GameTruth

Released yesterday on XBOXLive, The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai has created a bit of a stir amongst the indie gaming community.  I decided to download the demo and try it out.  You can get plenty of great insight from the various gaming websites that have already posted reviews, so I will try to distill mine down into a deliciously intoxicating thimble of gaming criticism.  This game is a side scrolling beat-em-up button masher that looks pretty stellar.  The release of XNA has made shaders and graphical craziness easily accessible, so it is quite overused in The Dishwasher.  I think the look and feel of the game are pretty exceptional, but the visual simulation overload gag is a bit played out at this point. Now time for the boiled down review I promised.

So lets talk about some good characteristics:  The combo mechanic is pretty cool, and I can see the potential to get away from button mashing eventually.  The graphics and sound are solid and the story seems to have potential.  The controls are pretty intuitive and it is fun to play in small doses.  The feedback and reward for executing the right move at the right time is exceptional and very well done.

Now time for the bad stuff: The fact that I need to pause the game and go into my inventory to use a health powerup is lame.  The boss battle at the end of the demo was a bit too easy (just press Y a lot for a dominant strategy) and the unsolicited quicktime rapid fire button stomping did not impress me.

Overall the game looks fun, but I probably won’t buy it.  I am a bit sick of 2D side scrollers, and if I needed a 2D side scrolling button mashing fix I would just get some friends and play Castle Crashers.

A few weeks ago I got a chance to try a demo of Dark Athena at the NYCC.  I must admit that I was pleasantly impressed with the game, and since I loved the original I was probably being way too nice.  My good cheer came to an end today when I got a chance to download and suffer through the demo on XBOXLive.  It is totally unacceptable to release a demo to the public that is this frustrating.  The original Bioshock demo was what sold that game, it set records.  The most insufferable player in this forsaken shindig is that the demo I played at the NYCC was awesome.  Why the hell would they release a weak, difficult to understand, demo that had no foreshadowing of the story or what is to come in the full game?

Overall the gameplay does look solid, the same great melee, platforming and stealth components will all be included.  The surprised at the end of the demo is a video showing some multiplayer, and looking online it is obvious that there will be some interesting new modes to try out.  However, I still can’t shake the shotty showing by the demo, I hope that players do not shy away from the game based on this.

I am just mad because I know I will probably still cough up the dough to dice people with ulaks.

So Seth and I attended the New York Comic Con this past weekend (more on the NYCC here) with our friend Joe and we saw a ton of games.  Prototype, Mad World, Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, Ghostbusters, The Conduit, Deadly Creatures, GTA: Chinatown Wars, Sonic and the Black Knight, DC Online and others.  Out of these there are several I will own (Chronicles of Riddick and Ghostbuster for sure) but there was not a game I saw that I didn’t immediately notice something I would consider to be a flaw or detractor from the game.   Prototype looked like Spiderman mixed with Assassin’s Creed therefore done before, DC Online looks exactly like City of Heroes also done before, Mad World got boring during a 10 minute demo and The Conduit had flaky controls to say the least.  The thing is I did enjoy demoing these games and many of them will do quite well.

So that brings me to the question that is the title of this post: do I have impossible standards?  It seems the more I get into game design and the more serious I take them the more I seem to sneer as imperfections.  Now I have played and loved terrible games before (Turok: Rage Wars and Rebel Assault II come to mind) but now that I plan to make my living creating games I can’t seem to cut them any slack.  Do other people have this problem?  Is this even an issue?  Should I check my gaming elitism at the door and give these games more than a 10 minute demo?

-Mark

I remember watching Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome when I was around seven years old. I would go back to that captivating film as I got older, and things would always make a little more sense with each viewing. But one aspect of the movie stayed constant within me: Earth was a hopeless place, which wasn’t necessarily fun to watch. I would empathize with Max and the children that saved him for having to live in such bleak conditions. Any semblance of advanced civilization was non-existent. Security, comfort, and the conventions that humans took for granted in everyday life were gone. The innocents of Mad Max had to avoid starvation, worry about the everyday cold leading to death, and maintain mental stability in the face of despair. There were no grocery stores, no doctors, and no leisure activities to bring your family too. In a fascinating way, it was depressing to witness the results of a self-destructive society, especially when it could become a reality someday. But I could still enjoy the film; it wasn’t me walking in Mad Max’s battered leather boots. I was simply watching his struggles from the safety of my couch. Plus, the atmosphere was so well done that it was impossible to not admire the vision of the film’s creators.

Why am I talking about Mad Max on a video game site? Because those same morose feelings that the film gave me as a child came rushing back to me as I left Vault 101 in Bethesda’s Fallout 3. Except this time, I wasn’t passively watching Mel Gibson; I was the hero.

But in this case, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be. It was a bit too downtrodden for me, almost eerily realistic. Sure, Doom 3 and Silent Hill are scary, but they’re also completely imaginary. Fallout 3 is more terrifying in a way, because history shows we will eventually be our own downfall. And here I was, walking in a virtual wasteland where broken memories of a thriving culture remained as a depressing nightmare of what once was. Cannibalistic humans run wild and food is scarce (and the food you do find is irradiated, a really clever but disturbing game mechanic: Do I fill my HP at the expense of my long-term health? No game has ever made me think twice before hitting that potion button).

Anyway, I bring this up because I find myself in a predicament: I admire everything about Fallout 3. I love the incredible environment art (so depressing, yet somehow so beautiful), the deep dialogue choices that have an effect on the world, and the impressive hybrid RPG/FPS combat system. I will play through the entire game, eventually. Still, I find myself hesitating to pop it in my 360. I want to play it, but on the other hand, I don’t want to experience such a downtrodden atmosphere. Am I the only jerk on earth that has this problem? Have you ever played a game you loved, but were hesitant to continue playing because its atmosphere messed with you on some level?

-gd

There is an article currently up on Destructiod that talks about how many old school game mechanics that have dropped out of style were actually strengths for the Survival/Horror genre.  The article argues that the evolution of gameplay controls and camera movement have led to less interesting games.  Another article in the Guardian refutes these ideas and says that the downfall of Survival/Horror is not upon us.

Personally I have never been a huge fan of Survival/Horror games.  However, it does seem that any game that is scary is being labeled as Survival/Horror.  It was my understanding that the core gameplay in a true survival game was maximizing resources to try and stay alive.  Items, weapons and ammo all need to be conserved as much as possible, forcing the player to do drastic things to continue in the game.  This is not what I felt while playing some of the more recent horror games like Dead Space and Left 4 Dead.  While these games are gory and have scary moments they are basically the slasher film while original Survival/Horror games are more in the vein of psychological thrillers like The Shining.

But again, this is not my specialty.  I am sure that everyone else has more input on this, especially when it comes to what classifies as a Survival/Horror in recent memory.

-Seth

It is no secret that I loved the original Gears of War (GoW).  I think it totally changed the shooter genre forever, but also had many small details that made it an excellent game (active reload).  Ever since the first game I have been anxiously waiting for the sequel.  Since the release of the game about a month ago I have had the chance to beat it twice, and I must admit I really do like it better than the original.

SPOILER WARNING: I am going to talk about the game below, if you haven’t played it I might ruin it for you.

The biggest draw of the Gears of War games is the ability to play cooperatively with another person.  I would be lying if I did not admit that this is likely the biggest selling point of the entire game for me.  GoW2 does an excellent job with the cooperative experience, much like the original. Players must work together to get through the game, and several times during the experience more teamwork than usual is required.

Some examples that come to mind include when the two players must split up to pass through an area with numerous security gun drones.  One player must walk through the hallway that is protected by the guns, while the other must disarm them at the right time to allow passage.  The other specific time is moving a large bomb into position to open a door.  This particular mechanic has the players essentially linked together carrying a huge crate, and of course oncoming enemies make this more difficult.  This was probably the coolest multiplayer sequence in the game.

Other than the obvious multiplayer appeal GoW2 delivers a dark and quite depressing story.  One particular sequence is stuck in my mind, and it certainly effected me emotionally more than I thought it would.  After finding out that the Locusts are torturing people you come across Tai on one of the torture ships.  Throughout the story leading up to this point Tai has been said to be unkillable and I felt he was one of the most badass cogs in the game.  During this cut scene Tai kills himself, and the reaction from Marcus is really compelling.  This is just one example of the story elements included in GoW2.

From the first game we knew that Dom was in search of his wife, Maria.  That is one of the main plots in the game, and towards the end of the game he finds her.  She has been tortured to the point of not even remembering who Dom is, and is so obviously destroyed physically and mentally that she could never recover.  Dom chooses to end her suffering by killing her himself.  Again, this was another moment in the story that felt very dark and serious.  There was no point in the first game where I felt this way.

A final credit to the game is the variety of new mechanics that are included.  The game is not a standard 3rd person shooter.  There is a plethora of other challenges for the player including some light puzzles solving, platforming, vehicle combat and even some cool rail shooting.  This all adds to the depth of the game, making it a real roller coaster ride to play.  In an upcoming article Mark and I have been working on we breakdown the anatomy of a game mechanic and we will be using one of the mechanics in GoW2 to help illustrate our point.

Now, GoW2 is not without problems.  While I enjoyed the game overall and felt it was better than the original it still lacked a solid ending.  Another problem I have had with both GoW games is the lack of a decent boss fight.  There are several of these boss fights found in both games, and they always feel weak and not very interesting.  I refuse to rate games on any sort of number scale, but I would say that GoW2 is probably one of the better games I have played this year.

It is pretty obvious I am leaving out a huge part of the game from this brief review.  I do not talk about the online multiplayer at all.  To be honest it is totally awesome.  The Horde gameplay is like tower defense meets shooter.  It would take another complete review to discuss the online component and I just might do that.

-Seth

Periodically over at Game Career Guide they have a guest come in and create a game design challenge.  About a month ago I entered into one of the challenges and I was an honorable mention.  The info on the challenge I entered is below:

The Challenge
Design a one-button first-person shooter game.

Assignment Details
This design challenge comes from Brandon Sheffield of Game Developer magazine and Gamasutra.com, and his assignment details are extremely minimal.

Design a one-button FPS game. Describe

* the game idea
* the game mechanic
* the platform
* the target audience
* why your game will be addictively fun.

That’s it.

Succinct ideas will be highly favored! Can you describe all this in only a few sentences? Remember, the businessmen and women in the game industry don’t want to read a hundred-page design document. Get to the point.

Sheffield will weigh in on the results. (Hint: Search out his name to find out what kinds of themes and styles he might be into.)

So with my success in this challenge I may very well be entering into some more.

-Mark

I am reporting in from GLS2008 in Madison, Wisconsin (It is currently downpouring outside).  This is my second year here at GLS and having presented The Winds of Orbis yesterday I truly get to relax and take in some good talks.  One of the highlights of yesterday was Drew Davidson’s talk about Portal that focused on the storytelling and analysis of the game from a more standard literary standpoint.  Drew proposed some very interesting ideas about the game design itself and did an excellent job explaining how Portal teaches the player to play.

Today there will surely be plenty of other outstanding talks.  I sat in on a fireside chat this morning that was about building virtual worlds and discussed the idea of Constant Nieuwenhuis’s New Babylon.   I think the idea is really fascinating and Iplan to read more about it andmaybe I will post more later.

Expect more updates from both Mark and me as we try to get back into the swing of this again.

-Seth

So I went to my first WoW trading card game event, and I totally got my ass kicked.  It was pretty fun to play the sealed format.  There is a big draw for me because you are given a set of random cards and need to make the best of it.  As far as card games go I have always found creating the decks being the most fun thing to do, while actually playing them comes in second.  Anyway, I plan to keep playing the WoW TCG so I will try to keep this updated.

-Seth

So I have been messing around with this card game for a while. I plan to play in some tournaments coming up and I will put up the reports here. Also I am going to do some number crunching and playtesting so that will be available as well. Hopefully will have a chance to do some analysis on the metagame in the current state just before the release of the new expansion Hunt for Illidan.

-Seth