. The game centralizes this one goal with Gordon reaching civilian camps or Black Mesa foot soldiers to have them rephrase his objective, the means in which to achieve it and how he is closer to reaching that objective.

Half-life’s world is so remarkable because of it’s coherence. Unlike some games which force a suspension of disbelief, everything that occurs in the Half-life games is logical and realistic of that world. If you infiltrate an abandoned enemy base, only a few lowly soldiers will be present. Those Combine soldiers will likely summon reinforcements (or the noise of gun fire will alert other groups), those reinforcements will take some time to arrive to the scene, will be organized into squads of controlled numbers and swarm the area in respects to other squads. In other games, enemy units just spawn and attack in a structure-less fashion and once they find you they don’t co-ordinate their attack patterns in realistic ways.

The whole game is told exclusively through a first person viewpoint and as mentioned previously relies on clues to prompt the player to investigate context. It’s a completely organic method of story telling. The player learns everything about his surroundings through his own observation and narrative is never made compulsory. By fixing the player into this perspective the game does nothing to detract from the experience and overarching journey.

Furthermore the games don’t distract the player with game-based norms which are outside of Gordon’s view. This is perhaps why there is so much quietness in Half-life, because the game mostly concentrates on what is within Gordon’s environmental sphere and not the players. Gordon can’t hear the ambiance crescendo as he walks into unsuspecting danger.

Ah, this is a rather lax analysis, but I’ll leave it there for now. I still have the two episodes to play so maybe my ideas will come to fruition in the meantime.

Additional Readings

Column: ‘The Interactive Palette’ - Grim Fandango and Diegesis

I honestly haven’t looked terribly hard, but I’m willing to hedge my bets that it’s rather difficult to find some rant-free criticism of the Half-life series. The truth is I didn’t like Half-life or it’s sequel as much as the universal acclaim would have you believe. At times I frankly wanted to punch a hole through the monitor in sheer frustration, but for the most part I was simply underwhelmed. I want to extensively examine my disliking towards the two games, since such writing is a distant departure from what most people have written on the series.

I’ve built up this angst towards PC games over the past decade. While I enjoyed classics like Jazz Jack Rabbit, Doom as well as a pile of Amiga 500 games as a kid, I can’t stand the uninviting PC games culture that has emerged and subsequently the games that appeal to that culture. I’m mainly talking most big-release PC games post-1996. My twin has taken a huge liking to these games in recent years and his contrast on me has brought my angst to the forefront, so I’ve gone on a crusade to try and break down my ignorant - ‘console boy’ – trepidation, to fall in love with the past decade of PC games.

Honest-to-God truth, I really tried this time. I want to like Half-life and Half-life 2, but I can’t as reasons below explain. On the flipside, I loved Quake when playing it for the first time late last year. So here’s my justification, don’t crucify me, please.

NB: I often use the word Half-life to signify both games, otherwise I will specify when required.

Beyond the Aftermath

The one immediate impression I reached on the Half-life series was it’s similarity with Metroid, particularly so with Half-life 2. The Metroid games are brilliant at portraying a sense of desolation and atmosphere. Both Half-life and Metroid achieve this in the same way; they make the player walk into the aftermath of some devastation or some expansive area of recent abandonment. In Half-life the latter comes out through the Black Mesa facility and it’s soulless interiors and hard surfaces, in Half-life 2 the former comes out through the dried out river area which has seen shocking environmental impact. These landscapes are rich in markers that signify emotional impact and allow the player to absorb the full impact of the environment by elongating the moments of low player participation. Half-life 2 in particular achieves this with it’s drawn out environments (again, the dried out water ways of ‘Route Kanal’) which only demand that the player continually drive forward – no Combine soldiers, no antlions - just long stretches of minimalist environment. Both the Metroid and Half-life series excel at these foreplay-esque gameplay sequences which work to intensify the moments when you make first contact with threats.

I personally prefer the way the Metroid games manipulate the player’s emotional state through atmosphere. Of course, each game does this differently.

For instance, Metroid II is a very mute game throughout, each of the confrontations with the 39 Metroids are peaks in excitement, exacerbated by the long stretches of loneliness. Metroid Prime 2 symphonically and in measured frequency of native fauna, controls the game’s atmospheric peaks and dips. The game begin low, peaks, normalizes and then stays constant, occasionally interrupted by confrontations with Space Pirates – rinse and repeat. Overall that constant is much higher, but the peaks are much lower too. Generally speaking, the hills balance out the valleys in either case.

Half-life (both games) on the otherhand never become exciting. The interludes of excitement (usually confrontations with Combine soldiers) rarely feel threatening. There are two reasons for this: the atmosphere and the threat. We can discover how Half-life fails (or is less successful) in this regard by contrasting it with how Metroid succeeds. The Half-life games are (for the most part) void of one critical element that allows the Metroid games to so vividly manipulate atmosphere: sound. The Metroid games use sound - even muteness (which is over exhausted in Half-life) – very effectively. The Half-life games rarely have any background music to set the mood. Occasionally, the music introduces the in-game drama with a crescendo, but not often enough to be considered consistent. The confrontations themselves are (again) mostly unexciting, the dominant selection of enemies are weak fodder, only the Combine foot-soldiers and those evil chimera/licker monsters are exceptions. Even the Combine soldiers are dispersed in limited numbers. This all makes for mostly uneventful gameplay, with no atmospheric crutch.

There are two examples of where the games felt particularly exciting, both which deviate from the aforementioned norms of the main game, concentrating on the aural atmosphere and conflict. The first was in one of the abandoned docks (Half-life 2). Once you make land, a helicopter roars out, the music breaks to one of the game’s few but excellent exhilaration tracks and you’ve got to run-and-gun through a series of freight containers while being attacked from air and land. You then make your way into the compound, clear the area and open the water gates only to be confronted by more guards. The whole sequence plays on the shifting atmosphere, which changes on arrival, switches back once clearing out the guards and changes again once they send reinforcements. It switches between quiet calm and exalted panic wonderfully. In this instance the music and conflict are used collaboratively to shape an enthralling experience.

The second example is Nova Prospekt which I consider the most immerse part of the game. The music is used well throughout, consistently creating an air of atmosphere that accompanies the visual design and layout of the place. The Combine soldiers are a mean threat and the use of antlion baiting and turrets diversify the approaches to conflict. It feels cohesive and is genuinely convincing compared to the relatively tame Ravenholm. Note though, that these two examples are divergences from the bulk of the game.

There are set piece battles and events which bump the excitement up a little, but they’re mostly non-affairs which are over rather quickly (ie. shooting a gunship down with a couple of well placed shots). The two games are like this from start to finish, it’s all foreplay and nothing else. Talk about leaving you hanging.

I’m sure that people would say that this is part of Half-life’s style, it’s meant to be like that, it contributes to the game’s determinedly realistic approach, but again, it didn’t make for a particularly compelling game. It’s dull, almost nauseatingly vanilla at times.

There are many constituents that form together to make the Half-life series particularly realistic, I enjoy all of these besides the things that contribute to the boredom. I liked the empty environment, the way everything is told in first person, the fact that the game refuses to answer all questions – these are all positive assets. On the other hand I dislike the meager enemy set, lack of rewards for exploration and uneventful gameplay are features that push realism to the point of uninteresting.

First Person Platforming

Most, it not all of the following criticism is leveled exclusively at the original Half-life, the sequel is not immune though.

Considering that all first person shooters since the original Half-life have basically flogged everything that made the original so redefining, I can understand how playing both of these games in a modern context (where Half-life’s qualities are the norm) probably destroys my appreciation of the games. I suspect that this has also played a large influence over my immersion into the games too, since I’m better acquainted as a player with the techniques Valve would likely pull on me. That is, my awareness of what I’m playing supercedes the desired effects that the developers are trying to have on me through the use of fixed set pieces for narrative – ie. head crab in a vent. The following though can not and will not ever been forgiven.

The platforming is god awful. First person platforming is very difficult to design for and it’s clear that Valve made a huge mess of this, so much so that platforming was barely present in the sequel. The key problem is that the environmental layout wasn’t designed very well to accommodate jumping and tight maneuvers, yet the game constantly demands too much of you and at such a high frequency.

Allow me to garnish with some examples - I need to vent. Two instances come to mind, very vivid. The first is from Half-life, nearing the middle of the game you find a set of stairs leading to a control panel. Two blue trip-wire lasers set to explosives cover the stairs. The first can be easily avoided by crouch walking underneath it, the second one is at step level and must be jumped over. The problem is the slant of the stairs makes it impossible to jump over, Gordon can only hop maybe 20cm, landing on the trip wire. It is possible to make a running jump and successfully bypass the laser, this is very difficult to do since the leeway is incredibly narrow but it’s possible. I achieved this once but unfortunately the game nudge me backwards right into the beam once I landed. P=MV I guess. Eventually I decided that I could reach the top by rubbing up to some boxes to shift them around the room to eventually construct my own makeshift sets of stairs, terribly awkward though.

The second instance, the original Half-life again, occurred when Gordon was on the outside and a tank rolls up, later you make your way into a building, scale the ledge and leap to reach a ladder. The problem is the gap between the ladder and platform is so distant that you’re more than likely to discard the route and head off wandering aimlessly elsewhere. The clipping and detection is awful, finicky at best.

(I really need videos to prove my point)

Progression Clues

One thing you begin to notice while playing Half-life and Half-life 2 is the way the games drops clues to guide you along your way as well as to foster investigation, that is to create player narrative. The environmental layout, use of aesthetics and sound, scripted scenarios are examples of the way Half-life guides the narrative experience of the game. It’s truly a game that marries story and gameplay well.

Driving along on your hovercraft you’ll spot an abandoned house at the corner of your eye, there may be some sort of distinct marking or attribute about the building which will lure you over to discover the aftermath of some event – usually murdered citizens. These areas almost never have any use besides some wayward ammo and health dumps, instead they are designed to create context and they achieve this well.

These devices are all heavily constructed - you were meant to look in that house. The game dictates that as you make your way around the bend, that abandoned house will be right in the corner of the player’s visual frame, and whatever peculiar marking the location has, it’s bound to arise the player’s suspicion. Hence the player will unwilling fall into the designers trap and investigate. It’s genius really.

Two of my recent columns on GameSetWatch have discussed performance management through language, in this case we can see constructed performance through design.

Being a rather dated game, it’s easier to see the strings pulling the player along in the original game. Sometimes they were blindly obvious to the player and prove that the title doesn’t really stand the test of time (more on that later). Half-Life 2 does a much better job at concealing it’s strings, and comes off more convincing.

The con doesn’t always work as effectively as it should and there’s rarely little contingency plan in case it doesn’t. Take for example a sequence nearing the end of Half-life 2. Gordon Freeman and his team of infinitely-spawning civilian friends manage to take down two of the long legged drones with mounted sentries. Once the battle is won it isn’t explicitly clear where to go next as the battle took place on the roof of a building. I spotted one of the civilians firing gunshots into the distance and followed the dead end trail, suspecting that it might steer me in the right direction. After 30 minutes of fluffing about I realized that I had to cross a thin timber framework adjacent to the building where the battle ragged. I would have never suspected that the thin tight walk was actually walkable terrain, moreover it was intended that I would cross it. I fell into these road blocks on frequent occasions for both games – massive headaches ensued.

Vanilla Template + Gimmicks = Success

I’ve developed this fascination with the way games with vanilla templates become interesting through the use functions other than the new abilities gained by the protagonist. Super Mario Bros. 3 or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time are two good examples of games where the protagonist has a fixed, initial skill set and the game world itself is ultimately the catalyst for fun. If either of these games had sucky level design, the games would not be very good – the level design is directly proportional to fun.

Half-life 2 has a vanilla template but instead of using level design to create fun, in employs a consistent use of gimmicks. This includes the two vehicles (the car and hovercraft), the gravity gun (in particular the saw blades in Ravenholm once you acquire the gun), the antlion posse, the citizens who form a squad and lastly the re-engineered gravity gun. Without these tricks, Half-life 2 would be a rather generic shooter.

Design and Emulation Issues

Major criticisms aside, both Half-life games contain a number of small design issues that I quickly want to run through. The first of which might be related to the Steam emulation of the original game, I’m not sure. The original Half-life feels rather finicky and quirky at times – particularly with player movement, clipping and enemy reactions. The worst offender would have to be a glitch I encountered on Xen. I couldn’t defeat the spider boss as it refused to jump down onto the webbed platform allowing me to deliver the coup de grâce, giving entrance to the floor below. After reading about this glitch on GameFAQs and then attempting to jimmy my way around it, I realized that I couldn’t. So I actually couldn’t continue my game – that’s right, I haven’t even finished Half-life. >_<

The second minor quibble relates to ammo and health placements. The combat in Half-life and Half-life 2 is moderate for the most part yet the game can sometimes drown you with supplies before leaving you standard when you most need it. Also the game doesn’t reward exploration besides additional ammo and health packages which often aren’t needed. There’s rarely any benefit in walking off the beaten track besides having to head back on course.

Levels of Appreciation

Lowered the pitchforks and sticks? Oh good. One thing I tried to take into account while playing both these games is that they were very influential for their day, so much so that what they introduced is now standard fair and it’s likely that I would take this for granted in my play throughs. I can’t help that. I’m sure if a gamer of this era went back to play Goldeneye (or any other game for that matter) for the first time then they’d likely be writing the same catalogue of complaints. Still, the merit in sharing this evaluation is worthwhile in assessing the way these games hold up and if they’re worth playing today.

I will be concluding my thoughts on these two games in my next article where I dissect what I perceive to be the series’ most endearing quality; the journey. So stick around till next time, won’t you?

Additional Readings

Eurogamer Xbox Review (good hindsight here)

Retronauts Half-life Podcast (scroll some to find)

Half-Life 2 Intro

“Half-Life 2 was merely a rumor until a strong impression at E3 in May 2003 launched it into high levels of hype, where it won several awards for best in show. It had a release date of September 2003, but was delayed. This pushing back of HL2’s release date came in the wake of the cracking of Valve’s internal network,[51] through a null session connection to Tangis which was hosted in Valve’s network and a subsequent upload of an ASP shell, resulting in the leak of the game’s source code and many other files including maps, models and a playable early version of Half-Life Source and Counter-Strike Source in early September 2003.[52] On October 2, 2003, Valve CEO Gabe Newell publicly explained in the HalfLife2.net forums the events that Valve experienced around the time of the leak, and requested users to track down the perpetrators if possible.

At the trial in November 2006 in Germany, Gembe was sentenced to two years’ probation. In imposing the sentence, the judge took into account such factors as Gembe’s difficult childhood and the fact that he was taking steps to improve his situation.[57]”

Close to 8000 words later, Steve and I are finally wrapping up are group discussion on Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. This final installment has been slow off the blocks since I accidentally wiped my save file when switching off the game while saving. It was a foolish move, I admit. If you take anything away today, besides are concluding thoughts, be sure to remember to follow those warnings about turning the power off while saving.

It’s been a good run and I’d like to thank Steve for participating with my on this little experiment. Be sure to take a squiz at his blog Raptured Reality. Hopefully we can do this again sometime.

Need a refresher?
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #3
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #2
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #1

—

Daniel: That’s a great summary of Chinatown Wars, very fitting. It is this stop gap in the franchise that sucks everything together and spits it out in a new and interesting way. Chinatown Wars also seems like the ideal title in the series for any newbie looking to become acquainted with the franchise as a whole. The gun club is just opposite the airport (far right hand side of the map) by the main road.

The end game is actually quite good, there’s a series of missions that build up to an exciting conclusion and the story actually ends on a positive note; the bastards get what’s coming to them - all of them. Huang gets a lead and proceeds to chase down the suspects, once he narrows it down, the game features a series of set pieces that act as boss battles. Kicks the game off on a high note. So I was rather impressed with how the game concluded.

GTA: Chinatown Wars is a contemporary incarnation of previous games and plays accordingly. It’d be fair to speculate that the framework for the original titles was built to avoid rendering the large city in 3D, if that’s the case, Chinatown Wars realizes this design and retools it. Having the city rendered in 3D makes the game feel relateable to GTAIII onwards, yet since the camera remains overhead, the feel of the original games is also present. It’s an game that balances the feel of both varieties in limbo, metaphorically represented by the camera both is halfway between overhead and low. The latter allowing the 3D models to stand out, the former to give a pseudo 2D appearance. As we’ve discussed, it’s likewise for the mechanics; a mix and match of previous titles.

What the game does differently or completely new from the previous games is what gives the title a unique identity and strengthens it as a whole. The flashy graphical style is the epitome of all this. It’s a style of it’s own that is unique to this installment. The driving mechanics are tweaked and feel inspired by other games but unique in it’s own right due to the slight assistance it provides. The narrative too, it’s lite and full of jokes yet presented in a series of transitioning renders with text. Finally, the DS interface is what marries it all together and individualizes the title more than anything else.

The feeling is therefore a combination of those from the prior games. The game feels like a huge world of mayhem contained within such a concentrated space. The new graphical flair makes the on-screen drama visually stunning, it’s a greater feast to the eyes giving the intensity of chase sequences a unique exuberance. The camera allows you to witness everything in close proximity, emphasizing the contained feel of the game. The camera locks the player away from the action. This feels a little constricting but serves to remind the player that this is indeed a portable title and there are restraints imposed. It’s not a bad thing, but it comes with the property and instills any feelings attributed to the hardware. Overall, GTA:Chinatown Wars feels like a culmination of clever concepts wrapped in a visually attractive package uniquely geared for portable play. What’s your final take?

—

Steven: My final take is a fairly obvious one given the things I have said in our previous exchanges; GTA: Chinatown Wars is an impressive game both in the technical achievements Rockstar Leeds managed, as well as how fun and exciting it can be given the completely different platform it is on. Before playing it, I did not think a Grand Theft Auto title could work on the DS and it was nice to be proven wrong. Before playing it, I didn’t know what to expect and as a result, I had no expectations going into the title. I came out of it surprised, impressed and with an even deeper level of respect for Rockstar as a whole for doing what they did with the game.

Chinatown Wars is to me, as I’ve mentioned before, a summary of the entire franchise, with Rockstar using it to make a clear and concise example of what they believe GTA is about. They mixed and matched various elements of the series to demonstrate the core of the franchise whilst also proving that it had legs, that it was open to experimentation. You could almost call it Grand Theft Auto: Greatest Hits.

Sure, not everything was as enjoyable as it could have been, with my main gripe being the story and how irrelevant it was. Characters were boring, their dialogue more so and all they were useful for was providing my next mission. Even the end of the game, while fun to play, wasn’t all that compelling (I guess we disagree there). The ending was predictable and I totally saw it coming. The story just didn’t seem to be a priority this time around, which is disappointing for me after seeing what they attempted with GTA IV. That said, it does not detract from the experience at all. Sure, it may be disappointing, but you soon forget about it once the actual missions start thanks to the unique and varied objectives we’ve already alluded to. Taking full advantage of the DS’s features proved to be beneficial to the game overall and I sincerely hope that from now on, all GTA games contain the same level of variety that Chinatown Wars does.

Overall, I am happy to have played this game and I’m eager to see where Rockstar take the franchise next. It begins with the second downloadable episode for GTA IV, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and no doubt I will have some opinions on it once I’ve played it. Beyond that, I’m keen to know if they keep offering different perspectives within Liberty City, or whether they choose to go in another direction again. I’d also like to see another DS game in the future, though after the lack of buzz surrounding the title and the lackluster sales, I’d understand if that wish doesn’t come true. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for participating in this exchange as well as sharing the experience with me. It was fun and I hope you enjoyed it too. Hopefully we can do it again sometime.

Making the Selling Point

Bizarre Creations sparked it’s own mini-renaissance of the arena shooter a few years back with their Xbox Live Arcade and PC hit Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. I played the Steam version on PC recently with an Xbox 360 pad hooked up and it’s clear to see why this game caused such a phenomena among the enthusiast community at the time. Geometry Wars was one of the first ground-breaking “neo-retro” games and its influence over this old-meets-new convergence can’t be understated. Even on Xbox Live Arcade alone, it’d be fair to say that Geometry Wars set the precedence for Pac-Man Championship Edition, Galaga Legions and Space Invaders Extreme, among a wide range of similar revivals.

Geometry Wars was such an prominent flag bearer for neo-retro-themed games for two key reasons. The first is for visual appeal which is full of bright, fluorescent colours ripped straight from the 80s; the rise of arcade culture. This colour palette mixed with the gaudy likeness to fluorescent lighting is visually indicative of the era, and therefore resonates. The visuals provide the initial grab for attention, it’s the surface level of success which is only exacerbated by the way the lights explode on screen with magnificent finesse.

The second element is the feel. So once a player is drawn into the bright lights, the gameplay reels them in for the catch. This is achieved by balancing the familiar elements (retro) with the fluidity of modern design and technology (neo).

The premise itself is directly ripped from the arcades – you’re locked in a contained field and need to thwart off an increasingly intense amount of beasties to increase your score. Consistentcy is rewarded with multipliers, and you are provided with a handful of lives and bombs, the latter of which acts as the panic button, clearing all geometric drones on screen. The simplicity of design and emphasis on high score tallies harken back to arcade-style play.

The technology adds a twist by allowing the game to render massive swarms of enemies on screen at any given time, all dancing to their own attack patterns. The more shapes on screen, the greater intensity of the game. Geometry Wars constantly dips in and out of scripted moments of intensity where armies of ships will suddenly spawn and rapidly enclose on your position. This design (death by massive spawns) concentrates the intensity of the game into controlled instances and delivers these moments of overdose in a way that effectively triggers euphoria in the player’s consciousness.

The combination of a uniquely apt aesthetic mixed with gameplay that constantly provides huge hits of flavour, forms Geometry Wars‘ provocative selling point.

Breaking the Skill Tester

My main gripe with the game is that it all essentially amounts to an endurance test of who can withstand the painful flashes of coloured lights for the longest possible time. As you play Geometry Wars, the player’s field of concentration continually shrinks as the more objects on screen, the less mentally able the player is to track each individual unit. Therefore the player has no choice but to concentrate on their immediate surroundings, since the closest units obviously pose the greatest threats. The problem with Geometry Wars is that it becomes difficult to concentrate on the limited amount of space surrounding your ship as the extravagant explosions from neighbouring ships act to hinder and distract the player’s vision.

While I admire Geometry Wars for the reasons listed above, the jarring intensity of on-screen action lessens Geometry Wars credibility as an arcade skill tester and I feel betrayed because of it.

This mark of betrayal forces me to take the side that Geometry Wars is nothing but a lustrous gimmick, which is usually the opposing argument for neo-retro games of this vein. The real test of Geometry Wars is who wins out in this game of visual torture, so I’d like to end on this sour note by referencing a video that summarises the Geometry Wars experience.

(NB: This footage may be shocking to some viewers)

I’ve been thinking about this Australian larrikinism issue for about a week now as it was mentioned in one of my classes. It’s one of those ideas that’s always been at the back of my mind but never articulated that clearly. Being that us Aussies are a bunch of larrikins – simple eh? The effects of this can come out in intercultural contexts where our perception of a good time can result in a dire consequences in another’s culture. Well, that’s what the lecture was saying, I was too busy casting my mind into the pool of regret when thinking over some of my exploits in China. Ouch!

I’ve wanted to explore the Dane Bishop character for a while, and with larrikinism in hand, I could finally write something interesting about the guy. So please take a read, this entry is much shorter than my Portal analysis.

Lastly, I’m looking to write for external publications more than I have in the past. In fact, I hope that I’ll be able to migrate most of my content elsewhere. I find that writing for other publications ensures that I work harder on polishing my work and elevating my writing style; two areas that I wish to improve at. So look forward to more of that in the future. I wrote some thoughts on this here, if you’re interested.

I’m a bit behind the ball, but here’s how I feel about this year’s show. I missed a few of announcements like Golden Sun’s resurrection, Social media of Xbox 360 and GT5.

Microsoft

E3 can bring out the worst in my fanboy bias against Microsoft, after all this is the convention where game companies drop bombs and I’m clearly rooting for Nintendo and Sony, I want them to “win”. I guess it would be a good compliment on Microsoft’s part to say that the company’s strong showing made be quiver with fanboy trepidation. Take all that away though, and as a player I was hardly excited by what they had on offer.

Most of this is reflected by their lack of exclusive content that wasn’t already jacked up with testosterone. Halo:ODST and Outreach are really starting to wear thin, I mean, how much longer is the industry going to evangelize these soulless franchise? Forza 3, Crackdown 2 and Left for Dead 2 are great assets. Like many people I’m surprised and slightly irked that Valve decided to sequalize L4D so quickly. The other two though don’t particularly interest me much, not a fan of racing sims and the open-world, sand-box genre feels kinda tight at the moment. I’m not too fussed about L4D 2 either, since I rarely play games online. Still, for others is probably a big coo.

Splinter Cell: Conviction, Shadow Complex and their 3rd party content were impressive. Splinter Cell looks to have some cool mechanics such as slapping objectives as text on the walls as well that rapid fire technique which has supposedly been a part of the series for a while now – still cool IMO. Shadow Complex is perhaps the only title I feel particularly envious about. A downloadable Metroidvania game is genius, perfectly suited to the services, you would have thought that Konami would have jumped on this earlier. The game seems more appropriate to the PSN though, since it’s more of a full length feature.

Microsoft also deserve kudos for their selection of celebrity sponsorships Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Tony Hawk and Steven Spielberg are all likely to grab them some air time from the major press. Each celebrity was attached to games that didn’t use a regular controller too, which is interesting.

As for Natal, I think that there are too many problem that they’ll have to overcome. I personally foresee that it’ll be too tiring for the player (try holding your hands out in front of you for more than 5 minutes and you’ll get the point). The – premium tech – hardware is likely to be rather expensive as well. I also doubt that Microsoft has the talent to design for such a device, like almost everything they’ve ever done, they crib from the competition, this time though, they are walking alone. I discussed this with Richard over at Critical Gaming who thought that the lack of tactile feedback would also be problematic. I just don’t think that they can do it, and if they did, I don’t think that I’d want to play it.

It has to be said that Microsoft is still attempting to fool players with the fake casual gaming pretense and I don’t think it’ll ever work for them because their hearts aren’t in the right place – their products reflect that.

Nintendo

Talk about a hokey presentation – boring one minute, rapturous the next. Discarding the performance itself, the company had an improved showing over last year. I couldn’t believe the fangasm they dished out with Metroid: Other M. My brother and I let out a disrespectful laugh when Reggie said that he reads the blogs – no doubt we should have, the presentation was unimpressive up to that point - but he delivered and the peasants rejoiced.

The two new Mario titles are interesting because instead of reinventing the franchise they concentrate on expanding previous designs. It’s definitely a wise move as it allows Nintendo to be creative within an established template.

Like a lot of people, I was confused by Mr Iwata’s annual editorial on company philosophy. His speech wandered around in circles and didn’t have a clear direction. The Wii Vitality Sensor was similarly lost in the muddle, a curious non-announcement at best.

I liked Bill Trinen more when I saw his name in the credits of my favourite games instead of seeing him on stage. He’s just not quite that good a presenter, really irritating. The Wii Sports Resort demo still caught my attention. I like how they’re truly making this game for everyone with added bite for the hardcore players. I agree with Trinen that the sky diving intro really sets the scene for the game, seems very Pilotwings-esque. The demo just looked fun and that’s all it needs to be.

Sony

The leaks really hurt Sony I think, but they recovered better than I anticipated. There was less of a focus on PSN and more concentration of the big announcements for their two primary devices. I thought that they could have stressed the extent of 3rd party support for the PSP stronger as it really is unprecedented. Just a series of logos on screen would have been enough. I don’t like Hiraz so much, he clashes with Tretton’s softer presentation style and comes off too cock-sure in comparison.

It’s interesting to observe how the Uncharted franchise has gone from semi-blockbuster accused of borrowing too liberally from its competition to E3 show-stopper. And so it should be regarded that way. Everything about this title looks fresh and lively. Drake’s dialogue is slick, the interface clean and the graphics lush. The game has what so many current generation games are lacking; colour. This title, paired with God of War III (which I was admittedly less impressed with) represent the start of the visible technical divide between the current two generation platforms.

Many people have criticized the PSP Go over the price. As said by Michael Pachter, the cost of a 16gb harddrive is considerably less than a UMD drive, Sony are already making good profit on the PSP 3000, there is no reason to hike the price up an additional $100. I need to buy a PSP for myself, so I’m being cautious over my decision as I want to be able to play my old UMD games on the new hardware and so far the “good will” alternative remains sketchy at best. Let’s hope they find a proper solution fast.

Both of the Metal Gear Solid announcements bothered me. The series has run it’s course, let’s not beat it into the ground, please. I’m more interested in MGS: Peace Walker as it’s fleshing out a patchy part of the backstory, a part that MGS:Portable Ops left open. MGS: Rising on the other hand, I’m not convinced. Raiden is not a likable character and his backstory isn’t an important part of the series timeline. I’m expecting MGS: Rising to tell the story of how Raiden reclaimed Sunny from the Patriots. Also, I think that there’s something up with his suit as the torso protrudes awkwardly protrudes outwards, perhaps his in a Gundam or something. I like how Peace Walker will be treated as a proper franchise entry, with the MGS4 crew and Hideo himself personally working on the product.

The Final Fantasy XIV and Rockstar (Agent) announcements proved that Sony still yields power over 3rd parties. Both announcements could have been delivered better though. Tretton ought to have first shown the Final Fantasy XIV trailer before blurting out the name as it sounded downright ridiculous - the crowd’s disbelieving laughs highlighted this. I think that it’s inevitable that this title will arrive on the Xbox 360, the three versions will likely all launch at the same time too. Agent on the other hand remains to be a PS3 exclusive, Sony really should have hired Take 2 boss Ben Feder to do the boasting, with quotes like this, you can’t lose;

“The game, like anything from Rockstar North, is going to be very, very cool. It’s going to push the edge, it’s going to be genre-defining and it’s going to be a whole new way of experiencing videogames that we haven’t really seen before,”

Similar to the way they introduced FF XIV, Sony mad a mess in introducing the motion controller. Firstly they shouldn’t give the device the same label as the Wii-mote, this makes you look fraudulent. The two engineers started out on wonky ground (better than the GT Mobile guy, looked like he was being tortured on stage) but once the demonstrations were rolling they found their groove and impressed. The technology clearly isn’t the problem, the positioning is. It’s difficult to see where this will fit on the PS3 and I think the same applies for Natal as well. All three systems have their own proprietary motion sensing technology, no developer is going to develop for all three, Natal seems to have too many design hurdles, the PS3 wand device is only a peripheral really, Wii now has Motion Plus and the largest possible audience, plus it’s cheaper to developer for – which would you choose?

Wrapping up, Modnation Racers looks cool. Sony should have referenced Syphon Filter Combat Ops in the Play.Create.Share propaganda me thinks – might have seen a sales spike. Otherwise their conference was well done, they presented more exclusive content, further along in development and this ultimately was their key strength. The conference would have been huge if the leaks hadn’t sprung and the presentation was tidied up a little, but it’s all the same really. I’m very enthused for some Playstation, the best out of the three I’d say.

G’day G’day. Another round up of links to chip away at your busy life. Not much pre-post commentary this time, other than that it seems that I’ve diverged from my one month cycle. If you’re getting too antsy, feel free to check out my delicious account.

Academic wankery: Consuming the rock spectacle: Comparing recorded concerts and Guitar Hero – Graffiti Gamer

Some of you might have caught word that I had a brief lunch with Daniel Purvis some weeks ago. Yeah, that’s true. He’s a good bloke and I’m surprised just how many topics we shared in agreeance. He wrote this convincing essay for one of his uni classes recently, really clean writing, he presents the argument well – ya know, the kind of quality writing you wouldn’t find here.

Block Check #1 and #2 – Critical Gaming

If you read other blogs around this sphere of ours, then I recommend taking a squiz at these posts to see if Richard has covered someone you read. He certainly squeezed out the weaknesses in my Metal Gear Solid 4 essay (which I confess to). A number of these show ponies endorse “critical discussion” of video games, but are they well versed in the art? Perhaps not, me thinks.

EXP Podcast #24: Cultured Gaming – Experience Points

You can probably imagine the selfish glee I took when I received an email by these two gents to inform me that they’d conducted a whole podcast about my ‘The Place of Games in Culture’ article on GameSetWatch. I think they handled it quite well too, you should definitely have a listen.

How To Be Me: Matt Chandronait, Area 5 Founder & Producer

My brother downloads the weekly exploits of ex-1UPers in their new show Co-Op. The show is similar to podcasting actually, in that you’re listening in on the conversation of others. It’s all about interesting dialogue and that’s what the team provide here. The game choices and guests are always well made, as too with the production values. This interview is with Matt Chandronait regarding the operations of the show.

101 Free Games 2009 - 1UP

Talking about 1UP, Scott Sharkey wrote this great feature compiling over a hundred quality indie titles worth checking out. I’m currently on hiatus from playing indie games since I’m in Australia and have a stack of bought games to drill through (this will change early next year when I go back to China though). There’s never a better time to savour the delights of indie games. The list features a number of standout titles as well as a few I’m unfamiliar with.

Childish - Screenplay

I’ve unsubscribed to this blog to maintain a tighter schedule as the bulk of Jason’s articles in fact say very little, which is unfortunate as he’s an intelligent writer. I just wish he’d stop trying to keep up with everyone else’s news and instead focus on what he can offer as an observer. He does this occasionally and they make for great reads. This short piece is a good example of that, even if he is liberally stealing from others.

Liberty City Lotto: I’m Rich! - PixelVixen707

Some rather amazing stats on the scratch cards in GTA: Chinatown Wars. PixelVixen also wrote a masterful interpretation of the story which is an essential read.

Smash Bros. Brawl Tutorial Videos – Sirlin.net

That critical-gaming dude Richard Terrell linked me to fantastic selection of tutorials for Super Smash Bros Brawl. Even if you only play for fun, it’s well worth watching the series.

Dinosaur Land On Parade – Press the Buttons

Nothing turns my nostalgic dial like artwork from the classic Mario titles. I’m am forever in debt to Matt Green for this one. Seriously, the artwork is super apt.

Majora’s Mask - Nintendo’s Fluke – 4cr

I’m including this link not because I think it’s a fantastic analysis of Majora’s Mask (it’s alright) but rather I hope that someone will attempt to understand the way Majora’s Mask creates it’s overpowering sense of dread as well as the implications within the social and cultural aspects of the game, and share this through writing.

Desktop Gaming

I love desktop customization even though I’m rather terrible at it. I’ve been going to Gamewallpapers.com for a few years but unfortunately they lock away most of their good content. Desktop gaming is a good alternative for retro themed wallpapers.

Other assorted links

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Genesis TV Spot

Punch Out!! Advertisement

Bento!

Too Human versus the enthusiast press: Video game journalists as mediators of commodity valu

Interview: Making Plans For Zeebo - GameSetWatch

How Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time Breaks Language Barriers - Siliconera

Sony Computer to launch seven Indian games this year

King of Fighters XII Dot Graphics Gallery

Those Guys Aren’t So Interesting

Last week I bought a new-but-probably-old-by-now copy of the Australian Official Nintendo Magazine. I bought it on the grounds that it discusses upcoming WiiWare and DSiWare games in a professional context. The services features a bunch of games that interest me such as Lit, New Adventure Island, Gradius Rebirth, Contra Rebirth etc. and yet the online coverage of these two services is weak. I think it’s an issue with the crediting system for press access to free games, an error on Nintendo’s part unfortunately.

I also bought to magazine to rank it against the grandfather of official Nintendo print; NMS. Just briefly; it’s head and shoulders above NMS. Respectable magazine, great visual layout, quality writing and they use their biggest asset (being related to Nintendo) to their advantage with great art assets and exclusive material. Although, the magazine appears to be iterative of the UK version. Hmm..

Anyways, in the reader mail was a response regarding a petty dispute over some score the magazine had previously assigned, the kid said it should have been a 93% and not a 90%. Big deal. It made me think though, why would anyone ever email into a writer of a magazine or website? I mean, most video game websites and magazines command a stringent diet of news, reviews and previews with the occasional feature. The three modes of writing don’t open themselves for discussion since they don’t really present an argument. That is, you can’t email a writer to debate over a news or previews piece because such content is usually above the reader’s point of access. If anything the reader might request the writer to drawn on their insight to offer an opinion, but really there is little argument one can make over news and previews. Reviews are often equally bland affairs of dolled out lists of features, so while there should be, there isn’t really an argument for readers to respond here either. The big three modes of operation could (and should) take sides, show opinions and make an argument, but due to the culture of the games writing media, it kinda hasn’t worked out that way - which is why you’re read me, rite? ^_^

I know that readers don’t always email in with questions regarding opinion. As previously suggested, they may simply wish to draw on the writer’s insight into the industry or share a few compliments. But I wonder, besides the love letters, requests for insight and quibbles over spelling errors, why would one ever need to email these publication in the reader email section?

What about the emails already featured in the reader mail section? Good point! It didn’t take me much backtracking to remind myself why I usually avoid reading the dull community discussion. Most of the published letters (this applies for all print magazines I’ve read) are silly anecdotes that end with a magazine-promoting moral to boast the brand of the copy. Other emails are bouts of obvious stupidity, with readers asking whether X company is working on X dream game. Funnily enough, all email responses, even the remarkably positive ones are always met with a pessimistic sentence or two where the magazine staffer breathes snark at reader. Quite disgusting actually.

The reverse of this is what we have here on the internet, and I think of my articles at GameSetWatch as a case in point. GameSetWatch has as much weight as any good print mag, in fact the company have their own print magazine, but nevermind. So I write an article or two for the site and it’s discussed in the comments both there and a little here at my site. I receive an email or two by people who have particular responses to the article. I then cross to someone else’s blog who has written an article to make me out as a racist, and we debate the article for a few days there. Two American blokes also do a 30 minute podcast where they too discuss one of my articles, and then email me for feedback. I don’t mean to denigrate print or promote my gear, print is wonderful - I just paid a good deal of money for the latest two Gamespite volumes (they shipped today!) - but as was the message in my article about Hyper, print folks that aren’t progressive in their adoption of new media will simply fall behind.  The web and blogs in particular are shaping games discussion as the community sees fit, wouldn’t hurt to see print attempting to be a little more bold.

ONM appears to be adopting new media well, like other Future products they have a website and forum, and the magazine integrates the two a little. Sort of like the old TotalGames.net site.

Discredited

Continuing on from this point. I was talking with someone the other day, and I said to them that I find all Australian game writers to be this white-wash of sameness. I can’t decipher who is who as they all seem to post the same neutral tone copy with an excess of forced Australian-ness.

After my damning comments, I later realized that I think this way for two reasons; firstly in some print magazines, writers are not credited for their individual pieces. The second reason is a fault of the games media and yes, yes, I know that whole news-reviews-reviews system. None of it seems open enough to allow writers to develop their own distinct writing style, not do the writers seem interested in personalizing their content. In fact, that’s one of the biggest issues with games writing, is that you can’t tell people apart!

Too Modern for a Traditionalist

Something I like about being a gamer, is how the medium accommodates players who wish to play games on any part of the social continuum. For example, I can player a single player game by myself, I can play with a faceless team mate on the otherside of the world, or I can play with a bunch of mates sharing a couch. I prefer to play single player experiences and occasionally with several mates in the same area. Predominately speaking though most of my game experiences are single player affairs and that’s how I like it.

Like any good man, playing games is my time of respite, my time to relax in my own world. I’ve been playing like this forever, but in the past few months I’ve grown to loathe online play and for no real justifiable reason. When I load up the Playstation 3 it automatically signs me into the Playstation Network, fair enough. The same goes for when I use my brother’s computer with the Steam service.

I find that during my time of relaxation the online integration elements bother me, significantly. I don’t like the Playstation 3 overlaying alerts of a friend signing on or the weak wireless reception in my room. The same applies for the request I get to play Team Fortress 2 when using my brother’s ID on Steam. Obviously I can switch these devices off, but that isn’t my case here. My point is that I play games to get away from socializing and all that stuff, and these features constrict that. I accept that this is a modern reality because the integration is simply great and many players choose to respond to the alerts, but I’m personally less willing. I think it’ll be sometime before I change my mind. I guess I’m caught in the rift called ‘modernization’.

I prepped up pretty good for this article. I’ve been studying Goffman’s work for a while now, but I decided to read The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life just in case. I’ll be onto his other works later on sometime. I also went through some old lecture slides from Uni and dug out a few quotes by people like Bourdieu and Foucault that are relevant to the article. I hope to eventually read more of what they have to say too. Here are two of my favourite quotes, worth reading before you approach the essay:

“Language is a guide to “social reality”… it powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes. Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an additional means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the “real world” is to a large extent unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached to…. We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation.” (Sapir 1962).

“Institutions are powerful to the extent that people have come to interpret them as ‘the way things are (and should be) done’. There are likely to be sanctions for people who deviate from or are unable to interpret what is normal” (Bourdieu 1991)