It's been a long time since I've given much thought to the Ghostbusters franchise. Sure, I used to have the action figures, and the powerpack, and the trap, and all the movies, and all that crap. And who among us hasn't caught themselves singing 'If there's something strange...in your neighbourhood...who ya gonna call? Ghostbuster!' from time to time. Those times were great.
Were great.
I was pretty jazzed up to play the new Ghostbusters game on the Xbox 360 because it got relatively good reviews, had the actual actors from the movie doing voice-overs, and had a script written by Akroyd and Ramis...how could it go wrong?
For starters, you could get a real studio to make your game and not just do a typical movie ripoff to make some quick cash. Well, the ol' busters didn't go that way with this one and chose the gun for hire studio Terminal Reality to make the game. Now this in itself doesn't prove the game will be of poor quality, but they did make Aoen Flux so you form your own preconceptions.
The game starts off well enough with you being welcomed as a new recruit to the Ghostbusters team and everything is spot on. Venkman is a dick, all the characters sound great, and even the Walter Peck is reintroduced. But the whole thing seems to go down from there. The game itself isn't much fun once you bag your first ghostie. The mechanics feel sloppy, frustrating, and extremely repetitive. If the main point of this game is trapping ghosts...shouldn't we make that part fun? Auto-aim press trigger - hold - hold - oh crap he flew out of my stream - press trigger hold - hold - up analog - down analog - (repeat about 40 times) - throw trap - why won't he go in the trap - go in the trap already - GO IN THE TRAP - GOOOOOOOOO!
While it was a plus that they had the original writers write the script, it's almost embarrassing that rehashing the first movie is the end result. You've had 24 years, guys...no ideas in that time? None at all? Good. Got a movie coming up soon? Let's put out a game real quick and build some enthusiasm for it! Yay!
This was a great time to take the franchise in a new direction before the new movie comes out, but everyone involved seem to just phone it in. Okay, it's fun to fight slimer right in the beginning, but shouldn't there at least be a buildup to fighting the Stay Puft marshmallow man? fight that big bastard in the first 20 minutes. How's that for a climactic plot twist. Take the coolest guy, shove him in my face right away, then have me run through tunnel after tunnel shooting flying books. Oh wait, you get to fight him again later. What?
Had Ramis and Akroyd served a less involved role and just provided the story to a studio that actually wanted to run with this franchise, we might have had a bit more evolution out of the Ghostbusters than this annoying and awkward affair. I played about 75% of the game because I couldn't get the theme song out of my head, and that enthusiasm helped me power through the annoying levels, poor mechanics, and trapping those stupid ghosts in those traps over and over and over. Then I got prototype and I decided I'd rather play a game based in New York that doesn't suck.
I don't want to put much more effort into flogging this game, but it felt like everyone involved in the process just took advantage of my childhood enthusiasm for a franchise that probably doesn't lend itself well to video games in the first place. But it's really disappointing to see good things like original writers and original cast be totally wasted to produce a stunted and annoying product. Oh well, at least we know what to expect from the movie so we can save our $15.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
Trailers trailers everywhere
Perhaps the most ridiculous occurrence in the video game industry today is the cinematic trailer. I cannot believe that anyone pays any attention to these trailers anymore when it is clear that the CGI video will have nothing to do with the gameplay. While some of us would argue that these visual feasts presented to us, the ravenous hordes, provide enthusiasm for the product by very beautifully portraying the atmosphere or feeling of the game, it has progressed to the point of flat out misleading consumers as to the reality of the end product. Many of these gorgeous cutscenes are outsourced to professional cinematic studios are not even the product of the developer, so that leaves gamers with the unenviable position of trying to separate fact from fiction, and game potential from reality.
Two perfect examples that illustrate my point are the new trailers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Star Wars: The Old Republic. We’ll take the Deus Ex trailer first as it is the less misleading of the two. While very little is known about how this game will play, this trailer goes on to show possible in game fighting elements as well as outline the expected story in this prequel to the Deus Ex universe. While it is apparent that the game will not look as stunning as the trailer, we can assume some super human strength, in depth storyline and possibly some fast hand-to-hand fighting mechanics.
Next is the E3 trailer of BioWare’s highly anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Contrasting directly with Deus Ex, everyone knows exactly how TOR will play and what it will look like. Although a game’s appearance can change drastically even in the last few months of development, we have all seen working demos of TOR for some time now and we can expect gameplay and graphical elements similar to those seen in Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare’s first foray into the Lucas Arts’ fame franchise. For years now gamers have been fed the familiar tale from BioWare, that great games are based on story, and that TOR will feature a depth and immersion that no other MMO has achieved to date. Well, despite my obvious HA-YA-RITE preconceptions, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least until I saw this latest trailer for TOR. Basically this movie plays as a lost episode of ‘The Clone Wars’ and would seem to have very little to do with the spirit of upcoming game, the appearance, the gameplay, or even the story, which is supposedly the most impressive and important feature of this game.
The main criticism of Star Wars MMO style games is that you have mortals playing alongside gods who clearly wouldn’t need them to complete even the most complicated of tasks. So we’re either going to be dealing with hamstrung gods (lame) or useless peripheral classes (go Bard!), and these two routes lead to two respective ends, Star Wars Galaxies or Jedi traffic jams. So this video clearly addresses these two concerns by going in the opposite direction of both problems! Mandalorians that can resist force lightning and Jedis that can stop lightsabers with their hands. Have we decided to completely throw out any consistency that can be associated with this overplayed franchise? Maybe making every class overpowered is the only way to make the game play smoothly, but in the end the very appeal of this universe is under assault as we move further and further from the source material, you know, the stuff we actually like.
If the story is so strong in TOR and it’s so important for good games, why does the biggest trailer to date feature unrealistic fight scenes and overpowered characters? This trailer is all hype, all fluff, no substance. The game will not play like this, not even close. Spoiler alert - it will play like WoW. In the end, Star Wars doesn’t need any more hype. It’s Star Wars. Show us how you’ll make it fun and stop showing us why we already love it. Also, make another Tie Fighter game and then let this franchise cool off in the shade for while, because right now, it stinks.
Two perfect examples that illustrate my point are the new trailers for Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Star Wars: The Old Republic. We’ll take the Deus Ex trailer first as it is the less misleading of the two. While very little is known about how this game will play, this trailer goes on to show possible in game fighting elements as well as outline the expected story in this prequel to the Deus Ex universe. While it is apparent that the game will not look as stunning as the trailer, we can assume some super human strength, in depth storyline and possibly some fast hand-to-hand fighting mechanics.
Next is the E3 trailer of BioWare’s highly anticipated MMO, Star Wars: The Old Republic. Contrasting directly with Deus Ex, everyone knows exactly how TOR will play and what it will look like. Although a game’s appearance can change drastically even in the last few months of development, we have all seen working demos of TOR for some time now and we can expect gameplay and graphical elements similar to those seen in Knights of the Old Republic, BioWare’s first foray into the Lucas Arts’ fame franchise. For years now gamers have been fed the familiar tale from BioWare, that great games are based on story, and that TOR will feature a depth and immersion that no other MMO has achieved to date. Well, despite my obvious HA-YA-RITE preconceptions, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, at least until I saw this latest trailer for TOR. Basically this movie plays as a lost episode of ‘The Clone Wars’ and would seem to have very little to do with the spirit of upcoming game, the appearance, the gameplay, or even the story, which is supposedly the most impressive and important feature of this game.
The main criticism of Star Wars MMO style games is that you have mortals playing alongside gods who clearly wouldn’t need them to complete even the most complicated of tasks. So we’re either going to be dealing with hamstrung gods (lame) or useless peripheral classes (go Bard!), and these two routes lead to two respective ends, Star Wars Galaxies or Jedi traffic jams. So this video clearly addresses these two concerns by going in the opposite direction of both problems! Mandalorians that can resist force lightning and Jedis that can stop lightsabers with their hands. Have we decided to completely throw out any consistency that can be associated with this overplayed franchise? Maybe making every class overpowered is the only way to make the game play smoothly, but in the end the very appeal of this universe is under assault as we move further and further from the source material, you know, the stuff we actually like.
If the story is so strong in TOR and it’s so important for good games, why does the biggest trailer to date feature unrealistic fight scenes and overpowered characters? This trailer is all hype, all fluff, no substance. The game will not play like this, not even close. Spoiler alert - it will play like WoW. In the end, Star Wars doesn’t need any more hype. It’s Star Wars. Show us how you’ll make it fun and stop showing us why we already love it. Also, make another Tie Fighter game and then let this franchise cool off in the shade for while, because right now, it stinks.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
The efficient will inherit the Earth
We have all heard the saying, "Fortune favours the bold." I would argue that reality is closer to "Fortune favours the ballsy." All truly great things have been achieved in a disruptive manner by those who acted, seemingly, without an ounce of sanity. While it may seem easy to sit on our hands while the world unfolds before us or to accept the food that has been placed on our plates with a grand smile and say, "Please sir, may I have some more?" I would argue that life is best lived when we demand the world bend to our will and deliver us only that which we create.
Many of us probably don't give any thought to the wonders of our age. We live in an era of unheard of possibilities for the creative mind. For the first time in history the entertainment of all mankind is not only a possibility, but it is a demand of the species as a whole. For better or for worse, today's technology affords human beings an almost infinite capability for self expression, and that capability is expanding and changing each and every day. As the gamer generation, we have grown up with technology the likes of which has never been seen before in human history. Though each age has its own technological marvels, there has never been an age in which change can come so quickly and affect so many people so rapidly as the age in which we currently live.
All of this is largely unimportant until you consider the realities of human history. Our ancestors have experienced brief ages of brilliance, perhaps even some not so brief, but they have all fallen to mediocrity and commonness. I would wager the reasons for this are numerous and complicated but to simplify for our short attention spans it is the nature of our humanity which dulls even the brightest spots of our potential, for it is the nature of our species, and indeed that of our universe, to find the easiest path to equilibrium and then rest there until otherwise disturbed.
Like a chemical reaction or a human revolution, great things happen during turmoil, but there is a unstoppable natural force pulling everything to the lowest energy state, desperately searching for the lowest common denominator: mediocrity.
Those of us involved with video games, gamers or game developers matters not, can already see the clean cut efficiency creeping into our wonderful little creativity experiment. We are already seeing the parallels between the gaming and motion picture industry, with decreasing propensity for new intellectual property and massive advertising campaigns propelling a growing audience of patrons to the most efficient level of entertainment, the almighty mean. And although mean reversion is a universal inevitability, we do have the unique opportunity as the users of this medium to resist this force for longer than is normally possible because of the dynamic nature of this medium.
I am not condemning the industry for backing a winning horse or for following the most efficient and profitable model for making video games, so please do not misunderstand me. We all understand that in order to make truly remarkable and well developed games can cost staggering amounts of investment dollars. What I mean to say is that our industry does not need to follow in lock-step with the film industry simply because it is in the entertainment realm.
Games are about fun, and fun is term which is hard to define. Fun is not simply entertainment because fun implies interaction and participation. While reading or watching film or theatre is largely a passive exercise, games must be played and as such require conscious effort to be enjoyed. This inherent nature demands innovation.
As a novice game developer the question of 'what makes a game fun' is of great interest to me, and I hope that through this forum we can explore what makes games fun for you in the hopes that we can become more sophisticated gamers and hopefully drive this industry towards disequilibrium. Fun is not like other nature systems which desire to be brought to the mean, to rest, to the lowest energy state. Games can be exciting, moving, interesting, methodical, hectic, frustrating, social, solitary or just plain...fun.
Everyone has a Top 5 List of games...you know those games that seemed to change the way you think about your world, your life, and yourself. Let's demand more of ourselves and more of our industry and start talking about what makes our favourite games so great, how they were innovative and how we can help create and encourage more of these games that blow our minds.
Be frank, be honest, be brutal...but be active. Fortune favours the ballsy, so let's get started!
Many of us probably don't give any thought to the wonders of our age. We live in an era of unheard of possibilities for the creative mind. For the first time in history the entertainment of all mankind is not only a possibility, but it is a demand of the species as a whole. For better or for worse, today's technology affords human beings an almost infinite capability for self expression, and that capability is expanding and changing each and every day. As the gamer generation, we have grown up with technology the likes of which has never been seen before in human history. Though each age has its own technological marvels, there has never been an age in which change can come so quickly and affect so many people so rapidly as the age in which we currently live.
All of this is largely unimportant until you consider the realities of human history. Our ancestors have experienced brief ages of brilliance, perhaps even some not so brief, but they have all fallen to mediocrity and commonness. I would wager the reasons for this are numerous and complicated but to simplify for our short attention spans it is the nature of our humanity which dulls even the brightest spots of our potential, for it is the nature of our species, and indeed that of our universe, to find the easiest path to equilibrium and then rest there until otherwise disturbed.
Like a chemical reaction or a human revolution, great things happen during turmoil, but there is a unstoppable natural force pulling everything to the lowest energy state, desperately searching for the lowest common denominator: mediocrity.
Those of us involved with video games, gamers or game developers matters not, can already see the clean cut efficiency creeping into our wonderful little creativity experiment. We are already seeing the parallels between the gaming and motion picture industry, with decreasing propensity for new intellectual property and massive advertising campaigns propelling a growing audience of patrons to the most efficient level of entertainment, the almighty mean. And although mean reversion is a universal inevitability, we do have the unique opportunity as the users of this medium to resist this force for longer than is normally possible because of the dynamic nature of this medium.
I am not condemning the industry for backing a winning horse or for following the most efficient and profitable model for making video games, so please do not misunderstand me. We all understand that in order to make truly remarkable and well developed games can cost staggering amounts of investment dollars. What I mean to say is that our industry does not need to follow in lock-step with the film industry simply because it is in the entertainment realm.
Games are about fun, and fun is term which is hard to define. Fun is not simply entertainment because fun implies interaction and participation. While reading or watching film or theatre is largely a passive exercise, games must be played and as such require conscious effort to be enjoyed. This inherent nature demands innovation.
As a novice game developer the question of 'what makes a game fun' is of great interest to me, and I hope that through this forum we can explore what makes games fun for you in the hopes that we can become more sophisticated gamers and hopefully drive this industry towards disequilibrium. Fun is not like other nature systems which desire to be brought to the mean, to rest, to the lowest energy state. Games can be exciting, moving, interesting, methodical, hectic, frustrating, social, solitary or just plain...fun.
Everyone has a Top 5 List of games...you know those games that seemed to change the way you think about your world, your life, and yourself. Let's demand more of ourselves and more of our industry and start talking about what makes our favourite games so great, how they were innovative and how we can help create and encourage more of these games that blow our minds.
Be frank, be honest, be brutal...but be active. Fortune favours the ballsy, so let's get started!
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