A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Having seen the most recent chunk of video posted on IGN, I think I finally have a better handle on Bioware’s upcoming MMO The Old Republic. The central concept was one I struggled to understand back when the game was first announced back in 2008[1].
For those not already in the know, Star Wars: The Old Republic (to give it its full title) was announced to great fanfare, with Bioware declaring that they planned to bring their proven skill with plot and character to the MMO space.
I should have been more excited by this declaration. Under normal circumstances I would walk through fire in order to get my paws on a new Bioware title, and I’ve been waiting for an MMO to truly capture my attention for pretty much as long as the genre has been around[2].
It was difficult, however, not to feel that Bioware had missed the point. They were talking about adding ‘career specific’ storylines to the game. While I’d expect those storylines to be crafted with all of Bioware’s customary care and skill, that means that an eighth of the players in the game would have been through to same story as me. What’s the point of becoming Champion of Such-and-Such, Slayer of Darth What’s-His-Face, if every eighth person in the galaxy has already Championed Such-and-Such, kerb-stomped What’s-His-Face and sold on the loot drop because it didn’t help maximise their build?
I agree, whole-heartedly, that more massively multiplayer games need a stronger story component. But just straight out telling your players a story is never going to work. The trick to narrative in an MMO is putting the structures in place to encourage players to create stories with each other. EVE Online gives a good example of what I mean. The players have such a massive influence on the gameworld that wars have started, alliances have been forged, empires and business have risen and fallen, all of it player driven, and each event generating thousands of attendant stories.
If you want to take it a step further, what you really need to do is mechanically reward dramatic behaviour. For example, if the game has a significant combat element, rewarding players for repeated clashes with the same opponent encourages the development of personal foes and nemeses, rather than a faceless mass of opponents.
Whilst I still think they’ve missed a trick, the video on IGN did at least show something that looked enjoyable: not a massively multiplayer RPG in the truest sense of the word, but a co-op RPG where all of the players in the party could be involved in the conversations as well as the combat. That’s an interesting idea, and one I can see myself enjoying, but it doesn’t really take any advantage of the thousands of other players running around outside of your immediate group (surely the largest asset of any MMO), and it still leaves the fact that you can presumably talk, in game, to other people who have undertaken the same stories constantly gnawing away at your suspension of disbelief.
It’s early days, of course, and there’s still time for Bioware to turn around and blow everyone away with some amazing innovation. As things stand, however, it’s hard to shake the feeling that whilst they might be building something interesting, its core gameplay will be undermined rather than strengthened by the MMO format.
Living on the Edge
With no news for me to self-indulgently editorialise at the moment, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at one of the most overlooked games of recent times (both critically and commercially): Mirror’s Edge.
The game’s lack of commercial success isn’t particularly surprising1, but I still find the critical reception baffling, particularly given Mirror’s Edge’s status as my favourite release of Q4-08/Q1-09, a period which put it up against the likes of Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2.
Actually, those two titles probably give some insight into why it was my favourite release. Both Fallout 3 and Gears 2 were wonderful games, but both were sequels and, more importantly, both were using gameplay mechanics which have been refined over many years. With Mirror’s Edge, on the other hand, Dice chose to strike out into the all but unmapped territory of first person platforming, and came back with something which was fast paced, kinetic, and beautiful to look at. It may not have been perfect, but when you’re in the zone, stringing moves together almost unconsciously, it’s a nearly zen-like experience, and completely unlike anything else available.
I hold review scores at least partially accountable for this. The idea that you can score the quality of the game on something as fine grained as a 100-point scale suggests an objective standard against which they’re being measured. ‘The enjoyment gained from playing something different from the norm’ isn’t something that lends itself to being easily rated on a scale.
Too put it in perspective, Call of Duty: World at War2 has a higher score on Metacritic than Mirror’s Edge. The gaming press, collectively, values the polished yet soulless progeny of an apparently endless franchise over the start of something new and interesting.
In particular, several of the reviews seemed to be fooled by the fact that you could pick up a gun into thinking that they should review the game as an FPS. It’s nothing of the sort: the gunplay is clumsy and, frankly, shouldn’t have been included at all. The martial arts, on the other hand, are thrillingly reminiscent of the Bourne films. Even the fisticuffs, though, need to be approached in the right frame of mind. This is still a platform game, and the combat isn’t about moment-to-moment tactical decisions, but rather about finding that perfect series of moves that will allow you to glide around and through the guards with apparently effortless grace3.
Is there a point to this rambling diatribe? Not especially, except that you shouldn’t always trust the reviews. And that you should rush out right now and buy a copy of Mirror’s Edge.
1It’s not a sports game, it isn’t on the Wii, large men with guns are the bad guys rather than the teenage-boy wish fulfilment protagonists: ME doesn’t really manage to hit any of the core game consumer groups…
2That’s Call of Duty 5 to anyone who’s counting
3Obviously, you buy that grace at the cost of much swearing and hurling of controllers about the room, but surely that is the whole joy of platforming games?
Picture Perfect
It’s taken some time, but I finally got round to checking out Microsoft’s new Natal camera as the E3 dust began to settle1. I’d been distracted by more immediately exciting software info, like new Mass Effect 2 footage and the complete redesign of Splinter Cell – Conviction, but I did think that the concept of completely controller-free input sounded pretty cool, and I eventually looked up the stage show demo.
Congratulations then to Microsoft for very nearly succeeding in strangling that spark of interest at birth. The tech might be awesome, but in a week in which I’ve been shown The Exorcist for the first time, the most profoundly unsettling thing I’ve seen is still the soulless, dead-eyed family featured in that video2.
More concerning than the fact that the video was apparently shot on location in Stepford, however, is that it is filled with, well, lets just cut to it and call them lies shall we?
Take exhibit A, the girl trying on a dress using Natal, which she can then go out and buy in the shops3. Really? Which high street chain are you in partnership with then, Microsoft? Besides which, we already have online catalogues. It’s hard to see any genuine benefit provided by Natal, with the added downside that I have to stop gaming for one of my housemates to check out their potential new togs.
Or exhibit B, that business with the skateboard. Aside from the fact that using my own gear is almost exactly the opposite of what I want from a video game4, the process of turning a real world object into a 3D, physics enabled in-game entity is complex, and not something that can be done with just a picture. You can of course apply that picture to a pre-created object, but that isn’t going to get you the perfectly recreated skateboard we saw in the demo.
Loathsome demo aside though, I did see things there to get excited about. Peter Molyneux’s Milo presentation held a truly exciting moment when the presenter looked into the lake and saw her own reflection looking back. The potential there for allowing you to not only interact with games in new ways, but to actually insert yourself directly into the experience, is truly exciting.
It is a nifty piece of kit, then, and could mark a genuine step forward in terms of game controller design. Of course, the real proof of this particular gaming pudding is going to be the software. Can Microsoft get enough developers working on Natal-specific games to make their (probably expensive) camera worthwhile? I don’t know, but I’m certainly hopeful. Just don’t try to use it to sell me clothes.
1The observant will notice that it has also taken me some time to the write a new blog post. Fortunately, one of the advantages of having no readers is that no one cares if I vanish for a year.
2Look at them sitting there, vacant grins plastered over their faces, their expression of forced gaiety unable to mask the fact that they are dead inside. Shudder…
3Leaving aside the fact that her friend apparently does nothing all day but stand forlornly in front of the Natal camera, waiting for someone to call her.
4I buy games to be exposed to experiences I couldn’t have (or wouldn’t want) in the real world. Having to get hold of real world stuff to get the most out of a game seems to rather defeat the point.
A Moral Dilemma
Last Friday, I found myself standing facing a choice of epic proportions. In one hand I held a copy of Spore, in the other The Force Unleashed1. It was a knotty problem. Spore, innovative, different, trying new things even if it didn’t always succeed. Leaving it on the shelf in favour of The Force Unleashed would put me in a category with all those people who consigned Sacrifice, Giants and Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath to a slow, wasting demise in PC World bargain bins. I would be One Of Them. Part Of The Problem.
On the other hand, I really wanted to hurl stormtroopers around with the Force.
In the end, I went with the only available option, and bought them both.
I’m damn glad I didn’t pass over Spore in favour of TFU. TFU on the Wii was ultimately a disappointing experience (and I wasn’t expecting that much from it to begin with). It’s a shame, because when it works, its brilliantly fun. The controls on the Wii give a great sense of physical connection with the game2. Thrusting forwards with the nuncuck to do a Force push just feels badass.
Once the novelty of the controls wears off, however, the cracks quickly start to show. It’s galling, because so many of the mistakes feel like things that ought to be covered in Game Design 101. Like the colour pallet. Why is every enemy that isn’t a stormtrooper exactly the same colour as the background? And why are those colours invariably grey and brown3?
It uses invisible walls in the worst way, with platforms that are low enough to jump to, but you can’t land on because the game designers decided…actually, I don’t know what they decided: I really cant see how it would have caused any gameplay problems whatsoever. If it really was essential that the player not be able to jump to them, then just make the bloody platforms higher.
How about the fact every battle against something large and stompy, be it an AT-ST, Rancor, Basilisk War Droid, whatever, plays out in exactly the same way, with you running in a circle whilst throwing handy crates and barrels at it? Or the way that, despite never actually raising the difficulty in a significant way, enemies become ridiculously, frustratingly lightsaber-and-lightening resistant as the game progresses? I could go on, but I think you get the point.
Spore, on the other hand, has been an absolute joy. I suspect part of the reason I got so much enjoyment out of it was the fact that I hadn’t spent too much time studying previews and interviews before the game released, so although I was expecting it to be good, I hadn’t really formed any opinions on how it was likely to play.
It’s basically a giant, galactic Lego set, and I really like the shared content: there’s a great sense of discovery in knowing that every weird alien you encounter was created by another player. The internet has expressed its displeasure that the end game seems to be largely a clone of Star Control 2, but given that Star Control 2 frequently makes it into the top ten of ‘Greatest Games of All Time’ lists4, and no one seems to have been inclined to rip it off in the intervening 16 years, I say ‘good job’. If people hadn’t started ripping off Doom, we’d never have got Half Life 2. Ripping off good ideas and improving on them is the heart and soul of creative industry.
On that note, you can download the original Star Control 2 here. It’s well worth it, SC 2 is one of the few retro games I can still play without poor graphics and controls causing me to smash the keyboard.
1Indeed, the Wii version of TFU, in all its buggy, ugly, glory, so I couldn’t even kid myself that I’d just be buying it to check of the fancy new physics technology.
2I mean sure, the camera is dodgy, and the lightsaber attacks sometimes feel a little on the loose side, but that’s pretty much the price of admission for a 3D action game on the Wii.
3With the notable exception of the Felucia levels, which are blue and brown.
4Probably. If it doesn’t, it should.
Lost in Space
I was almost resigned to the fact that there was no exciting news on the horizon, and prepared to give up waiting and write a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual article on the art of video game storytelling1, when this video surfaced:
Almost, almost, I wish that I hadn’t seen this video. For one thing, it means that I would have been spared the vicarious embarrassment of listening to the developer use the word ‘cinamaticion’2, especially given that he then has to pretend that giving us a dramatic angle for finishing moves is something that is in any way buzz-word worthy. Because we’ve never seen that before.
Then the coup-de-grace “This is what we like to call ‘Orchestrating Your Ballet of Death”. Do you? Do you really? Do you actually sit in your office and say “Hey Jim, hows work coming on Orchestrating your Ballet of Death?” or “Dude, you totally Orchestrated that Ballet of Death! You Orchestrated the shit out of it!”? I doubt it, and if you do, Mr Developer, I pity you.
But more than the teeth-grinding PR talk, it’s that fact that it’s introduced that traitorous sliver of hope into my life.
War hammer 40,000 holds a special place in my heart. I spent a good chunk of my youth pushing little lead soldiers around a table3, and the idea that someone could make a genuinely great 40K action game makes me go a little wobbly at the knees. Let’s face it, though, the odds are that this is going to suck. It’s going to be horrifyingly easy, too slow paced, and badly acted4. I know this. At best, it’s going to be Viking: Battle for Asgard5 with power armour and chainswords. I know this. But that was an Alpha build being shown in the video. Who knows how much it could change over the next, what, two years? Three? Two or three years that I’m going to have to spend hoping against hope that 40K Space Marine comes good, that it becomes the games I wish it could be, all leading up to inevitable, crushing disappointment when it is finally pushed out of THQ’s door and onto the game shop shelves.
Damn you THQ. Damn you and your cursed inability to frisk your presentation attendees for cameras.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city….
I came upon Zounds: Youth Rock Ministry video games review section whilst I was stumbling blindly through the internet the other day. Scroll down to the ‘Secular and Un-Christian Games’ section, it’s comedy gold.
I’m genuinely unsure as to whether or not the whole site is an elaborate spoof. That said, I’m erring towards ‘comic genius’ rather than ‘rabid drivel’, based on lines like “The player controls the Master Chef who in a surprise twist turns out to be more than just a military cook… he’s also a super soldier”(speaking about Halo, if you hadn’t guessed). Other classics include: “Snake is actually a symbolic agent of Satan, sent into the world to finish what he started in the Garden” (Metal Gear Solid 4). and “After one of the boys asked me if I wanted to play ’shirts and skins’, I quickly turned off the Playstation because I didn’t want to see what that was (Pastor Skeet later told me it’s homosexual slang)” (Bully).
In earnest or not, go take a look, have a chuckle: it is easily one of the ten funniest things on the internet.
1Fear not, pretension fans! That article will be coming to you next week.
2Is that how you spell it? Can you spell it? Perhaps the English language, in protest against that horrific abuse, has contorted itself in such a way as to make it impossible to actually put the word down on paper. Maybe spelling it correctly summons Satan.
3Yes, I am a geek. I write a gaming blog in my spare time. You thought I was captain of the football team?
4Oh, and FYI THQ; when the guy doing the demo has to fire his gun so that the muzzle flash gives you enough light to see the environmental detail IT’S TOO BLOODY DARK!
5Actually, I didn’t hate Viking. It was fun, in a shallow, short lived way. But I already own Viking, and it it certainly ‘aint the kind of game you want to own twice, even if the second copy is wearing a shiny new 40K skin.
In-Creed-able
In the end, it was the sword fighting that won me over.
Games have been notoriously rubbish at really capturing the essence of a duel. What should be a tense ballet of parry and counter, dodge and feint, instead look like a pair of nine-year-olds hitting each other with cardboard tubes. It should be about timing and skill, with a fight settled by that one perfect blow, not slowing wearing away at an infeasibly colossal health bar with a endless series of hits.
But yesterday, finally, I saw sword fighting done the way it ought to be, and I just couldn’t help myself any longer.
Yes, yesterday my herculean will finally broke, my icy heart melted, and I made my pre-order for Assassin’s Creed.
Hardly news worthy, you might think. After all, the game has been receiving glowing previews from all corners, and the level of press excitement about the game is high. I, however, had been holding myself above the hype, telling anyone that would listen that the open world dynamic was merely a gimmick, the control scheme sounded awkward and the mysterious sci-fi sub-plot would be bollocks.
Two of those three fears have been pretty much put to rest. It seems that Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed’s developers) have integrated the free-form, open world system nicely with the overall gameplay, and the more I hear about the controls, where different face buttons control the actions of various limbs, the more I like the sound of them.
The whole sci-fi plot still bothers me, though.
For those who haven’t been keeping up with Assassin’s Creed, allow me to recap. The game is set in the Holy Land during the late 1100’s, during the third crusade. You play an assassin named Altair, attempting to forge some kind of peace in the land by eliminating some of the nastier figures on either side of the conflict. So far so good; its a cool character and an interesting period of history.
What’s worrying is the fact the, beyond this, the game is going to contain some form of sci-fi influence. What that will be we’re not sure, and bets are divided between time travel, genetic engineering and virtual reality, but it will certainly be there: more recent videos have highlighted some jarringly futuristic elements in the games hud.
I cannot, for the life of me, think of any good reason for slapping this extra layer of complexity onto what already seems like an interesting, exciting story. All it seems likely to do is complicate things and damage the suspension of disbelief. Sure, I can see how it might sound cool when the game designers first came up with it. Historical fiction and sci-fi? What’s not to love! But in practise I can’t see it working, I can’t think of a compelling reason for it’s inclusion, and frankly I think Ubisoft’s scriptwriters should have strangled the idea at birth.
Here’s hopping it’s low key enough for me to ignore it and concentrate on a stonking historical adventure…and that I don’t have to play out the final levels in a steel bunker or something equally as disappointing.
Hail to the Master Chief…
Well, the chatter of battle rifles and the hiss of needlers has faded once more into the background, and would be flying in the face of popular opinion to open this blog with anything other than my opinions on the Halo 3 beta.
There’s something we ought to establish right from the off: the beta didn’t bring anything startlingly, jaw-droppingly new to the multiplayer table. What it did offer, however, was a gaming experience buffed to such a high level of sheen you could see your face in it. A number of small improvements, notably an enhanced lobby/matchmaking system (unexciting but essential) and some extremely well thought out maps made it a joy to play. Best of the new arenas was Valhalla, a team game exclusive map which is highly reminiscent of Blood Gultch, but on a massive scale and with a some rather nice terrain, such a a crashed pelican and central canyon, breaking matches down into a series of close-range firefights with empty killzones in between, rather than the out-and-out sniper’s paradise that was Blood Gultch.
The original Halo’s assault rifle makes a very welcome return as an effective short-to-medium range weapon. It makes a nice change of pace from the battle rifle, which encourages backing away whilst lining up those headshots. The assault rifle, in contrast, is a boon to all of us who prefer to charge screaming at our foe in a balls to the wall, death or glory assault, and then smack them in the face after emptying the clip into their shields. Satisfying in the extreme.
There were a few brand new implements of destruction on hand as well: the spartan laser, which fires a huge, red beam of death, but is slow to operate, and the brute spiker (my personal favourite). Think an SMG with a scythe strapped to the front and you’re pretty much there.
There was also a smattering a ‘equipment’, handily activated by a press of the X button, which serve to jazz the matches up some. The bubble shield, of TV ad fame, is the most impressive to look at, but surprisingly tricky to use well. Standing around inside after throwing it down is a quick way to get your head smashed in with a rifle butt. The mobile grav lift is less glamours, but far more practical, particularly in team matches, allowing some ninja-like attacks from unexpected quarters.
Some pleasingly solid net code rounds out the package: only once did I encounter a spot of lag, and it was swiftly gone. And indeed, only once did I get called a ‘gay faggot fuck-boy’, which is pretty good going during any extended time on Xbox Live.
In short, role on September.
