Monthly Archives: December 2008

Another Arbitrary 2008 List (Final Part)

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(Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4)

Game of the Year: Mirror’s Edge (Xbox 360/PS3)
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2008 was a pretty damn strong year for games. You had blockbuster sequels, innovative indie games, major 1st party releases, and quirky web games. Yet amongst this sea of quality releases stood Mirror’s Edge. It’s the definition of the a love/hate game, DICE, unconcerned mostly with anything besides the core concept of parkour, stripped the game of just about anything else remotely tangential. There’s no open world, no silly block puzzles, just about all combat is avoidable (with one or two major exceptions). The game is merely about running from point A to point B in the quickest, most elegant path possible.

Mirror’s Edge was muddled and imperfect in its central story mode. But where the true beauty of the game emerged was in the brilliant time trials. Removing all forms of combat and opening up the environments ever so slightly created a true paradise for runners. And by eschewing everything except the essence of running the beauty of the game emerged. You made sure every little crouch jump, every fall was the right height, every path was optimal to take fractions of seconds off the clock.

Few games were as addicting as Mirror’s Edge in time trials. I certainly got hooked. And this is why I find Mirror’s Edge to be the best game of 2008.

Thanks for reading everyone. I started gamedrinkcode this year as a place to dump all my thoughts and musings on games. I hope to continue as regularly next year as I did at the end of this. Have a great New Years and I’ll be back Friday.

Another Arbitrary 2008 List (Part 4)

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(Parts 1, 2, and 3)

Best Fashion Game: The World Ends With You (DS)
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Square-Enix’s inscrutable action-RPG The World Ends With You end up surprising many by being both original and good, a rarity from the Square end of Square-Enix. But underneath its unique dual-screen battle system and Nomura character designs was actually a very clever front for one of the most in-depth fashion titles ever made. Not content to use a simplified armor system, TWEWY had 13 different fashion brands with varying popularity across multiple districts whose popularity would directly affect your ability to battle, talk, and shop in various parts of Shinjuku. Not since Final Fantasy VII has there been a legitimate reason to dress your (male) protagonist in a feminine clothing for actual gameplay.

Best NES Game: Mega Man 9 (Wii/PSN/XBLA)
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Capcom has had a tremendously strong year by diving back into its decades old catalog with revivals of games like Street Fighter (both with HD Remix and 4) and Bionic Commando. But nowhere did gamers’ hearts go aflutter then when Capcom brought back its venerable Blue Bomber, Mega Man, in all his classic NES 8-bit glory. After many years bumbling around in spin-offs and poor modern sequels that diminished the charm and simplicity of the original, Capcom went decidedly retro right down to sprite flickering and no slide. Having a merely competent Mega Man game that aped the stylings of the original would have been enough, but Capcom went the distance by making 9 perhaps the best entity in the entire series. With superbly balanced, yet challenging levels, imaginative and varied uses for every weapon, and one of the best set of bosses in any of the games, Mega Man 9 was more than nostalgic callback, it was one of the best games of the year.

Another Arbitrary 2008 List (Part 3)

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(Parts 1 and 2)

Best Music Game: Rhythm Heaven (DS)
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Rhythm Heaven is the sequel to the Japan-only game, Rhythm Tengoku. Tengoku was an exercise in musical brilliance, tying together simple game mechanics with vibrant and eclectic artwork to create a memorable experience. Unfortunately, Rhythm Tengoku came at the tail end of the Game Boy Advance’s life and never saw wide release in any other territories. Thanksfully the same fate will not await its sequel since Rhythm Heaven already guaranteed to be localized in 2009 for American audiences. Few music games bring out more pure joy in combining these non-sequiter images to catchy tunes, whether you’re helping a chemist find her true love through shaking beakers to helping a monkey clap to a music idol.

2nd Best Music Game: Audiosurf (PC)
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Audiosurf is a wonderful success on two levels. First off, before Braid and World of Goo, Audiosurf was the indie game for 2008. With its near-perfect timing of its IGF awards combined with its Steam release Audiosurf reached levels of success most indie games would merely dream about. And second, its goal of dynamically generating a track from just about any piece of music was ridiculously ambitious. And yet it wonderfully works. It doesn’t matter if you put in Pink, Michael Jackson, or Sigur Ros. That’s not to say Audiosurf is perfect. But when you’re perfectly zoned in as you’re zooming downhill in Ninja Mono, there were few experiences this year that came close to touching the pure essence of games.

Another Arbitrary 2008 List (Part 2)

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(Part 1)

Best Most Game: Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
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Nintendo’s catch-all fighting title returned bigger than ever. But it wasn’t just how overstuffed the options were for multiplayer. Or how the single player had evolved into a full-blown (if semi-mediocre) adventure along with classic mode and various minigames. Or how events became a mode unto themselves. Or how achievements for just about any action were tied into rewarding players with various goodies. Or that it included demos of classic games, a stage builder, and full co-op modes. But all of these things (and many others not even mentioned here) were demonstrative of Sakurai’s compulsive need to make Super Smash Bros. Brawl the game equivalent of the turducken, so much game you could see the seams bursting.

Best Mediocre Game: Haze (PS3)
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Coincidentally, this choice was already set before Free Radical was put down due to the overwhelming failure of Haze. And the saddest aspect of this whole affair is how in the end Haze wasn’t terrible as much as incompetent. Free Radical and Ubisoft’s much maligned shooter set the standard for mediocrity in all facets of design and play. The by-the-book FPS gameplay, the hackneyed narrative of military-corporation vs. the sympathetic rebels that wouldn’t have been fit for Michael Bay, the half-baked drug system that did nothing except force players to inject themselves every few steps all combined to form a thoroughly boring experience. Not even a slightly unique multiplayer mode could add enough spice to make Haze the killer app for the PS3 and in the end not enough to save Free Radical before they could redeem themselves with Timesplitters 4.

Another Arbitrary 2008 List (Part 1)

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Everyone and their mom has some “Best of 2008″ or “Top 10 Games” list at the end of every year. As one famous writer once said, lists are the lazy journalist’s story. But then again, I may be working too hard. So over the next two weeks as game news slows down, I will present my random “awards” of 2008 in some fashion in no particular order. At the same time I’ll try to give some actual illuminating thoughts on each particular game.

Best Use of Time in an Original Game: Braid (XBLA)
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Jon Blow’s much anticipated game, Braid, was finally released in this summer to much critical acclaim. And while there are many elements of Braid worthy on discussion (and have been discussed to death) like David Hellman’s beautiful watercolor art or the both frustrating and exhilarating integration of narrative in Braid’s world, it’s Braid’s mixing and remixing of its central time mechanic that’s most worthy of recognition. Braid’s gameplay revolves around manipulating time to solve its puzzles, but Blow wasn’t satisfied to have just one single interesting use of time. Instead, he had each world in Braid (all 6) display their own unique take on time manipulation. Whether it was simple rewinding of past actions, creation of time dopplegangers, or time bubbles to slow anything down, Braid’s shining example of taking a single game mechanic and constantly riffing on it throughout the game is a tribute to designers everywhere.

Best Use of Time in a Port: Chrono Trigger (DS)
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Square-Enix’s re-release of its seminal 16-bit classic Chrono Trigger this year allowed any gamer over the age of 20 to wax nostalgic again. Yet beyoond simple childhood memories, replaying Chrono Trigger reminded us of the simple design lessons that made Chrono Trigger great. It’s streamlined design that never hindered players, the story and dialogue that had the right touch of levity, and its gorgeous music and artwork that gave the entire game a shiny gleam of polish. Yet perhaps the most important reminder from Chrono Trigger is how its simple story of time-traveling and causality well-integrated into the game can be one of the best motivators to move forward. Simple details like having your initial rescue of Princess Leene in 600 A.D. create the justice system that imprisons you in 1000 A.D., not opening chests in the past so they contain more powerful equipment in the future, and the continual reminders of connections from the far past to the end of time demonstrate the love and care put into Chrono Trigger.

Goodbye Free Radical

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Goodbye Free Radical. You had a good run with the Timesplitters franchise, refusing to give into the trend of narrative-driven FPS games and sticking to the tried-and-true mechanics you originally set in Goldeneye. You were one of the few developers keeping the twitch FPS alive on consoles. I’m sorry that Haze had to happen, it was a pretty bad game, but not so terrible that it should bankrupt a studio. I wish you had never been tempted to the side of epic FPS content munchers and instead stuck with what you knew.

Goodbye Free Radical. It’s unfortunate that Timesplitters 4 won’t happen. I had some great moments with that franchise. And I hope your former employees bring along your trademark humor to other games in the future. Because this industry needs to be a little more lighthearted, even when you’re pumping shotgun into another player.

So goodbye Free Radical. Maybe again some other day.

Zero credibility (for game award shows)

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On Sunday anyone who an orgy of marketing could do worse than to tune into the 5th annual Spike Video Game Awards. This dubious awards ceremony had various games awarded from such esteemed categories like the Best Independent Game of the Year Fueled by Dew and Big Name in the Game wedged in-between premiere trailers for games next year introduced by C-list celebs and musical performances by acts that had nothing to do with games.

So yeah, it was pretty terrible overall.

The history of videogame awards shows has been a sad one. Until this year the channel G4 also had a similarly embarrassing awards show called G-Phoria which has now transitioned to a smaller, viewer-driven format. Filled with the same celebrity award presenters, upcoming year marketing drivel, and little respect for the games or developers being awarded.

And while Spike and G4 are mostly to blame for these monstrosities, its not a huge surprise why videogame award shows are like this. Unlike the movie or music industry where people will tune in to see the big-name celebs and musicians, there’s little mainstream fandom for game developers. Very few people will tune in to watch David Jaffe come out and present an award. So instead we shoehorn in actors and actresses with no connection to games to make up for the publicity deficit.

The orgy of marketing is also pretty embarrassing where the awards celebrating the past year’s achievements are ignored to masturbate to next year’s latest and greatest thing. It’s tied to the demographic of hardcore gamers who would watch the show and Spike execs and marketing people at the big publishers undoubtedly find it irresistible to push next year’s product and get the hype train going.

Thankfully there is the Game Developers Choice awards which is a little closer to the format followed by the Academy awards were supposedly only industry members are allowed to vote. Additionally, the GDC awards do show care by both rewarding indie games through the IGF and providing innovation and lifetime achievement awards celebrating career accomplishments.

No one in 10 years will care about who won the G-Phoria or Spike VGA game of the year. But maybe someday when games become more mainstream and people know the names of the people behind games we will look back at the GDC like the first Oscars being held for a small audience at a private dinner party. Until then, I’ll keep on mocking the Spike VGA awards for my own amusement.

Adaptation in games and Dante’s Inferno

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The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And EA’s new Dante’s Inferno is another cobblestone on that road. Based off one of the most famous pieces of literature in the western hemishere, The Divine Comedy, Dante’s Inferno is an attempt to adapt that masterful work of religious symbolism and political satire into a game. Let’s clip from EA’s own press release:

“The time is right for the world of interactive entertainment to adapt this literary masterpiece, and to re-introduce Dante to an audience that, until now, may have been unfamiliar with the remarkable details of this great work of art,” said Jonathan Knight, executive producer for Dante’s Inferno. “It’s the perfect opportunity to fuse great gameplay with great story.”

Adapting such a difficult, inherent un-game work for the medium I’m sure was an immense task. Dante’s Inferno is full of grotesque imagery, but little action. A lot of the themes will be exceedingly difficult to translate effectively. It’s an ambitious step to take for EA.

Or you could just make another 3D gory action brawler ala God of War. That might certainly translate Dante’s work into the medium.

This is not to say that in the end Dante’s Inferno won’t be a good game. In fact, with the collective might of EA behind it I’m sure at the very least it will be a polished affair that borrows some of the best modern tropes of action titles. With a little luck you may have a game that rivals God of War or Devil May Cry as some of the best beat-em-ups of recent years.

But to claim you’re making an honest attempt at adapting Dante Alighieri’s work and ending up with another over-the-top action game seems disingenuous at best and just dishonest at worst. No medium is a stranger to adaptation, games for the longest time have borrowed from film and films themselves like to borrow from literary sources. Yet as much as we hate it when film adaptations of books miss the mark in concept so should we be disappointed when a game attempts to do the same.

Borrowing from greater works raises expectations of the adaptation. Adapting an action film is easy, adapting The Divine Comedy is quite difficult and it takes a certain amount of laziness to end up with the same solution in both cases. With Dante’s Inferno it looks like EA is just borrowing the names and some imagery behind the work resulting in a work that might be better labeled as inspired by The Divine Comedy. Which is perfectly fine, God of War borrowed heavily from Greek mythology, but no one really complained there since God of War never claimed to be a tool for familiarizing the unfamiliar with the remarkable details of a great work of art.

And in the end, that’s really the heart of my complaint with Dante’s Inferno. There’s nothing wrong with creating an action game inspired by Dante. There’s nothing wrong with liberally borrowing from the source. But don’t pretend you’re doing the original work any justice with this creative bastardization. Don’t sprout off meaningless PR jabber attempting to make the game seem more notable than it is. Just call the game Seven Circles of Hell, put in an inspired byline, and call it a day. Don’t drag better works to your level.