Can Gaming Presently Have Dynamic Subtext?

While listening to Michael Abbot (Brainy Gamer) and his guests for the Summer of Confabs and doodling (I’m somewhat of a habitual multitasker) one of the guests (Chris Dahlen and Manveer Heir) or Michael were talking about The Path. Though I haven’t played this game myself, they talked about the subtext of the game and how the story doesn’t always spell out for you what happens but might imply it.

I had just recently finished a master’s class in postmodernism (The Death of the Novel, Crash, The Crying of Lot 49, and Slaughter-House Five were the books we focused on), an era in literature where the story almost never means what you are reading and instead focuses on an entire subtext story that the reader has to go digging for. It was hard work and proved to be very difficult if you did not know the context of the time and thoughts of the author of the era these books were written in.

Now both of these moments got me thinking, well what about video games? Can games every have a dynamic subtext that brings across something much deeper then what is seen and played? But more importantly, can mainstream games (with video game projects costing millions of dollars) achieve such?

I’m not entirely sure to be honest. My first thoughts were that games in this era (unless a smaller affair or put on by independent designers and developers) is just not possible. With such a demand for mainstream games it would seem these same mainstream games cannot afford to travel too far away from “what works”. However that doesn’t mean those of us looking for more are totally starved.

Bioshock made such a big impact on players because of this subtext (and because it was so accessible). The gameplay wasn’t horrible but it wasn’t great either. But the world, writing, and subtext of power, corruption, and choice were incredibly strong. Besides that blockbuster I can’t think of many others, but perhaps I haven’t been looking hard enough.

If you have any games that you think meet the criteria go ahead and leave me a comment. It would be great discussing what exactly some of us players are looking for.

Until then I suppose playing various Independent games (which are getting more popular and bold, because of their shying away from the mainstream) will have to do. Along with The Path mentioned up top there is Braid. I’m afraid I haven’t played much else but feel free to suggest something.

TF2 Zombies

My last post I wrote briefly how a little mini game of TF2 zombies would be fun. I made some pictures in Garry’s Mod just for the fun of it.

Scout L4D Hunter anybody?

My ICO Experience

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a console game. I just didn’t really have time for them for awhile. But I’ve been reading for several years now that ICO is legendary when it comes to video games. It was a ps2 game that originally came out in 2001. I was able to track down a copy (something that is pretty hard to do if you don’t want to pay an insane amount of money) and here are my thoughts:

Let’s start off with what I thought worked:

Story- Okay, really there isn’t much of a story. You’re a kid who is sent to die in this strange castle by your village because you were born with horns. Apparently they’ve done this loads of times before. However by luck or fate you break out. This then starts a quest of you dragging this doom destined princess around with you as you try to escape the castle. So really there isn’t much story. It’s simple and to the point and that mixed with the art–well it pulls it off.

Art- Here I am in 2009 playing a 2001 game and I’m still blown away by the graphics. The team makes even some of the modern stuff look sort of tame. The only problem is you spend most of your time inside the very neutral and bland colored castle. But when you do go outside–well I always found myself taking a moment to look at the beautiful scenery.

Music- The music is great however there’s very little of it. Also the background ambient must be set on a minute loop because you swear you hear the same things over and over again. It’s so sad to have so little of that great music.

Okay, now to some of the dislikes:

Camera Control- The camera feels like it’s being operated by a drunk three year old. There were some incredibly frustrating times when I would be making a crucial jump, and the game would change angles, which would send me falling to my undeserved death. Now this game was from 2001 and I believe (though I could be wrong), one of the first games out for the ps2. Either way I’m looking forward to playing Shadow of Colossus and seeing if they’ve improved their game.

Fighting- The game isn’t about fighting. Every now and then you have to fight off these shadows that won’t to take the princess away. Problem is there’s no block button and all you can do is swing your stick/sword. This leaves the player rolling their eyes and sighing anytime they hear the bad guy music.

AI: Though you only play as one character, you sort of play for two because the princess you are saving has the brain capacity of a very dull rock. She’s slow on the uptake and several times I felt like throwing her off a nearby cliff so I could just enjoy the view.

OVERALL

Overall its a fun, sometimes frustrating, but very whimsical story that will last you a short time (I beat it in just over 5 hours). If you can find it for cheap I say go for it. I can see now how it sort of pioneered a way for games that came after it. I’m hoping Shadow of Colossus enthralls me even more.

Valve: Righting Their Wrongs

I’ve done my fair share of complaining when it comes to Valve. Why? Because I love their work dearly and they make a fair amount of mistakes. And despite some of my heated posts, where I swore never to play their online games again. Well I’m not one who is afraid to say when he’s wrong ( see http://earlvagary.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/wow-i-was-wrong/), and I’m also not afraid to call myself other things. Mentiroso!

Like a junkie returning to some heroin, I’ve started playing Team Fortress 2 again. The biggest factor however was their latest update. They finally updated the scout, who was in desperate need of some balance issues. This update also fixed crit issues and fixed all of the spy backstab (and facestab) tomfoolery.

What does this all mean? Well for one, less cursing on my end. But also the overall balancing of the TF2 fights, and opening up the classes so they are user friendly to all, but still deadly under someone who has mastered the class.

So get out there and start killing!

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Deserving an Oscar

Voldemort?

I rarely go see movies that are nominated for Academy Awards. Why? Because most of them (I think) are boring and pretentious. But despite my resolution not to see any of these movies my grandmother insisted I go with her to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and it’s only because I love her that I’d even think of going.

I just got back from it and I can only think about two things. One, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Two, how in the hell is this movie nominated for an oscar? Lets go trough some of the major points that make this movie ineligible as even a nomination for an academy award:

1. The special effects, while good for most of the movie, were not great. Brad Pitt as an old man was passing except for his face. His lips didn’t move like human lips should or do. Way too much uncanny valley going on.

2. Brad Pitt is nominated for best actor…for those of you that saw the movie, tell me one time he shows a human emotion? Answer, never. He never smiles, laughs, cries, or gets angry. He isn’t human. He’s an old dinosaur mutant alien baby. I’ve had some people try and point out that it’s really subtle acting but when you really stop and think about it…it’s not.

3. Taraji Henson is nominated for best supporting actress as Benjamin’s adopted mother. Lord knows I love my black women (especially when they are packin’ some pounds) but she was in the 3 hour movie for maybe ten minutes all together. Basically she was a black stereotype. No offense to her but I could play the exact same part as a white man.

4. Brad Pitt decides to change accents halfway through the movie. Did you think we wouldn’t notice?

5. A tugboat destroys a Nazi submarine. Let me repeat that so it sinks in, a small tug boat takes out a fully armed Nazi submarine by ramming into it…that or Klaus happened to throw his cigarette in the reactor at the exact same time. Poor Klaus.

6. One of the worst endings I have ever seen in a movie EVER! Why didn’t you stop on the humming bird? Why did you pan out and show a hospital with sirens going off and people running around? Is it because it was Hurricane Katrina? Sorry, didn’t work. Then you fade from black to talk about some gibberish so we can see water hit a clock. (I know the clock was a metaphor but it was weak).

7. Perhaps it’s just that I’m a man but I can only handle so much “will they” “won’t they” flip flopping in a movie. I’m just about on my breaking point in a chick flick but this movie was 3 hours of that. Halfway through I was hoping one would put a bullet in the other’s brain.

8. So many unnecessary side stories. Why do we need to know about characters that add NOTHING to the story? The little black guy, the old lady that played the piano, the random guys on the boat that all looked alike…big waste of time.

9. The main old dying woman needed subtitles because I heard maybe twelve English words through the whole movie. The rest–gibberish splashed with a little Bulgarian.

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All this being said, I didn’t hate it and I went in thinking I would. But is something so sloppy really worthy of an Academy Award? Not by a long shot.

PS. I loved the lightening man. He was by far the best part.