Daniel Primed:: Gaming Analysis, Critique and Culture » Game Discussion

Dead Space Extraction – An Inspired Take on a Conventional Genre

Daniel — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:28:03 +0000

Dead Space Extraction is the most progressive of its Wii rail shooter brethren, and probably the most groundbreaking title in the genre in recent memory. The proportioning of gameplay states (which tends to emphasise atmosphere and storytelling) along with a diverse myriad of other mechanics culminate in the realisation of a different breed of rail shooter, one which I think is long over due. As you’ve probably guessed, I’m going to talk about the various points which make Dead Space Extraction unique, however, if you need a refresher, or haven’t yet heard of this title, the video review below lend a hand.

Narrative and Atmosphere

As much as Visceral Games attempts to dissociate their game from the term, Dead Space Extraction is fundamentally a rail shooter. Perhaps a better way to describe it is a rail shooter with lots of narrative and atmosphere. Guesstimating for a second, maybe 40% of the game is purely narrative and atmosphere setting, the 60% is representative of the time you’ll spend shooting at things. That might sound measly, particularly considering the 7 hr length of the main story, but Dead Space Extraction marries the atmosphere, narrative and shooting so well together that each part feels necessary to complete the experience, in turn justifying the excessive amount of passive play time. (And anyways, theres an entirely separate mode which contains nothing but shooting).

Some might interpret this change in agenda as a fundamental change to the genre, but it’s not, structurally there’s just greater padding between the shooting sequences. The re-proportioning does, however, give Dead Space Extraction a unique feel and in fact gives credence to the “guided experience” mantra put forth by EA’s PR folk.

Each of these 3 main gameplay constituents supports and justifies the presence of the others. Since it’s difficult to explain on paper here’s a list of examples to back up my case:

The proportion of shooting sequences increases as the story, and panic therein, progresses
The atmosphere draws the player into the environment which makes the shooting more engrossing and meaningful
The inclusion of a narrative and supporting class of characters add realism and a human element to all the horror and necromorph dismemberment
The narrative and atmosphere setting allows the action to breathe into phases of warming up and cooling down
Since the atmosphere supports the shooting, moments of suspense and jack-in-the-box scares don’t feel cheap, they bleed into the gameplay
Traditional rail shooters are very rigid, every turn of a corner leads to a shoot out, Dead Space Extraction surprises the player with its lack of shooting, shooting therefore becomes more important and suspenseful

Patented Dead Space Elements

Dead Space sported a few nifty mechanics set around the Resident Evil 4-themed framework which splintered the franchise off in its own direction. Fortunately these original elements have been adapted to Dead Space Extraction and work a treat.

Strategic Dismemberment

A real game changer, I think. In the Dead Space games the most effective way to down Necromorphs (the angry, disfigured space mutants) is to blow off their limbs. “Strategic Dismemberment”, as it’s called, adds a new dimension to the traditional shooting formula, since what was once a single main target (head shot) is now shared amongst the limbs. This change allows the individual design of the space mutants to be more meaningfully characteristic. They’re not all zombies, they have limbs in different places, some short, some large, and that affects the traditional method of play greatly.

Paralysis

Paralysis is a supplementary mechanic which supports the dismemberment. As firing holes into your foes’ head (or body) is no longer suffice–instead players needs to bang off several specific parts of the body–targeting requires greater precision than usual, the action therefore needs to slow to support the required boost in precision. The paralysis technique allows the player to temporarily freeze their enemies so that they can dismember with ease. Surprisingly, this little addition breathes a great deal of strategy into the shooting as it’s a finite, self-charging resource which ought to be used tactically. Also, the other Necromorphs tend to que up and wait their turn while one of their buddies is right in your face, so the paralysis allows the player to take control of the pacing of the alien onslaught, it gives them strategic wiggle room.

Grabbing Objects

Many rail shooters have a grabbing mechanic, however Dead Space Extraction does it a little differently. The grabbing mechanic isn’t technically the same as the shooting (place reticle over and fire to pick up an item), but an actual reach into the screen (via some white light super power) followed by the object floating in front of you, think Elebits instead of, say, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles. Although a very simple trick it allows for some nifty applications such as dragging debris, scavenging for items and tossing gas cylinders.

Zero Gravity

Zero gravity sequences are fixed chunks of gameplay which mostly involve no shooting (save for a single boss battle), where the player scans the environment for a predetermined landing area and pushes themselves towards it. Occasionally they’ll need to clear space debris obscuring their path. These sections do a great job at relaxing the pace without withholding the player from interaction.

Alternative Fire

Alt fire isn’t anything particularly new, but Dead Space Extraction puts an interesting spin on the formula. To initiate alternative fire, you simply tilt the Wii mote 90 degrees. With some weapons, the types of fire correspond to the respective Wiimote orientation, for example with the line gun or plasma cutter holding the Wiimote horizontally will send out a horizontal slice, while holding the Wiimote vertically will send out a vertical slice.

Puzzles on Demand

Inter-spliced between the gunplay are small puzzle sections where the main character has to solder wires on a malfunctioning terminal to open a door, refer to the video for reference. Generally speaking, they’re a neat distraction, however at times you’ll be forced to solder wires and fend off an aggressive hoard of Neromorphs at the same time which creates an invariably tense atmosphere when trying to steady your hand. In co-op, each player is assigned mandatory sections wires to solder which keeps things fresh.

Freelook

Another minor trick which Dead Space Extraction employs is the occasional opportunity to freely scan the environment for a designated number of seconds. These brief moments act as preparation for you to nab some equipment before an oncoming series of shootouts. As with the branching paths, this is another way that Dead Space Extraction gives players the freedom of control which is otherwise absent in this genre.

Ripper

The Ripper is a weapon with Turok-like ingenuity, a gun which fires saw blades. Sure. Big deal, right? Well actually, the player can manipulate these saw blades with the Wiimote by reaching into the screen and directing them at alien fodder. I was greatly surprised by this nasty little weapon. Again, please refer to the video to get a clearer impression.

Glow Worms

Glow worms too, are quite inspired. Basically the Ishimura lacks torches, so the engineers instead use glow worms (think glo sticks) for light. You light up the little wormy by shaking the nunchuck.

Conclusion

The final few points are rather self-explanatory and perhaps not worth the effort of writing in words, however, these smaller points combined with the atmosphere, narrative and the Dead Space franchise frills give Dead Space Extraction a distinct flavour. It’s one of those games that feels inspired by good ideas which are cleanly implemented and well thought out, a game which stands as both a great Dead Space game, but also a great rail shooter and narrative experience.

I’ve also been playing Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles recently, so please look forward to some writing (possible comparative) on that particular rail shooter. You can also find similar commentaries on Link: Crossbow Training and House of the Dead II and III: Return, if you’re interested. I’m very interested in mapping the current state of the rail shooter, so expect more to come.

Additional Readings

Developer Commentaries – Gametrailers

Dead Space Extraction – Dead Space Wiki

A Distinct Vision: Nick Earl And Visceral Games – Gamasutra

Resident Evil 0 – Varied Inconsistencies

Daniel — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:02:18 +0000

There are a couple of odd inconsistencies in Resident Evil 0. It’s a given in this series to expect a crummy plot and wooden characters, but defeating Marcus and the leech queen at the end of the game was disappointing in how irrelevant it was to what I consider to be Resident Evil 0’s core asset, the empathetic relationship between Billy and Rebecca. Resident Evil 0 defeated my expectations by delivering a un-bombastic narrative, a good story. I found myself deeply engrossed in these two characters and their journey as two strangers. They didn’t speak much and nor did they need to as their relationship developed through the pragmatic functions of the game. Including Marcus as a villain feels contrived, as though the series is carrying out it’s duty of upholding the mannequin heroes and villains trope. Continuity-wise he was already accounted for by the in-game journals and notes, there was no need to resurrect him. And overall I feel disappointed that Resident Evil 0’s great narrative was squandered by series ritual.

Marcus, as the deliverer of forced narrative, also detracts from the relationship that I feel the player makes with the environment. This association with ‘place’ is perhaps what people might call the player narrative, it’s difficult to classify since the aforementioned Rebecca-Billy relationship is also probably part of the player narrative too, although it also has fixed narrative from the director. In any case, Resident Evil 0 is a beautiful game. Sure, it may be a little monotone in comparison to Resident Evil Remake, however, I think it’s easy for the player to grow an attachment because it’s so convincing. Admittedly, I am a patch disappointed at the lack of animation gone into the stills (what is there is phenomenal), originally hearing that the stills were much more animated than RE Remake, but what is there pulls the player in with great ease. Marcus, just as before, breaks the relationship a little, we don’t care about him, we care about his estate and the activity that happened around it.

The final, and I guess most obvious, disparity regarding the plot is just the difference between the professional rendering of the environment and the vintage of the gameplay compared to the dialogue. Again, improbable video game nonsense that has the quality of a teenage fan fic, set at ends with the high quality presentation. Similarly, the tank controls and the presentation don’t match either.

Other inconsistencies are well established, like how Resident Evil 0 was marketed as Resident Evil on a train (the Under Siege 2 to accompany my Syphon Filter analogy ^_^), when in fact it’s just the B-sides of Resident Evil Remake. Seriously, the train sequences composes the game’s intro and everything after that is Resident Evil redux, mansions, laboratories and the like.

To conclude my extended commentaries of Resident Evil 0, I figure that it’s worth mentioning the forced sexism imposed by the game since it is a disparity of sorts. This sexism is the justification for the partner zapping system. That is, each protagonist is assigned traits which differentiate them from their partner and therefore forces the player to utilise each characters strengths. These traits can be inferred as sexist, on two levels. The first being that Billy is stronger than Rebecca, both in health and the ability to push large crates, while Rebecca can mix herbs and chemicals. Yeah, that’s pretty blatant in assigning gender stereotypes. The second point is a direct consequence of the first in that since Billy can take more hits, it’s best to use him most of the time since after all this is a game of survival and using the character with the most HP is the the wiser decision. Unfortunately, the unintended—second!—consequence, on top of the first, is that since Billy becomes the default character for tackling enemies he needs to store all the important items, and Rebecca is thereby relegated holding duties. So what is Resident Evil asserting? That women are only good for holding things?

I don’t honestly believe that Resident Evil 0 is sexist, it’s just an interesting observation to make. Theorising for a minute though, I reckon Capcom probably wanted to remedy this issue (not just for sexism’s sake but to keep a balance between the usage of each character) by prescribing Rebecca with her own solo sections without Billy. There’s the first part of the train sequence before they team up, the entire factory area and it’s extremely useful (although not mandatory) to use her for the first floor of the laboratory. Overall, these constitute maybe a quarter of the game, which is pretty significant.

Conclusion

This posts marks the end of my Resident Evil 0 coverage, I also wrote a post 2 years ago on Resident Evil Remake and although it’s shit, maybe you wanna check it out. You know, despite some pretty significant flaws, I really enjoyed Resident Evil 0 as it partly mirrors the atmospheric game of solace I mentioned in The Ideal Prince of Persia. Try it out, I think you’ll dig it.

Resident Evil 0 – Twin Phenomenas

Daniel — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:56:18 +0000

In Resident Evil 0 there were two “phenomenas” which occurred during my play time that have no relation to the patented “partner zapping” system.

Calculating Progress by the Inch

Sure, it’s probably no Demon’s Souls, but as a game in tune with survival, Resident Evil 0 sure does make you respect each inch of progress. Because resources are so scarce and the chance of wasting precious resources so opportune, minor developments feel like large triumphs. The fear of stifling one’s progress goes hand in hand with the fear of being scared. What I’m trying to say is that the “survival” and the “horror” sure do go well together. ^_^

This also bears a metaphoric likeness to my personal experiences as a kid and maybe your’s too, that is, if you’re anything like me, ie. big scaredy cat. When you had to get up and leave your room in the middle of the night to go to the toilet, it was a pretty big deal, right? You’ll sit their in bed spooked, because you’re so frightened that you become more observant of the sound around you, and psychologically it takes on an imagined life of its own. Finally, you summon the courage to go, you know that you can’t hold it in, it’s not worth it, so you open your door and run down the hall trying hard not to survey the darkness, otherwise if you stare for too long *insert childhood nightmare* will jump out at you. You finally make it to the toilet, do your business, make the fast escape back to the bedroom, climb into bed and only once under the covers breathe a sigh of relief. Resident Evil 0 sort of reminded me of this experience as a child, in part, it’s a simulation of the experience. You’ll check the map, section out the unexplored areas from the safe zones, plan a route which’ll return you safely to a save point. Just as when I was a kid, anytime I see (think I see) a monster of some sort (I mean, one more dangerous than a common zombie), I’ll flee immediately to the nearest door. You kinda tense up in these moments of running down the hallway, the difference being that one is primal fear and the other is more a fear of survival. Once I return back to base, I usually feel pretty relieved and even though I’ve only walked down the hall and bagged a few new items, I feel impulsed to save my game, to seal that progress in amber. Fortunately I could see what was going on, I could see how Capcom were playing gamers right into their hand, intending for them to needlessly save. I avoided this a lot actually and always found myself throwing away ink ribbons. Take that childhood fears!

As a side note, the route planning aspect I mentioned is very interesting as it matches well with the detective feel to the game, personally speaking, I think it gives the player an independence and I really appreciated that.

Tactical Item Dropping/Littering

The absence of the bottomless item box and the inclusion of a second partner, forms a new phenomena of its own, which I’ll dub “tactical item dropping”, I like the sound of “tactical littering” better, but it doesn’t suggest function so much. Anyways, I digress, tactical item dropping is the phenomena whereby you leave items in the environment based on a strategic purpose. This phenomena isn’t emergent or anything, it’s basically imposed on the player, since the limited 6 item slots per character offer little flexibility. Basically, guns, ammo, health and puzzle items you want to keep with you as much as possible, however, sometimes these pile up, in which case you’ll leave some items and set off to use the others, hopefully returning with free spots in your inventory. The trick is to leave items in “safe zones” so that you won’t have to waste bullets or health retrieving what you’ve left behind later. In many ways, the strategic item dropping enhances the route planning nature of the game and creates a stronger distinction between safe and unsafe areas.This all adds to the co-operative tang to Resident Evil 0.

It sounds a little overbearing and I have no doubt that Resident Evil 0 was strong criticised over it’s strategic item dropping. There’s a great deal of micro-management involved in the process which can be a little burdensome at times, considering how many menu you have to sorta through, however, I rather enjoyed it.

The items that you drop are shown on your map too, which is handy as upon leaving an area as you’ll refer to the map to see what you’ve left behind and discover a sort of tracing of your history based on the trail of items strewn in your path. Each item is indicative of a sacrifice you had to make, so the symbolism here is important.

Additional Readings

Resident Evil 0 – RE Wiki

Resident Evil 0 – Detecting a History of Solace

Daniel — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 02:15:47 +0000

Three ideas were cycling through my mind when playing Resident Evil 0, figured that they’d go well together in a tasty dish. Bon appétit.

Beccy, Billy and Detective Dan

Even though I’ve completed Resident Evil Remake, Resident Evil 3 and other puzzle-heavy adventure games, Resident Evil 0 was the first time I actually felt like a successful detective. (Maybe these aren’t the intents of the Resident Evil games, but it’s certainly something I’ve inferred from playing). With the other Resident Evil games I usually have to drip-feed my way through on a play guide since I struggle to solve all the puzzles by myself. In Resident Evil 0 though, I only consulted a FAQ for trivial matters such as overlooking small details. I’m so pleased with my new-found interest in “detective” gaming and now I want to try out similar titles. I’ve been thinking hard about why Resident Evil 0 was a softer nut to crack and besides simply getting lucky at times, here’s my reasoning:

Resident Evil 0 is very segregated. Sure, the training facility is clearly the largest single area in the game, but each of the 6 self-contained maps are small enough not to be overwhelming, in fact some of them are just short pitstops. The mansion in Resident Evil, on the other hand, is terribly overwhelming. In RE Remake, if you miss one clue then there are plenty of potholes to fall down, but in Resident Evil 0 the options are fewer and therefore it’s easier to remain on track. Resident Evil 0 also begins on the Ecliptic Express which acts as a fantastic tutorial area since there are very few ways to make a wrong move. Resident Evil Remake, however, quite brutally starts you off in an open mansion and every time a new key is discovered the newly available areas are many.

A Slice of History

I think it’s important for us to enjoy a game on its own terms, on what the game is supposing, rather than a fixed set of expectations, hearsay or assumed norms*. As I established in the prior post, Resident Evil is an important part of our history and for this reason I interpret Resident Evil Remake and Resident Evil 0, particularly in a current context (even though I played the GCN version and not the recently released Wii version), as something of a time capsule which has captured a certain style of play, the old-way of doing survival horror, in a very fresh, attractive-looking wrapper. It feels well-worn without suggesting so by the presentation, and that makes it more palatable point of entry for a given slice of our history.

At the same time, Resident Evil 0 is essentially the B-sides of the original game, a classic and that itself quite the companion piece to those wishing to further explore the history of this genre.

*It’s for this reason that 2D games or obscure genres such as shmps or on-rails shooters almost always get panned by critics. Games which involve killing people whilst ripping off hollywood tropes are idealised and other genres are seen as derelict.

Game of Solace

As I discussed in a previous article on Prince of Persia, I’m finding that I prefer games which just shut the hell up when it comes to narrative. I enjoy details being left as implicit and the environment allowing me to become subsumed in the atmosphere. Resident Evil, just like Prince of Persia has the awkward tendency to kill the atmosphere with shit narrative, I just don’t care.

The sad fact is that both of these franchises feature gorgeous environments and atmosphere that I enjoy becoming immersed in. Resident Evil 0 was admittedly one of the closest games I’ve experience to my imagined “Game of Solace”. It was, for once, quiet and allows the player to explore the environment at their own will, without needless interruption. I guess this is why I’m so fond of Resident Evil 0.

Resident Evil 0 – Dissecting Traditional Horror

Daniel — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:55:01 +0000

Recently I completed Resident Evil 0 on the Gamecube and have prepared a few articles snuffing out some observations. My primary interests this time around lie in the traditional Resident Evil template (that used in RE 0-3) which I’ll explore in the 2 mini-essays below.

Genre Origins and the Creation of Traditional Horror

The Resident Evil template is ultimately an evolution of the traditional point and click adventure, perhaps the first stage of migration after the genre’s demise from the mainstream. What separates Resident Evil from the genre previously is the inclusion of an entire offensive system, giving Resident Evil more than just a purely investigative, puzzle-solving feel. As with many point-and-click adventures however, Resident Evil’s exploration and shooting mechanics take a back seat, not to narrative though (the narrative is atrocious), but to atmosphere.

The majority of the player’s time in a point-and-click adventure is spent investigating, sifting through for environmental clues and interrogating the locals in pursuit of the next lead. Resident Evil removes the people from the equation, leaving the quiet isolation of the player’s unassuming puzzle solving as the dominate part of the game.

It’s easy to see from here where survival horror comes into play, all we need is a little atmosphere to set the tone. The atmosphere is created largely through soundscapes. Of course, the realism of the pre-rendered backgrounds, particularly those in RE Remake and Resident Evil 0, discomforts the player and the limited supply of items work to suffocate the player, setting a tense mood. Sound, maybe just because it’s more dynamic than the visuals, is the primary director of the experience, it tells the player whether or not they should feel calm or frightened. A prime example of this is in Resident Evil 0’s laboratory area where on the first floor the “tension” music is played in an empty hallway connecting multiple rooms of importance. Although I’m aware that nothing is going to happen (there’s tentacle monster directly downstairs and the music therefore seems misplaced), every time I enter this hallway I feel nervous and rush to the nearest exit.

Some other horror games just stop here, at the preparatory stage, and leave the player hanging with the illusion that horror will occur at some point, most likely when they least expect it. Resident Evil is pretty standard horror, I think, and there are usually two directions where the atmosphere may head, either a climax in tension or a jack-in-a-box scare. On the former, tension crescendos in, in lead-up to a dramatic event which then unfolds and spooks the player; horror which is explicit and affirms the players assumptions (ie. rooms with splatters of blood which leads to other rooms painted in blood, finalising with the source of the killing). The alternative is horror which scares through surprise, where discord is in fact created by the way atmosphere is interrupted by the invasion of a threat. Atmosphere, in regards to music, can be broken by the breaking of a long silence (and damn these games sure are silent, which is why the cheap scares are so effective) or by the clashing of one set of music with another. With this technique, your assumptions that the environment is safe is quickly subverted, leaving you in a panic. Between these two approaches, the build-up and the cheap scare, is variance in the middle, which I don’t think requires much exploration as it’s just a blending of the two aforementioned techniques.

On the whole, the puzzle solving provides the stage for the atmosphere to be set, the limited load-out and item slots along with the realistic visual and soundscapes set a tone where your assumptions can be subverted or affirm in the horror. The effectiveness of the horror is therefore dependent on the developer’s ability to massage the player into psychological states.

Contrasting Traditional and Contemporary Horror

We can learn quite a lot about the way atmosphere is constructed in this traditional mold of survival horror by comparing Resident Evil with similar titles. I choose you Eternal Darkness!

Eternal Darkness is far more dynamic at creating horror since, for one, the game is rendered entirely in 3D, but more importantly the means to horror, the insanity effects, are dependent on the player’s agency. The 3D environment offers more options to create tension than a still, 2D one, and Eternal Darkness capitalises on this, in my opinion, largely through the brilliant camera orientation. Ontop of this the player can shrink, objects can fly around, the player can hallucinate, sound will warp and other strange events will happen in-game; there’s an ample amount of variety. Not only is the horror dynamic, but the jack-in-the-box scares are still viable, and this gives Eternal Darkness a real edge.

With the horror now player-dependent, Silicon Knights forfeit part of their directive control, one would think. The player’s sanity meter drops upon catching sight of a demonic creature, and it’s here where Silicon Knights can regain control through the placement of enemy types within each chapter of gameplay. Silicon Knights can’t ever have total control, mind you, but they can increase the likelihood of the experience unfolding as they intend it. Interestingly, despite all the qualities this system offers, the psychological course run through each chapter is largely identical: a slow crawl building up towards a tightening squeeze of tension, culminating at insanity. A result of this, as with the repeated use of the same environments, is that the horror becomes routine and therefore less effective.

Resident Evil is less sophisticated and highly rigid in comparison, but it does use its assets well. The horror is scripted through cause and effect scenarios, ie. if the player walks to this point or enters an area, dog will jump out of window, music will start playing, zombie will start groaning. Since Resident Evil’s graphics are 3D models over 2D stills, the stills can be more realistic and the models can support an increased number of polygons, as a result the Resident Evil are supremely more convincing and perhaps better at creating a general sense of tension.

Conclusion

Some people seem to get off on criticising the Resident Evil titles, but it’s pretty unfair really. The Resident Evil games are simply representative of a certain style of horror, be it the traditional style of the earlier games or the new mob-horror approach of Resident Evil 4 and 5, and there’s no denying that these games have each served their respective styles well. The future of the franchise (perhaps evident in this upcoming Resident Evil Portable game for the PSP), I think, comes in the series either A) finding new approaches to explore horror in video games or B) reinterpreting the origins and readapting these mechanics into the modern day. I would like to see both, and I certainly think that there is room for both in the franchises’ extended lore.

Additional Readings

Resident Evil Retrospective – GameTrailers

Resident Evil 0 [GC - Beta] – Unseen64

GTA:LCS/VCS – Capitalism Allegory

Daniel — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:32:06 +0000

It’s seems the harder I squint at GTA’s, please excuse me, f**king terrible storytelling, the more abhorrent and offensive it becomes. There’s a consistent theme though, where your regular, fair-dinkum crook climbs the criminal hierarchy by sucking off his scummy superiors. Perhaps it’s a lesson in power and the people whose inheritance of capital grants them power. In this way, the GTA games could be seen as an allegory for capitalist culture, after all, the radio stations are keen to critique American culture, so it would make logical sense for the narrative to participate also.

In GTA, drugs are the main form of capital. Drugs translate into money which can then be used to buy/facilitate the purchase of more drugs, so basically whoever runs the best drug racket runs the city. You’re goal, beginning from the bottom is to reach the top of the criminal hierarchy. Because GTA’s world is market-driven, you take missions which involve obtaining and securing your capital. Of course, being a game of capitalism, GTA is all about subordination since the weight of power in a capitalist system is akin to a pyramid, where power is held by as fewest people as possible. So, you’re not really obtaining and securing your capital, but the capital of your wanker superiors. (And as an aside, its the flamboyance of these characters which is the bane of my frustration).

Your correspondence between these gate keepers also mimics the capitalist system. You begin as a lowly hitman and climb the ranks, switching to people of continually significant power, until you’re granted a little bit of capital yourself. It’s often at this point where some form of manager steps in to assist in your affairs and the game approaches the final chapters as your connections grant you quick gains.

The most interesting part of GTA’s representation of a capitalist system is the endgame. The GTA narratives conclude only after the protagonist has climbed to the top of the ladder, thereon completing the “game of life”. Toni Cipriani doesn’t simply carry on as a contented hitman or chauffeur. Part of the decision to conclude the narrative at the top of the system is inherent. Games, as programmed creations need an absolute ends, and it’s much easier to justify a position of “maximum” power as the conclusion, rather than simply the contentment of the avatar which the player themselves co-authors.

GTA offers no alternatives to capitalism either, the narrative begins with the protagonist’s submission to a gang leader, the representation of the player’s newfound place at the bottom of the food chain.

Along the way the player is introduced to heroes and victims of the system. The heroes are the drug lords and gang leaders who commission the trade of capital and become the eventual lower rungs. The victims are the rival gangs and syndicates who succumb to the power struggle and the deceased which pave your way forward. It would be remiss of me to forget the real victims, the citizens who become caught up in and around and player’s activities. Most curiously, from my experience—and no, I haven’t played GTA IV—the only time the player’s narrative intersects with the people’s is in Louise Cassidy-Williams subplot in Vice City Stories.

So maybe all of that squinting had resulted in something after all.

GTA:LCS/VCS – Quick Overview

Daniel — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 04:43:38 +0000

Unloved, uninspired, and unsophisticated are three adjectives starting with the “un” prefix which describe my experiences with both GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. The “Stories” games appear to be driven by the intention of “let’s try to get GTA III and GTA: Vice City on the PSP” rather than “let’s try to make a fun GTA game on a handheld”. The latter is akin to the sublime GTA: Chinatown Wars.

The worlds, replicated almost identically to their former games, come pre-established. Sure, open world games have evolved since the original debut of Liberty and Vice City, but the cities themselves are more than adequate to meet the occasion. Plus, they provide nostalgia for continuing fans.

The problems lie in the collision of uninspired, one dimensional mission design and the creaky, aged and underdeveloped subsystems (ie. hand combat, weapons combat, targeting, flying). Missions are simply go-here-do-this affairs which fail to take advantage of the world’s assets, besides the tedious drive to and from missions. Often you’ll fail these missions because of the imprecise combat system or wonky mission guidance which has seen little refinements over its progenitors (possibly downgraded from San Andreas too?).

The issues stem from every corner, and really, if Rockstar were going to re-use the same gameplay circa 2002, then they should have at least designed missions which would work around these issues as much as possible.

I hate to speak so harshly, because ultimately these games appear to have just lacked the essential time or consideration in development, or the developers possibly succumbed to the technological imperative of squeezing the experience on a portable platform and left the rest until later. Surprisingly, the open-ended emergence of GTA’s gameplay works to the game’s benefit. Having trouble shooting an unreasonable number of ethnic bad guys? Find a main road and hitch and car to run them down, buy a rocket launcher prior to the mission or snipe them from afar. The “GTA factor” redeems so much of what’s wrong with these portable iterations. The world is familiar, the gameplay open-ended and the city is still an enjoyable place to chill out. However, even by these standards, both games are filler, there’s simply little reason to go back and explore unless you’re a megafan.

Comparing the two games either side, Liberty City benefits from the iconic and overall better game world, and less exuberant characters, while Vice City has a whole empire building sub-game underlining the main story and longer missions. I personally prefer Liberty City because the city feels less empty and the characters don’t demean you so much.

GTA:LCS/VCS – City Atmosphere

Daniel — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 04:23:55 +0000

For the past month I’ve been blitzing through the PS2 ports of GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. Entertainment is an easily acquired commodity in this modern age, which renders these old-cum-new GTA games closer to filler than enjoyment. I’ll admit. Although they’re still decent, I regret buying Liberty/Vice City Stories, but have learnt a valuable lesson from my bad decision. And hey, it’s not all bad, the low-impact gameplay has allowed me to catch up on a few months worth of podcasts. This is the first of three short articles I’ve written on the duo.

City Atmosphere

I don’t live in the city. I live in an outer suburban area of South Australia. The capital of South Australia is Adelaide. People say that Adelaide is a small “country town”, they’re probably right. Sure, it’s not as exciting as Sydney, nor as cultured as Melbourne, but it’s the place in my head which is synonymous with the word “city”. ‘Adelaide’ connotes all of the feelings I associate with a metropolis, even though it can hardly be considered one itself.

Despite shoddy game design, left, right and centre, I can’t help but look fondly on GTA: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, because they too evoke a sense of ‘Adelaide’ as with the other GTA games I’ve played. The connection isn’t complicated; inhabiting GTA’s virtual cities, with all the freedom and degree of realism that it affords, elicits the feelings of living within a city environment. GTA’s cities share the same responsibilities and dilemmas of any real city, just under the context of a syndicate culture, rather than that of a law-abiding citizen. The two experiences are therefore similar.

Personally speaking, the sense of place is a little different in Vice City; I find it less effective because the setting and time period are less familiar to me. That, and the licensed radio station music (a selection of greatest hits 80’s tracks) are horrible. I guess if I were someone else it might seem nostalgic.

You really can’t underestimate the city atmosphere, it’s the franchise’s main hook, and what ultimately kept me on the line throughout a series of crummy missions and derogatory humour, which we’ll explore in the following post.

Okami Side Commentaries

Daniel — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:10:32 +0000

Finally, I’ve said all that I need to say about Okami, and then some. The final scrappy remarks can be found below:

Nonlinear Narrative

The nonlinear storytelling framework famously used in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, is also used in Okami, albeit, a little bit differently. The basic idea is that the main story is a narration, and at some point the narration ends and another dimension is added to the story through the ensuing events. In Okami, after the credits roll, Issun, the travelling artist, is revealed to be the narrator. Because Issun narrates Okami’s story as well as painting it to scroll, his position after the events of the main storyline are subtly revealed: he takes the place of his father, passing down the story of Amaterasu and teaching the younger sprites of their purpose.

Hour-by-Hour Ratings

After I finished Okami, I looked up a guide to see what secrets were lying under the hood. This play guide by zukowskc at GameFAQs, featured a neat little chart which I though would be worth discussing:

This chart rates each individual hour of Okami’s play length out of ten, effectively mapping out the interest levels of the player over the time of play. I agree with most of the rankings, but more importantly, I love the way zukowskc’s chart outlines the stamina phenomena I described in my prior post.

Backtracking

It’s worth noting that throughout Okami there is a decent amount of backtracking. Fortunately, obstacles requiring brush techniques acquired later in the game are scattered throughout the earlier hub areas, ensuring that backtracking isn’t a time hole, but instead an opportunity to re-approach old areas with new abilities. I discussed this previously in regards to Metroid Prime 3 as well.

Viewtiful Visuals

Stylistically people claim that Okami is unique, I disagree somewhat. In the same way Super Mario Galaxy is an evolution of Donkey Kong: Jungle Beat (and before that Pikmin 2), Okami is an evolution of artistic techniques established in Viewtiful Joe. Many of the same tricks, such as the pre-rendering and cel-shading, are shared amongst both games.

Get me that OST

It only took me a few hours into Okami to decide that I adamantly wanted to buy the original soundtrack. I don’t make a habit of buying video game OSTs, except for my personal favourites and it’s right there where Okami belongs. The music is a mix of Zelda and Final Fantasy Tactics with a nature themeatic.

Back of the Manual

There’s a really genuine explanation of Okami’s cultural origins at the back of the instruction manual which is a really clever, necessary addition on Capcom’s part.

Wrapping Up the Zelda/Okami Comparison

Daniel — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 22:30:30 +0000

With most of the analysis pushed to one side we can finally get down to what you really want to see: a fight off, Okami Vs Zelda: Twilight Princess.

I’m afraid that Gordon Freeman has killed my faith in the democratic system, so instead I’m going to state my views and maybe you can leave a comment, if I let you. ^_^ (No seriously, if you’ve played both games then please do weigh in).

Over a month ago, I made the following statement about Zelda: Twilight Princess in my 2009 wrap-up:

“Zelda for the conservatives, the game you were hoping for was made by Capcom and called Okami, you should go play it. Otherwise, engaging in a familiar way, no one does it better than the best.”

And I definitely stand by my assertion. Zelda: Twilight Princess, whilst a standout game, innovates minutely, intentionally adhering to the traditional formula and visual style as requested by fans. By ditching the principles of the Wind Waker, Link and Nintendo ate their souls, their souls!!

And so I still feel crushed.

Okami is therefore something of a spiritual sequel to Wind Waker, while Twilight Princess is unashamedly the sequel to Ocarina of Time. Okami innovates in areas where one would’ve expected Twilight Princess to. Plus, Issun is my favourite video game character ever, a fact which I only last considered when I was 7 years old (and for reference, Wario was my former favourite character).

And yet “no one does it better than the best”.

It’s ironic then that I actually prefer Zelda: Twilight Princess. Ironic on many levels:

My preference suggests that I’d prefer Ocarina of Time 2 over Wind Waker 2
I’d consider Okami as the game which advances the genre, whereas Twilight Princess is the pinnacle of the Zelda series
I have left-wing political views and am yet vouching for a game which idealises conservatism
I feel that Issun is an invariably better side-kick than Midna, even though majority supports the opposing view
Amaterasu has more personality than (human) Link, even though Ammy is a wolf

As great as Okami is, as I analysed in my prior post, Okami feels so lethargic that it drags the whole experience down. On top of that, Okami cut player morale early on with the confusing fake finale—we’re emotional creatures and Okami’s “betrayl” soured my interest.

Despite my temperament, Zelda: Twilight Princess has only ever worked in win me over, it’s frankly a giant dose of well-iterated comfort food; 60hrs of the most refined and enjoyable adventuring this industry has come to know. Sure, I felt bothered by the tricky roadblocks, but I never felt discontent. Zelda: Twilight Princess is a meal that was both delicious and filling. Okami was also a great meal, but one that filled me up too quickly and burnt my lip.

Zelda, Okami and The Question of Stamina

Daniel — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 00:55:13 +0000

The similarities between Okami and Zelda: Twilight Princess are incredible, to say the least. More so, after you’ve considered the calibre of their developers and the close proximity in which the two games were released. I mean all this from a primarily contextual level, rather than a structural and mechanical level, mind you. The most interesting difference, I’ve found, has been the effect that the 40+ hour journeys leave on their players.

Twilight Princess took me an incredible 62hrs to complete with basically all the side quests completed. Okami took me about 42hrs to complete, with significant portion of the side quests mostly completed too.

Twilight Princess feels appropriately sized. Indeed, it’s a HUGE quest, don’t get me wrong there, but one which can be overcome. Okami’s story, on the other hand, feels like a burden and leaves the player reeling from its lethargic length. The contention is simple: why does Okami’s endearing length work against the player and Twilight Princess‘ not?

The answer is also simple: the Zelda games are tacitly understood as a collection of units, whereas Okami is not (it’s continuous). This makes the Zelda games quantifiable and regimented, in turn making it easier to digest over a long play time, instead of feeling like the Never Ending Story.

Let’s unpack that a little, shall we?

In regards to Okami, what I mean by “continuous” is that Amaterasu follows a stream of connected areas linearly (ie. a river crossing->field->town->castle). The story is malleable, although generally keeps itself within this structure, with scenario’s starting and finishing within their selected area. Now, there is a goal in sight, collect the 13 brush strokes and destroy Orochi, however, brush strokes are sporadically dolled out, front-ended at the start of the game and then only very carefully handed out thereafter; in effect weakening the grip which the celestial brush has over the narrative. Furthermore—and yes, there will be spoilers ahead—the player is deceived into thinking that they’ve defeated Orochi (thereby completing the game), not just once, but twice. The implication of this tomfoolery is that it puts a damper on the rest—and by rest, I mean majority—of the experience, leaving the player with no clear indication on their progression. Personally, I felt left out of the lurch, decidedly distanced from the experience that I was keen to immerse myself in.

One could quite rightly argue that Zelda: Twilight Princess (and Ocarina of Time) also tricks the player, right? Well, yes, they do, however the trick does not allude to the game’s completion, Link doesn’t defeat Gannon at the start of the game, he defeats him at the end, the same cannot be said for Okami.

The initial 10hrs of Zelda:TP and Zelda:OOT are treated as prelude chapters. The end game is unclear and there are many absent spots in the player’s inventory, so the player suspects the game to open up at some time, but is uncertain. Zelda’s “gotcha moment” therefore works successfully then because:

It confirms the player’s suspicions, thereby making them feel intelligent
Establishes where the end game lies
Since the player has already completed 3 dungeons, an understanding of length is formed
In which case, the reveal more than likely will surprise the player since they have an understanding that another 8 dungeons equates to X amount of play time (ie. a lot)

More to the original point though, the Zelda games are laid out in units. For example, all of the questing and dungeon lurking required to restore Zora’s Domain can be treated as one unit of gameplay. Usually on completion of a unit, the player is reward with one of X number of collectables required to unlock the endgame. A field in the middle of the map indiscriminately connects the units which are presented in the form of various elemental/ethnic-themed areas. Although the world appears open-ended, the journey is linear (excluding Oracle of Ages) since the tools required to enter the some “units” cannot be gained until other ones are first completed. Dungeons, the highlight of each gameplay unit, provides a new piece of inventory which then become tutorialised and effectively mastered by the time the player downs the boss.

Zelda’s aforementioned structure works the player into a familiar routine which consists of visiting each area one-by-one, mastering the dungeon and gaining new inventory until they make a set of gems/stones/Triforce pieces. This systems, one that has been beaten into our brains, for some since childhood, overtly states progression. Progression is simply the number of gems you have contrasted against the number you don’t, a fact presented to the player every time the game is paused.

Okami’s world, due to Zelda’s influential progression system, feels uneven. As a Zelda player, I break Okami’s world into units, and am therefore trained to be systematically rewarded with new abilities after completing a set unit of gameplay. My problem, and the one which has resulted in so many players not seeing Okami through to its eventual end, is that often doesn’t reward players who are trained to be rewarded after certain intervals of play, only adding to the disdain left after the Orochi disillusion.

Furthermore, because Okami’s ability set is mostly channelled through the celestial brush, upgrades can feel unsubstantial, further adding to the disappointment. Instead of a hookshot or a bow, you can draw a line which makes water fountain into platforms in select areas. Surprisingly, as the example suggests, the upgrades becomes increasingly one-dimensional as you progress.

The majority side quests too are collectathons which is why I didn’t bother pursuing them to completion, unlike Zelda’s extra curricula activities, most of which involve investigation and use of the various equipment.

Conclusion

Zelda’s rigid progression structure enforces a regimented, predictable rhythm of play which keeps the player’s progression conscious, unlike Okami which follows a continuous structure where progression is uncertain. As a result, Zelda: Twilight Princess, with its massive 60+hrs of play, seems beatable, piece by piece, whereas Okami’s adventure seems to just continue with no end in sight, causing players to drop off.

This fundamental difference, one of stamina, is what I’d consider to be the strongest point which impacts on the player’s own experience with either game.

Defining Okami’s Individualism Part #2

Daniel — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:37:02 +0000

In the last exciting episode I began discussing some of the structural aspects which differentiate Okami from other games. This time I will continue the discussion, including the points which you probably expected would headline the previous article.

Lack of Road blocks

Zelda: Twilight Princess really threw me with its momentum. I started the game back on release in 2006, got stuck with the initial fishing mini-game (I’m still somewhat clueless, even though I’ve caught many a fish since) and settled for Red Steel instead. I returned in early 2007 and found myself regrettably stuck in the first dungeon. I left Twilight Princess until about 2008, where I’d made some leeway, pushing through another 6 hours of gameplay before being unable to defrost Zora’s domain. I scoured the land high and low and was still stuck, so I waited another year, 2009 by this stage, and after finally consulting a guide, the random, esoteric solution became clear. From there on out I kept working until Twilight Princess was beat. Often, during the final slog, I’d still find myself stuck again and again, thankfully the occasional dependence on a trusty guide helped me through.

Although Twilight Princess is supremely designed, these bumps in the road were large enough to keep me away for long amounts of time.

Okami is rarely like this. The path ahead is always clear. A large part of it is due to the reduction of challenge and open-endedness. Okami’s segregated overworld narrows the opportunity to diverge down the wrong path. The dungeons too appear open-ended, but in truth are entirely linear. Okami also features fewer puzzles and rarely any that extend beyond a single room.

There’s a reason why the player feels as though they’re constantly making the right choice, it’s because Okami offers only one, while presenting the illusion of many. Hence my natural tendency to compare Okami to Zelda, when in fact Zelda achieves what Okami only alludes. As such, Okami is a very accessible adventure, yet at the same time makes the player feel satisfied.

Celestial Brush and the Environment

The beauty of the celestial brush is two fold. Firstly, the celestial brush ties the player’s actions to the environment in a meaningful manner which evokes positive feelings from the kinship displayed. Secondly, it streamlines the ability/inventory systems of games such as Zelda, by channeling all abilities through the single use of the celestial brush.

Through the celestial brush the player co-authors not just the avatar, but the environment too, which is pretty revolutionary. The player’s interaction with the game world is presented tangibly through the transformation of their surrounding environment into a much more appealing one, and therefore feels meaningful. Furthermore, the onus of this system rest on a singularly more favourable kind of player input, drawing, rather than being spread across an inventory of equipment.

Graphical Style

Being the visual embodiment of Okami’s innovations, it’s understandable why people discuss thick-outlines and thatched patterns before they mention the gameplay itself, however, as my ordering supposes, I consider the other points, that of structural and mechanical divergences, to be considerably more important.

From my judgment, game enthusiasts seem rightly sceptical of cel-shading. You can’t really blame them considering the Cel Damages which abuse what the style connotes by using it without artistic purpose. When cel-shading is used purposefully though, be it stylistically, such as in Jet Set Radio or for facial expression and character establishment as in Zelda: Wind Waker, we’re usually quite content, if not thrilled. Okami’s cel-shaded environment, alongside the thatching and line work are such an integral part of Okami’s cultural authenticity and so deeply attached to the context, that we can’t help but adore it. Okami is probably the truest use of the technique yet.

The visual direction furthermore intertwines itself with the celestial brush mechanic, by highlighting the status of the environment, pinpointing the trouble spots needing subsequent strokes and then rewarding the player with an accentuated beauty.

Punchy Dialogue

Not much to add to the headline, Okami is densely packed with well written dialogue, in contrast to the majority of games which are poorly written. Unlike the Paper Mario/Mario and Luigi series, the dialogue itself isn’t ultra stylised (and sometimes difficult to read), rather every sentence has a minor word, expression or style which adds flavour to the text as a whole.

Level of Polish

What I think surprises many people about Okami is that it genuinely doesn’t ever let up. Every form of gameplay that Okami has you participate in is untechnical and enjoyable with a high degree of polish. Every character is distinct and memorable, each with multiple layers in which to interest you. Some characters I liked for their perky dialogue, some for their character designs and others for their ultra cute, garbled voice. There isn’t a single part of the game which is incomplete or requires additional iteration. Okami is a champion against the “we’ll fix it in the sequel” attitude which is permeating throughout the industry.

Conclusion

Okami’s RPG/adventure gameplay has been claimed to be “Zelda-inspired”, and loosely speaking, one can claim that the two games have a similar sense about that. However, as evidenced over our eight points of argument, the fundamental differences, most crucially that of the overworld and ability/skills systems, differentiate Okami vastly from Zelda and in fact many other RPGs for that matter.

Next time we shall explore how these differences affect the player’s experience over these 40hr-long epics. If you’ve completed both of these games, I think that the analysis shall prove worthwhile.

Additional Reading

Three Artists in Okami – Versus CluClu Land

Defining Okami’s Individualism Part #1

Daniel — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 07:13:34 +0000

[Okami's massive 40+ hour play time is the sole reason for the lack of game-related posts on here in recent weeks. I always begin writing after I've finished a game and Okami's enduring length over the past several months has forced me to continually postpone my writing. However, I think it's been well worth it as I have a slew of analysis lined up.]

If you’re unfamiliar with Okami, or just need a refresher, then the video below should prepare you for the analysis (further below) as well as the other articles which’ll follow in the coming days. For interest’s sake, I played the PS2 version.

Personally speaking, many of my favourite games are titles which take an established formula, particularly formula of a traditional vintage, and restructure it to create an experience which feels both reminiscent and refreshing. An obvious and very literal example of such a game is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. GTA:CW readapts the overhead 2D gameplay from GTA and GTA2 to the DS platform as well as fitting the formula with the modern design amenities which have developed out of the 3D titles. A less explicit example is Metroid Prime, which forwent the platforming genre whilst keeping exploration, the series’ most defining element, at the root of the experience. It takes an astute team of developers to understand what made the essence of the original subject matter (series, genre, approach) so special and then reinterpret this essence into a new format.

Okami, as you’ve probably guessed, is this type of game. Okami takes the established Zelda framework and tailors it in a way which feels new and exciting. To simply label Okami as a Zelda-styled adventure is probably a bit discrediting, as its divergences are what contribute to the game’s excellence. Let’s take a look at the way Okami separates itself, not just from Zelda, but from the established norm, as it’s here where Okami flourishes.

Movement

Being a wolf, Amaterasu moves faster than humans and therefore faster than most other video game characters (particularly in the RPG genre). Amaterasu’s speed is somewhere between the average speed of a car and a human walk, which is a little unusual for video games by virtue of the fact that either of those two ends tend to act as the avatar, rather than a middle point.

One could argue that Amaterasu has a strong likeness in movement to Epona, Link’s horse from the Zelda series. However, Epona functionally plays the same role as a vehicle. She is peripheral, whereas, Amaterasu alone achieves both the function of Link (slower, more refined movement) and Epona (a fast sprint for quicker travel). So, just from the standpoint of movement, Amaterasu is a very unique character.

Division and Dynamic of the Overworld

Okami’s overworld, the land of Nippon, is broken apart into a series of smaller hub areas, rather than being contained within a single overworld. As we’ve learnt from the past 13 years of Zelda titles, a single, sparsely populated overworld, be it a field or an ocean, only increases the time of low player participation*. The segregation of Nippon into a series of smaller hubs therefore creates a different dynamic for these isolated areas. Firstly, on a technical level, more data can be rendered into a smaller area, allowing the developers to fill each hub more densely with interesting stuff like environment, characters and activities. Secondly, on a spatial level, the more confined space cuts the travel time between towns and other areas of interest, this is accommodated by Amaterasu’s fast-paced sprint. As a result, time spent in the overworld is not downtime, but rather a time for the player to engage in the abundance of choice that the Okami offers them.

More Killer Less Filler

The amount of time and obligation required to attend to these aforementioned activities (those tangental to the main quest), offer the player different degrees of engagement. Players can spend a few minutes fixing up the environment with their celestial brush or spend much longer hunting down collectables or partaking in mini-games.

The great thing about Okami is that everywhere (not just in the “overworld”) is full of these microcosms of activity. This is predominately served by the celestial brush which can heal various parts of the environment, but also the incredible number of collectables such a ornaments, stray beads, fish, dojo scrolls…the list is rather extensive, and as discussed in The New Gamer, it can sometimes feel like you’re gorging on excess.

What this means is that every inch of land in Okami is dense with gameplay, unlike in the majority of other games where the landscape is not a harvester for gameplay, instead often playing a meaningless, passive role, ie. Uncharted.

*Before you mention it, I am aware that Zelda:Twilight Princess‘ main overworld is split into several small hubs, however this appears to be so for technical reasoning, rather than functional. The overworlds between the two games are very different.

Additional Readings

Leap of Faith – 1UP Okami Cover Story

Balibo Thoughts

Daniel — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 12:06:56 +0000

Balibo is the true story of 5 Australian journalists (the Balibo Five) and Roger East who were killed by Indonesian soldiers in the invasion of then Portuguese Timor in 1975. Both the Australian and Indonesian governments have worked to conceal the truth of the events which itself is, by recent Australian inquiry, inconclusive. The story is based on Jill Jolliffe’s Cover-Up and, as one of the other reporters on the island near the time of the invasion, assumes her interpretation of the events.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EApB2ndekZg

I don’t like Anthony LaPaglia, supposedly he’s from Adelaide, but that still doesn’t change the fact. At the start of Balibo, his role as ABC reporter Roger East, validates my opinion. He comes across as an asshole; self-interested and ignorant to the plight of youthful FRETLIN politician José Ramos-Horta. Impressed by the sense of justice shown in East’s previous coverage of the Vietnam War and in South American, Horta comes to Darwin to convince Mr East to join his news agency in Dili, in the hope that he will spread awareness of the growing injustice of the Indonesian government towards the people of Timor. East refuses and while quarreling with Horta asks about the five young journalists supposedly situated on the island. Horta spitefully hands East photos and reveals that the men have been missing for 3 weeks, before leaving.

There’s an uneasy air surrounding the situation in Timor and East grows curious, he senses something amiss and decides to rest his suspicions. He meets ABC reporter Michael Richardson who was formerly with the other journalists, but returned to Australia in fear of his safety. Distraught from his experience, he tells East that an Indonesian invasion of Timor is surely imminent and that East would be foolish to go after them.

Determined to seek resolution of the whereabouts of the journalists, East agrees to work in Horta’s newsagency, so long as he can first go to Balibo (where the journalists were last headed). It’s implied that East plans to use Horta to reach Balibo and find answers. Horta accepts the deal.

Balibo is actually a telling of two stories, woven into the one. The overarching story is of East’s—the unofficial 6th member of the Balibo Five—pursuit for the truth. The second story is of the original five and is told a month ahead of East’s story as a series of vignettes. This creates a riveting dynamic where East is following the trail of a story whose event’s–interspersed with his own–are unfolding before the audience. We can see the tragedy which is about to occur, and it leaves a haunting tone throughout the feature. The Balibo 5 story is shot with a 16mm-to-35mm lens, adding a blue filter to the scene and allowing viewers to differentiate between the two storylines.

The two stories are part of a dual narrative presented through the recollection of an East Timorese woman who is being interviewed for documentation purposes. As we discover, as a young girl, the woman worked in her father’s hotel, the Gran Turismo, where the Balibo Five and East had stayed during their time in Timor. She also witnessed East’s shocking execution at the end of the movie. She’s being interviewed alongside many hundreds of East Timorese who lived through the invasion and liberation of their country. By beginning and concluding the movie in the present day and in such a context, frames the story of the journalists in the wider struggle of the East Timorese’s fight for independence. As the lady leaves the interview at the movie’s closing, and the next person in line steps in and were given a scope of the real people who lived through their own stories of the invasion.

The story of the Balibo Five is frightening as their execution, by the hand of the Indonesian army, looms over the story. One can see the group’s naïve dismissal of warning signs with insistence of bettering the rival stations; Richardson warning the others not to venture any further, the mortar fire which drops during a shoot, the further warning by the group’s driver and then their final pursuit for footage of the invading Indonesian forces undressing from civilian disguises, which ultimately led to their demise. Two of the movie’s key scenes: the initial drop of mortar fire on the journey to Balibo and the killing of the Balibo Five are downright shocking. The film was shot so that the actors themselves traced the journey of the original five. It’s clear that this journey gave the actors a sense of respect and understanding which contributed to these scenes that they largely improvised. They portray a realistic fear of life about to reach its early end and it’s incredibly moving.

East suffers the same fate, but his story inspires a little more hope. As East travels to Balibo he slowly warms to the Timorese and looks beyond the death of the five journalists to the greater impact on the native people. His realisation all comes to the forefront when in a school torn apart by the Indonesian army, he argues with Horta that in the Australian press the importance of the five Australian journalists far outweighs that of the Timorese population, Horta labels this as selfish and irresponsible, their argument leads into a brief fight. In the end, I think, East, through his personal experience, begins to understand Horta’s message and therefore eventually takes up his cause. Balibo doesn’t assert much political opinion, however, this scene wisely provides context of the situation at large.

The movie ends with the invasion of the Dili by Indonesian forces who physically remove East from Horta’s newsagency and drag him out for execution on a neighbouring jetty. I found this scene to be incredibly arresting as East, attempting to escape the soldier’s grip, cries “I’m Australian”, trying to alert the soldiers of his separation from the conflict. He learns, however, that he is an innocent as the East Timorese.

Conclusion

I guess I appreciate Anthony LaPaglia now, Balibo is one of the most gripping movies I’ve seen in a long time. Balibo is unsettling and at times frighteningly realistic, but as is repeated many times throughout trailers and the extra features (which are plentiful), it’s a story that had to be told. A compelling tragedy which concludes on an uplifting note.

Blade Runner Thoughts

Daniel — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 03:11:39 +0000

Quite often I find myself reading deeply into a game which I’ve never played, becoming enveloped in its lore before I’ve even had the chance to play it. One of those games is Snatcher. Snatcher’s been on my mind for a few years and yet I know it’ll be a few years more until I get around to playing it. Snatcher is a rarity which leaves me with little choice but to emulate it, yet I don’t plan on getting into game emulation until I clear off more of the games which I’ve paid for, so I probably won’t get around to it this year, I suspect.

Another game which has caught my attention is Blade Runner, an early 3D detective game for the PC, set in the universe of the movie with the same name. Blade Runner is interesting because it circumvents the use of a graphics card to render it’s high production 3D visuals.

Snatcher is heavily derived from Blade Runner’s (movie) neo-noir universe, the similarities speak volumes of Hideo Kojima’s adoration for hollywood. Blade Runner began an aesthetic trend which has populated a number of my favourite anime movies as well. So with all facts considered, I decided that I’d be worthwhile for me to investigate the origins of Snatcher, the Blade Runner game and the numerous anime films which share a visual likeness.

Blade Runner (movie)

Blade Runner is an aesthetically-driven movie. The detective, noir plot plods along at a turtle’s pace and the events that unfold are genuinely less interesting and less important than the goings-on pertained in the visual environment of the hypothetical dystopian future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_hYs1jBy8Y

Rick Deckard, a detective played by Harrison Ford, is a something of a wanderer with a soggy attitude. I think he’s a jerk, but I guess it was normal in the 80’s for men to throw their girls around. Deckard is assigned to destroy four remaining replicants (robots in the guise of humans) on Earth. Considering the replicant’s pursuit to extend their limited 4 year capacity, the roles of villains and heroes aren’t so clear cut. The film supposes that Deckard is the protagonist, but I would argue otherwise. I would argue that the replicants are just as innocent as Deckard. They both kill others to meet their own ends, and although the replicants are robots, they exhibit human-like initiative which normalise them into the wider population. The replicants refuse to perish because of their continual likeness to human beings (the 4-year life span is a failsafe to prevent the replicants from becoming indistinguishable from human beings) and there’s an admirable quality to be seen there. The question then is of what rights do we grants our manufactured counterparts?

Thematically, Blade Runner is very rich, however, little meaning is incorporated into the story as much as it pertains in the visual environment. The city (Los Angeles) has a strong oriental influence from Japan and is overall a very multicultural take on American, suggesting greater ethnic integration in the future, perhaps Japanese dominance (a concern of the time). The most striking visual feature is the retrofitted nature of the metropolis, which is not only a realistic mix of the past and the future, but visually distinct, metaphorically conveying a strong sense of comparative ideologies of the old and the new. General speaking, the hyrbid approach allows artists to display two ideas embedded into the graphics as dominant and weak, a fusion, cooperative, co-existent and so forth. I think it’s a very powerful way to express comparison.

Taking into account that most of Blade Runner’s themes are built into the environment, and therefore implicit, the most overt topic posed is one of what it means to be human. Emotion is the answer offered by Blade Runner and it presents this through the Tyrell corporation who attempt humanise their robots through memory implants used to elicit an emotional response. The Voight-Kampff test (a series of questions designed to evoke emotion + a retina scan) used by the humans is a measure for checking whether someone is a human or replicant . The legitimacy of the human condition is put under scrutiny when Deckard uses the technique on Rachael (Sean Young) and struggles to classify her. She’s one of Tyrell’s best models, the Nexus-6, and proves just how indiscernible the line between real and artificial life can be. She believes herself to be human, which conjours up René Descartes notion “I think therefore I am”.

Personally, I consider the unicorn sequence to be a stroke of genius. Early in the movie Deckard dreams of a unicorn galloping through a forest, at the end of the movie he finds an origami unicorn left by his apartment door, the calling card of Gaff, another police officer monitoring Deckard. This is clearly the most intentional question put forward: whether Deckard is a human or a replicant.

Conclusion

I’ve wasted few words discussing Blade Runner’s story, because the movie is far more interesting as a visual and thematic piece than it is for an engaging narrative. I find it a little bizarre actually that Blade Runner is more enjoyable if you ignore the foreground elements (Deckard’s story) and concentrate on everything happening in the background (the visual landscape, themes and the questions presented by the film). By the way, get the directors cut (seems to be the standard edition now), as it ties together the unicorn sequence in the conclusion.

Influences

I mentioned earlier, Blade Runner likely inspired other forms of media, so I just want to quickly run through some examples. Snatcher is a complete Blade Runner rip-off, just take a read of the story the entire premise is identical. Akira, aesthetically borrows liberally from Blade Runner, particularly the futuristic architectural designs. Lastly, Wicked City uses the same bad-guys-in-the-guise-of-humans which the creatures of the dark world.

Additional Readings

JUNKER HQ (Interview with Jeremy Blaustein by Chris Barker)

Retroaction Issue 3 – Cover Feature

Die Hard 4.0 Thoughts

Daniel — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:20:20 +0000

On name alone, ‘Live Free or Die Hard‘ had me excited for another Die Hard sequel, in fact I’d probably have bought into Die Hard 4.0 a little more if they’d stuck with the coolness of the original name. However, they did not (outside of America) and in turn I didn’t really enjoy Die Hard 4.0 either. I guess, I didn’t enjoy Die Hard 4.0 for the simple reason that it was only a “great” movie and not an astoundingly brilliant one. So colour the following criticism as rather harsh then.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EUJYh32KVw

Die Hard kinda switched off my radar after a friend explained that the, at time, new movie was a soft-cock iteration of the John McLane legacy. Looking at the American ratings system though, I’m a little confused by all the drama. According to my imported copy of The Ultimate Matrix Collection, all three movies were given an ‘R’ classification rating and yet the equally violent Die Hard 4.0 was given a PG-13 rating in the states. How this makes sense, I do not know.

The problem with John McLane’s resurrection has less to do with a lack of yippee ki-ays and soft-cock action and more to do with lame special effects and an under-realised narrative. The former we can get out the way fairly quickly: McLance, handling a semitrailer, takes on a jet firing missiles under a series of computer-generated concrete highways and manages to end up the victor. The entire scene is as ridiculous as it is fake and unengaging. This coming from a crew which is proud of the realism of their action sequences. Without exaggeration, the scene was disingenuousness and made me feel sleepy.

The majority of the action sequences are actually quite good, most notably when a car is launched into a helicopter (McLane “was out of bullets”). The premise to this sequence masterfully makes use of the technology-savvy villains who redirect traffic into both sides of a tunnel, wait for McLane to reverse (attempting to trap him with a luring chopper waiting for him on the other side) and then proceed to switch off the tunnel’s lights for ensuing mayhem. Such cleverness rekindles the shock of the “I hate niggers” sequence from Die Hard: With a Vengeance.

The narrative is ultimately what soured me over on what is an admittedly good Die Hard flick. The premise is that a group of youngish cyber hackers have taken over Washington, D.C. , starting a firesale: a three step process of disarming control of a country. The group first begin by closing down the transportation system, then they destroy communications and lastly they shut off utilities. This concept sets up two interesting dynamics for the narrative. Firstly it allows for some clever confrontations as McLane works on the ground and the cyber criminals attempt to stop him through indirect measures. Unfortunately, unlike Die Hard: With a Vengeance which mostly delivered on its core premise, Die Hard 4.0 concocts very few battles which utilise the villain’s unique form of control. As such, the primary action sequences wouldn’t be out of place in a lesser action movie, there’s no defining ingenuity to raise Die Hard 4.0 above convention.

Besides the car-chopper and semi-trailer-army-jet scenes, the other two action sequences which constitute Die Hard 4.0 feel very familiar. The first bit of action in the movie, an escape from I’m-like-a-son-to-you-Mc-Lane Matt Farrell’s apartment, is typically Seagal, particularly shooting a fire extinguisher. McLane later faces off against Mai, an archetypal ninja women—represented by the Asian-ness of Maggie Q as Mai, in an industrial setting. Mai’s unwillingness to die (Mai is roughed around, hit with a car and falls down an elevator shaft, yet continues to get back up) and the insane lengths that McLane goes to kill her is reminiscent of Terminator 3. One character plays the action movie trope, the other, a slender, unstoppable force. The blue hue of the set and overall industrial aesthetic further adds to the likeness to T3.

The second dynamic created by the firesale concept is the underlying theme of “an analog cop in a digital world”. McLane’s an old hat, a white cop who wears his battles on his bloodied body. He continues to embody the characteristics of his 1980s/1990s persona. In many ways, McLane’s lost in this world, an outdated stereotype in a more sophisticated kind of action movie. The narrative interesting explores this side of the legacy and it actually makes John McLane the most dislikable character in the entire film. McLane comes off as arrogant, narrow-minded and uncooperative. He’s also clueless when it comes to dealing with the smarmy cyber terrorists and takes a brute force approach to taking them down. In a sense, he’s the butt of a joke which only the viewers are in on. I wouldn’t consider McLane a detriment to the movie (after all, it is his movie), because I think that his juxtaposition with the other characters says a great deal about social and cinematic changes in the over the past 20 years. Here are a handful of possible interpretations:

The cultural maturing which has occurred since the original Die Hard movie. What use to make McLane cool is now interpreted as socially unacceptable and/or juvenile
A change in the genre, whereby unrealistic action thickheads from the 1980s are no longer the standout features of these movies
McLane represents the values of the past clashing with the realities of the future
A change in cultural and gender sensitivity where McLane’s comments regarding Mai are seen as racist and misogynist
McLane is a metaphor for fathers/older males who are out of touch with technology and possibly their children too
On the flipside, Die Hard 4.0 is obviously commenting on our reliance on digital technology

The villains, a bunch of computer-hacking university graduates, are lead by the nefarious Thomas Gabriel, who in his role struggles to show villainy. Gabriel was formerly a programmer for the government who was fired from his position after finding a large security hole in the networking system and, typically for computer types, being pedantic about the issue to the point that he was sacked for his annoyance. Gabriel is therefore taking revenge the only way he knows how, by exploiting the security hole, in turn further proving his profound ability to annoy people in power. Timothy Olyphant is a little too young for his role and frankly an unappealing antagonist who seems to get angry at McLance just for anger’s sake.

Conclusion

There’s a whole bunch of essential information which the movie tries to make a point of (McLane’s wizz kid, side kick) which I haven’t mentioned because it’s obvious and laboured. Otherwise, Die Hard 4.0 is a good installment of the Die Hard series which I can’t bear to like for its failure to pull original action sequences from a premise which could offer many, McLane’s role as an awkward fit and the generous use of computer graphics in that one particular scene.

Additional Reading

The Lean, Mean, Macho Machine – Popmatters

Casino Royale Thoughts

Daniel — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 02:32:31 +0000

(More thoughts on non-game related subjects, I know. Basically, I’m ploughing through other media (comics, manga, anime, movies) before I head overseas again, and hey, Okami has been sucking me dry for time. Expect more of this gear for the next few days. )

Ages ago I was given Casino Royale on Blu-ray as a Birthday present to use with the PS3. Considering I’d seen the movie with friends at the cinemas I didn’t feel the need to re-watch the movie in such a hurry, but the other day I decided to give my favourite Bond film a second viewing. Here are some of my observations:

Watching Casino Royale retroactively filled in the numerous mental blanks underpinning my confused reaction to Quantum of Solace. There was a two year gap between the movies, yet their themes (the friction between the mission and the love interest: Vesper) are very tightly bound. Furthermore, Quantum of Solace is a direct sequel, as in Bond literally begins from where he left off in Casino Royale, so confusion was sure to ensue. The movies are best watched in succession. With that considered, I’m not interested in watching Quantum of Solace again. You saw the movie, you know why, but fundamentally, Vesper was too smarmy and not worth watching Bond weep over.

Actually, let’s talk about Vesper. She’s both good looking AND intelligent which were points that previous Bond girls were keen to labour over in the extra features. Fair enough, when contrasted against the Bond Girls of the past, she’s peaking the recent trend into more capable female side kicks. I still didn’t like her though. Three reasons:

1) She’s indeed smart—and that’s a good thing—but the script is keen to make a point of it as though her intelligence is unusual or worthy of attention. On debut, the writers attempt to give her intellectual capital over Bond through their childish squabbling match, but it instead has the opposite effects, making the two protagonists seem like self-important aristocrats. Pricks.

2) She seems uncomfortable in her role, I don’t know if this is intentional (because she’s an accountant? Maybe) or just the actor (Eva Green) not suiting the part. Eva’s face always wears a sullen smile, as though she wants to be elsewhere, preferably not with Bond.

3) I don’t think that she suits the typical mold of a Bond girl either. It’s just her breasts and the desperate attempts the costume designers take to fit her in clothes which make them more apparent. It appears as though they’re trying to fit her into a strong female archetype (the business one) which doesn’t suit her, and therefore a sense of attractive which is incongruous with her natural look (which is supposedly French Gothic).

M, on the other hand, holds a stern presence over Bond, she is a strong female character not because she retorts Bond’s slick quips, but because she silences them. Vesper, plays Bond’s mind games because she thinks she can win, M grounds Bond in the reality where his games are nothing but trivial. Judy Dench is probably at her best in this installment, I’d wager. Overall though, I dig Solange Dimitrios, the ost, she’s so sensual and a bit of a throwback to the Roger Moore era. (I can’t justify that last point, I just have a feeling).

In general, the production is far superior to prior Bond movies. Grounding itself more firmly in reality and losing the fantastical elements which made Die Another Day so nauseating, Casino Royale has given the series a new lease on life. Shedding the shallow gender stereotypes and corny jokes also helped to make Bond more socially relevant in a more responsible world.

However, despite these comforting amenities, Casino Royale stands out for its brilliant action sequences. As an action movie buff, I evaluate set piece action sequences on two key qualities: 1) Originality 2) Realism. I chose these two points because I enjoy action sequences which mirror the themes, issues and vibe of the narrative and don’t rely on special effects. A great deal of action movies are loaded with trashy, senseless violence that contribute to the movie’s story or characterisation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPmJ73XRlUs

The parkour sequence is a great example of inspired action. Free-running is modern and very stylistic, yet it’d never been incorporated into a mainstream production before, particularly of this scale. Bond isn’t just running through streets and on roof tops though, the construction site setting further puts a twist on the already unique free running concept. The visceral, improvisation-heavy action sets a striking impression of the new James Bond. The realism is also very much in check as everything which happens on screen was acted out. Sends chills down your spine just thinking about it, eh?

I think that summarises most of my thoughts, I’d just like to add a handful of ideas which I couldn’t fit in above:

Casino Royale is gritty without being souless like its sucessor
Jeffrey Wright plays the most evident Felix character in the series history
God, the “ventolin moments” always happen at the most inconvenient time, I just can’t help but laugh
Talking about ventolins, what’s the point of the pellet placed in Le Chiffre’s puffer? I didn’t catch that part

A Quick Dissection of Hellsing (Original Series)

Daniel — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:11:13 +0000

A lot of anime fans love Hellsing and at one stage so did I, then I saw past the pretension and became a hater. Don’t get me wrong, Hellsing has all the trappings to be the poster-child of stylised animated violence (no easy feat in this industry, mind you), yet it severely underperforms on execution.

From reading the manga, there’s no doubt about the gratuitousness and stylisation of the violence. The anime, in which case, simply doesn’t fully capitalise on the source material. Personally I think the problems lie in two areas: Pretension alluding to awesome gunplay and fight scenes and a major lack of animation to evidence not just the character’s colourful dialogue, but the pretension in general. Hellsing falls victim to the same characteristic flaws of Dragon Ball Z with camera panning, wind blowing and banter exchanging taking up the bulk of the action sequences.

Most of Hellsing’s confrontations begin with a few exchanges of bombastic dialogue (diluted from the manga, but sufficient enough to be deemed offensive) interwoven among brief scenes of gunplay. The action is far too brief and usually relies on transitions of stills or other commonly used cost-cutting techniques to reduce the number of cells in the production. The handful of frames used are often copied and pasted to reverberate the action. The style is all in the right place—character design and colouring is brilliant and captures the gothic atmosphere wonderfully, however, with little animation to back it up, Hellsing is all talk and little action. No wonder the animated series has gone back to the drawing board for a second, more authentic adaption of the manga.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMNJwUUHMxc

Complaints aside, Hellsing is only an ‘epic fail’ under the shadow of what it could’ve been. The trappings are still there though and they’re pretty tasty. The ridiculous dialogue suits the malevolent design well and the character designs are very iconic despite the frames lacking to give life to them. The villains behind the set piece confrontations of each episode are also very memorable and distinct. They all have a great deal of variety and pertain the series’ visual flair stylistically. Even if they’re spouting of moronic lines about raping pigs or wetting your pants in trepidation, they still maintain an assuring level of awesomeness that keeps with the series’ ethos. So despite the frame-lacking fight scenes there’s enough there to satisfy a purchase—if I were here to sell you a copy.

Before I conclude, I just want to mention that the follow narrative points which run alongside the action are all very interesting:

exploration of being a vampire/member of the Hellsing organisation (through Victoria)
the religious implications of an organisation the likes of Hellsing
Alucard as the vampire slave to humans (a trope of the genre, I suppose)
Hellsing’s position respective to the monarch and the media

DP’s Games Crunch 2009 Part #2

Daniel — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:42:16 +0000

Welcome to Part #2 of my 2009 overview of completed games, Part #1 can be found here. I seem to have written lengthier entries in this one. Enjoy!

GTA: Chinatown Wars

Original Articles
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #1
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #2
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #3
Cross Blog Dialogue: GTA: Chinatown Wars #4 (Conclusion)

A vintage formula not only retrofitted with modern mechanics and sensibilities, but creatively adapted to the unique DS hardware. The stylised visual-take on Liberty City blends the old, new and creative together in an engineering of modern nostalgia. Chinatown Wars stands as a representation of the collective strengths of the DS software line up: neo-retro adaptations and retro ports, player-conscious UI, cel-shaded visuals and slick ingenuity..

Flower

Original Article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #1)

Flower is great, and you should buy it. However, Flower is equally as great as the many other independent games caught behind its critical lustre and loving anecdotes. Maybe buy Trash Panic instead, for the irony.

Kirby 64

Original Article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #1)

Kirby 64’s figuratively vanilla gameplay is akin to the puff ball’s original design, circa 1990. That doesn’t make it a bad game—the cutscenes are awesomely cute!—rather it’s just in the league of Kirby’s Dreamland and not Kirby’s Adventure. The hidden secrets require a mystical, arcane knowledge.

Eternal Darkness

Original Articles
Evaluating Eternal Darkness
Eternal Darkness: Breaking the Equilibrium

Here’s a slice of unintended irony: the flamboyant reviews of Eternal Darkness back in 2001 set an expectation for readers which only services the game’s very intents. By writers labouring the point of insanity effects, players entered Eternal Darkness actively pursuing them (purposely lowering their sanity meter and waiting for the fish to bite). In turn players were perfectly prepared to misinterpret the game world and thereby come to question everything within its existence; exactly the type of atmosphere Silicon Knights were endeavouring to create.

Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow

Original Article
Level by Level: Logan’s Shadow Episode #1
Australian Larrikinism in Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow

Gabe Logan’s second PSP adventure attempts to up the ante, but ends up a little contrived. Kinda like—a marginally improved—Quantum of Solace compared to Casino Royale (Dark Mirror), yet one cannot avoid the likeness to Under Siege. Plot leaves you hanging.

Castlevania

A classic through and through. Am I allowed to say that the jumping in the early iterations are a little chalky?

Super Castlevania IV

Original Article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #2)

Super Castlevania absolutely nails the “pleasantly frustrating” concept. Initially, the first handful of levels sucker you in, setting the expectation for an easy play though. The challenge rises, slowly rubbing up against your skill level at each stage, until progression is just outside you’re grasp and the hours go by. New Game+ masterfully keeps the magic going.

Wonder Boy: In Monster World

Original Article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #4)

Much more primitive than I ever remembered it. If you have kids and want to start them off with a Metroidvania game, Wonder Boy: In Monster World is the best option around.

Star Wing

Original Article: None

Technically wonderful, particularly the camera tracking and boss battles. On the other hand, Star Wing feels severely cramped and slightly unresponsive which eventually borders on frustrating.

Lylat Wars

Original Article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #3)

On a presentation level, Lylat Wars is Nintendo’s most progressive game to date. Contrary to its SNES progenitor, Lylat Wars feels incredibly modern and sophisticated for its time, making it a real delight to play in 2009. The cinematic ideals in Lylat Wars wouldn’t become popularised until a few years later. The last great Starfox game.

Sonic Gems Collection

Original Article: None

Everything on here is bad or obscure, but interesting nonetheless. Buy this for Sonic CD which is the most interesting of them all (enjoyable too, however not as much as you’d be lead to believe). Sonic CD exhibits an provocative sense of dated 90’s style with its tribal colour palette, crazy disparity between CD-quality music and 16-bit visuals, not to mention the “confuddled” level orientation and time shifting mechanic which seemed to fall off half-way through. Bizarre, but fascinating.

Resistance: Fall of Man

Original Article
Resistance: Fall of Man Commentaries

A drab and blurry pretender that’s interesting in parts.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Original Article
What Has Become Less Relevant (Return to Castle Wolfenstein)

I tried to care, but it’s really difficult to sympathise with first person shooters nowadays. It’s better to think of this as a re-skinned, single player Quake III, of which it is.

Prince of Persia Classic

Original Article
Prince of Persia Classic Criticism

The next-gen gloss is unimportant, Prince of Persia is timeless, albeit a little stiff. If you’ve never played Prince of Persia then Classic is the best point of entry.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Original Articles
Prince of Persia Mega Compendium

Sands of Time transcends the low-culture guff that constitutes the sad majority of this medium. The narrative is tightly interwoven within the very fabric of the game on both a micro and macro level. In-game dialogue traces the Prince’s path to adulthood, while the overarching story, a narrative told by the Prince himself, closes before booting back into the present to conclude the tale. Incredibly clever.

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Original Articles
Prince of Persia Mega Compendium

The Prince grows a faux bad-ass attitude, gets some tats and duels crazy dominatrix bitches with twin blades. Low culture at its finest. The platforming gameplay—arguably the series’ defining feature—is fleshed out and offers a great deal of challenge to players with a thirst.

Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Original Articles
Prince of Persia Mega Compendium

Two Thrones tries to back peddle, proving that Ubisoft never had it to begin with. I use to think it was Mechner’s magic which made Sands of Time so fantastic, then I realised that he’s the screen writer for the new movie. Epic fail Mech, epic fail.

Bookworm Adventures

Original Articles
The Fun of Language Development with Bookworm Adventures
Bookworm Adventures Deluxe – Linguistic Observations

As ingenious as PopCap’s other core franchises, but fleshed out in the vein of an adventure game.

Super Paper Mario

Original Articles
How Super Paper Mario Doesn’t Feel Like Work
How Super Paper Mario Feels Gamey
How Super Mario is a Great Crash Course for Games

A hybridisation of the best video games have to offer. Supporting character are surprisingly atypical for the traditionalist Paper Mario series. Superfluous dialogue works wonders here, Treehouse is incredible—I blame the original writers for the surplus chatter.

Geometry Wars

Original Article
The Torturous Taste of a Magnificent Neo-Retro Light Show (Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved)

Compared to Everyday Shooter, Geometry Wars is severely overrated, however a very competent and successful arena shooter nonetheless. On-screen busyness mars Geometry Wars‘ skill testing prowess.

Super Stardust HD

Original Article
Super Stardust HD – Fresh, Spanky and All About The Space Junk

Super Stardust HD’s level-by-level structure somewhat diminishes play time, whereas Geometry Wars is an everlasting gobstopper of gameplay, yet contains very little content. Chunking the game out over several planets also isolates the high score boards into a series of smaller boards which to a regular player like myself feels too complicated and therefore redundant—not so with Geometry Wars. With this said, I prefer Super Stardust HD as weapons feel effective and it’s a much more fleshed out and sophisticated experience.

Punch Out!! (NES)

Original Article: None

Once I’ve fully beaten Super Punch Out!! I’ll write an article comparing the two. Otherwise, there’s nothing interesting for me to say about Punchout!! that can’t be found here, here or here.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz

Original Article
Super Monkey Ball – Leading into a Banana Blitz

The sillies have taken over Super Monkey Ball for good, or so it seems with the inclusion of a skill-cutting jump button and level design which under cuts the series’ roots.

Halo

Original Articles
Halo – Building the New Standard
Halo – The Issues
Visual Connection: The Best Part about Halo (Vistas)

Clever and adept. Halo genuinely changed the face of FPS gaming, still loads of fun now. The second half however leaves much to be desired.

Halo 2

Original Article
Halo 2 – Additional Commentaries

Refined with loads of cool additions, but not as important as Halo. The Arbiter represents an awareness that succeeds its audience.

Uncharted

Original Articles
Uncharted and the Sense of Being De-equipped
Uncharted – Follow-Up Notes

Relies on a dichotomy of decently-integrated-but-stolen platforming and gunplay mechanics and then grinds these mechanics almost down to the bone. It’s good and the context is engaging, but also unimaginative and designed only to par.

And a New Year’s Resolution

In 2010 I resolve to improve my editing, if not hire someone to editor. The more I gloss over old articles, the more I worry over this. Even bolded text is occasionally full of spelling and grammar issues!

DP’s Games Crunch 2009 Part #1

Daniel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 02:04:10 +0000

2009 was my last year of freedom and now I’m all ready to join the ranks of subordination and eternal slavery in the world’s grander demise to corporate capitalism. With foresight towards inevitability, I selfishly slogged away at my game collection throughout the year, salvaging the remains of precious time. So in celebration of all I have left, I wish to say a few words on the games I’ve completed this year. My goal here is to either hit at the game’s essence or, in the case of the more popular titles, just say something interesting.

This’ll be a two part series which, in the face of GOTY awards and all that, I’ve unusually started after the new year. It’s worth noting that the games below are only the games I’ve shelved over the year, not the ones I’ve played in part. A number of the games below I finished in their heyday and returned to fully complete in 2009, there’s plenty of repeated plays too. Thanks for reading DP.com in 2009, I hope 2010 affords me the same generous window of time to continue my frequent writing schedule, which should be back to normal from today.

Wipeout HD

Original article
Tuition of Curves: WipEout HD

Teamed with Fury, Wipeout HD has been my most played game over the past 12 months, largely for the split-screen multiplayer. Wipeout HD’s strength is its ability to draw maximum enjoyment out of a concentrated set of tracks, weaponry and refined racing mechanics. One might call it a very eastern style of design in that all parts meaningfully contribute to the whole.

Wipeout HD Fury

Original article: None

Wipeout HD was already incredible value for money, and then Fury comes along, adding another 70% of content for a slither of the price. Eliminator mode reinvents the experience yet changes only a handful of rules; an example of the well-considered design.

Trash Panic

Original article
Trash Panic: Causing Much Mayhem, Dropping Drama!!

Another PSN gem that’s been unfortunately overlooked by the masses. Trash Panic is in part the cause of its own demise. The uncertainty of the physics, fire and decomposition mechanics make every round unique, yet placing such a reliance on the infavourable probability of these variables removes the mastery from this masochistic puzzler.

Pixel Junk Eden

Original articles
Downloadable Drug
PixelJunk Eden: More So Facebook Than Ninja Roping

A stylistic trip until you fall and learn that Eden is an unforgiving mistress.

Donkey Kong Country 3

Original article: None

Artistically the most interesting and adventurous Donkey Kong Country, plus much more coherent and polished than the favoured DKC2. Furthermore, DKC3 adopts the newer features and abilities from DKC2 without skimming on the experimental levels (inverted control layout in water, bee chase, etc), making it the most wholesome game of the three. The ugly GBA version has a neat riff on Cobra Triangle: Rare’s speedboat game for the NES.

Unirally

Original article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #3)

Gotta love the ‘tude, I say. Unirally’s music track, similarly to Super Punch Out!!’s, captures a mood which I personally find very reminiscent of the era.

Zuma

Original article
What I Learnt From A Stone Frog Spitting Coloured Marbles

It’s hard to restrain yourself from Zuma’s captivating spell, it was the only game I played for 2 months. The best puzzle game in years.

Portal

Original article
Portal and the Deconstruction of the Institution

I don’t think that many people understood that behind the dark humour you were being played by the institution. As I wrote about on GameSetWatch, Portal is an interesting text for studying institutional power and subordination. Well realised.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

Original articles
The In-Game Mini-Blog
The Trophies Dilemma + In-Game Rewards
Syphon Filter:Dark Mirror Design Notes

Gabe Logan’s PSP outings are as technically credible as they are engaging with a diverse range of objectives, locales and characters. The best portable espionage around, tangibly better than MGS: Portable Ops. If this were a console game, people would have cared. Expect some finger strain.

Dino Crisis 2

Original article
Play Impressions (And the Rest #2)

The Resident Evil framework sped-up with dinosaurs and combos, rather short but very enjoyable and arcade-like. I really ought to play the original as its supposedly a reskinned Resident Evil and not a true divergence to formula like the sequel.

Wrecking Crew

Original article
Play Impressions: Revisiting Wrecking Crew and Wii Play

Great for the first 50 levels until the stages become seemingly unsolvable and desire to play ends shortly after.

Wii Sports

Original article: None

Unlike most jerks like myself who write about games, I’m empathetic towards the expanding game-playing audience. Consequently, I should be an advocate for the Wii Sports craze, but even 3 years after first going hands on with this title, I still don’t “get it”. Nothing ever responds the way I want it to.

Nintendogs

Original article: None

Like Wii Sports, I still don’t “get it”. The dogs don’t do what I tell them to!

Wii Play

Original article
Play Impressions: Revisiting Wrecking Crew and Wii Play

I’m still not sure why people are so cynical towards Wii Play. Considering its measly price of $10 when bundled with a Wii-mote (I saw it in a catalogue today and compared to a standard Wii-mote it only costs $4!!), I don’t think there’s much to complain about. Particularly considering the latitude and highly addictive nature of Tanks, Table Tennis and the pseudo Duck Hunt remake.

Super Mario Galaxy

Original articles
Super Mario Galaxy Observations #1 Bite Sized Design
Super Mario Galaxy Observations #2 Build me a Space Ship
Super Mario Galaxy Observations #3 – Representation of Boss Battles

Rejuvenated the platforming genre and it still gets insufficient cred—hardcore gamers ignoring Super Mario Galaxy (and the recent New Super Mario Bros. Wii) and instead preferring to shoot things are the reason why I have more respect for bed wetters than I do “gamers”.

Zelda: Twilight Princess

Original articles
Zelda: Twilight Princess – Conformity, Innovation and Relevancy
Zelda: Twilight Princess – Nintendo-fying Stolen Mechanics
The Final Word on Twilight Princess

Zelda for the conservatives. The game you were hoping for was made by Capcom and called Okami, you should go play it. Otherwise, engaging in a familiar way, no one does it better than the best.

Link’s Crossbow Training

Original article
Link’s Crossbow Training Review

Just like retail releases of 2D games (or Wii Play, for that matter!), gamers reject anything that is ill of convention, and—as proved here—even when said game is branded with nothing less than the Zelda franchise. Link’s Crossbow Training is an ideal arcade shooter.

House of the Dead II+III: Return

Original article
Differences Between House of the Dead II and III

Take this, its pseudo sequel, the above title, the two Resident Evil games, Ghost Squad and Dead Space Extraction and it’s easy to argue that light-gun are making a resurgence on the Wii. (This is why Link’s Crossbow Training IS relevant, because it can only be bought with the Wii Zapper, and the Zapper = good). This should have been a trilogy, including the fantastic original and some more extra features. Awful loading times mar arcade bliss.

Gunstar Heroes

Original article: None

Treasure’s first example of their supreme ingenuity. Retro Gamer magazine did a brilliant feature on this game (and coincidentally the House of the Dead franchise too) which is worth a read, 50^th issue.

Half-life

Original articles
An Entree to Half-life Discussion
Half-life – Foreplay, First Person Platforming, Implicit Direction and Whitewash Vanilla
Half-Life – The Journey

Half-life’s narrative scaffolding falls apart in the year 2009, which proves that the idea was always more important than the execution.

Half-life 2

Original articles
An Entree to Half-life Discussion
Half-life – Foreplay, First Person Platforming, Implicit Direction and Whitewash Vanilla
Half-Life – The Journey

Gimmick after gimmick after gimmick, spliced with characters that begged to be liked, Half-life 2 introduces no fundamental changes to the genre. Too bad everyone was busy playing with gravity guns and antlion bait to notice its poor construction.

Half-life 2: Episode 1

Original article
Play Impressions: Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One

Critics razzed on Episode 1 for being too similar to Half-life 2 without noting the obvious connection that Half-life 2 lacked substance to begin with. True, the entire game amounts to redux, but at least the gimmicks are interwoven instead of being drawn out over long stretches of play. Closer attention is paid to the player and minute-to-minute gameplay scenarios. Valve are finding their feet.

Half-life 2: Episode 2

Original article
Half-life: Episode Two Commentaries

The first Half-life worth liking. The slew of gimmicks from the prior two games are streamlined into the basic formula of Episode 2 (Gordon begins with the gravity gun and the less substantial gimmicks are either scrapped or isolated) with the focus placed on concocting interesting gameplay scenarios. The narrative ramps up too.

Super Mario RPG

Original articles
Microtransactions: ‘Non-Interactive Sequences, the Author and the Player’ and ‘Super Mario RPG and Alternative Dimensions’
Super Mario RPG: Quirks and Annoyances

Gives an ol’ PAL gamer goosebumps. Surprisingly breezy and progressive too—you can see how Intelligent Systems would later construe and then reimplement ideas seen here in the reboot of the series (below). Provides additional perspective on Squaresoft’s diversity at developing the 16-bit RPG when considered with Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy VI and others.

Paper Mario

Original articles
Paper Mario (in as Many Pieces)
Paper Mario Vs The Traditional JRPG (Structural Breakdown)

Perfect across the board and so far ahead of the curve that it was accused of being an RPG-lite at the time. It took J-RPGs another six years until they began to incorporate real-time action elements into their tiring RPG sub-systems.

Call of Duty 4

Original article: None

The frequency of death is probably what makes it so realistic. I thought little of the franchise until I played this a few years ago and become a believer. War is a terrible, terrible thing and CoD4 makes this shockingly apparent. Modern Warfare 2 seemingly dilutes common sense and goes overboard as far as I can tell.

Kirby’s Dreamland 2

Original article
Play Impressions: Kirby’s Dream Land 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One

Kirby’s Adventure 2 without the colour (unless played on a Super Game Boy!). Naturally, I can’t help but be impressed.

Metroid Prime 3

Original articles
Quarterly Diaries and more

I really have so much more to write about this game and yet I still haven’t, I’m sorry. I doubt that all of those AAA Q4 games released back in 2007 really affected the close of this seminal trilogy. Truth is, very few of the players, writers and candle stick makers in this industry care about the Metroid Prime series. Frankly, a genre-bending first-person action-adventure that focuses on the deep implicit, rather than shallow explicit far exceeds the maturity of this audience.