• 21Feb 09

  No offense but I think I'd rather do this alone

  Which will it be, Jack? Loyalty to your country, or loyalty to me? Your country, or your old mentor? The mission, or your beliefs? Your duty to your unit, or your personal feelings? You don't know the truth yet. But sooner or later you'll have to choose.

  These were words spoken by The Boss to Naked Snake during Metal Gear Solid 3. What really made those words hold weight was the fact that they were spoken to you, the player.

  I presented this example to you to demonstrate the power of the single player experience.

  We are truly living in an exciting age for video games. With mind blowing high definition graphics, voice acting, powerful game engines and memory restraints becoming more and more loose, game developers don't have to compromise much in order to bring you their personal vision. Don't forget one aspect of gaming that was a mere pipe dream in the early days of its conception, easy access to other gamers across the globe to play against in competition or with, in cooperative play (thanks to the internet). Those games are in high supply these days no matter how you like your poison. Fighters (Street Fighter 4) , Shooters (Killzone 2), or even what was traditionally one player (Resident Evil 5).

  That is truly great but the power of the one player experience still needs to be understood properly. I bring this up because many people across the net and people I know in real life think every game needs to be multiplayer and that is not the case.

  One example that sticks out in my mind is an argument I had with a couple of my close friends about the Metal Gear series. So I'm playing MGS2 as Raiden and I'm at the point where I'm back to back with Snake fighting against a continuous wave of soldiers and one of my friends say "You know this whole game should be co-op". At that point the buzz I usually get from games is gone, I've pressed pause and now am deeply searching for the right combination of words to express why what he said was so fundamentally wrong.

  Like most great one player games, the MGS series is great because it purposefully focuses on one character in a centric view. Bioshock, MGS, GTA, Oblivion, Fallout etc. These games have some truly amazing moments in their narrative that are potent because of the single player nature of them. Take Bioshock for example, if that game was co-op the nature of the game is compromised. You are no longer this poor soul who happen to stumble on this undersea paradise gone wrong and the events of your importance coupled with your own moral crisis is no longer a vehicle for great gameplay. You are now just a couple of Joe shmos that are blasting your way through Rapture. Sure in theory the game could have been designed for two or more players to make the same decisions and puzzles could have been altered for more players but the creepy, heavy and sometimes out right frightening nature of your choices wouldn't be as defining if you had a buddy in your ear screaming to "hurry up so we can beat the level". If your friends or significant other is sitting next to you maybe you would think twice about gutting that little girl open for her ADAM. Which is my point, you are alone in this world and it's up to you, only you.

  Another example is GTA 4. Have you gotten "That Special Someone" Achievement/Trophy? That moment is truly one of my favorite moments of all time. I was filled with so many emotions while I was deciding whether or not to kill that certain individual I am hard pressed to put them into words. This was also an amazing moment because it involved a one player experience. At the beginning of that game they threw you into the shoes of Niko Bellic. You weren't exactly sure how to feel about this character but soon enough you identified with him and his struggles became your struggles. Before you knew it you were Niko Bellic and he was your avatar in that world.

  Personally I think when a development team does a story well and they focus their efforts specifically on one player they can create a great immersive experience that blurs the line between fantasy and reality. If you watch a good movie you can easily get sucked in but if you play a good game with a storyline on the same level you feel as though you are a part of that world because your controller allows you to affect that world.

  I'm not saying that these games couldn't benefit from some forms of multiplayer. GTA and MGS4 both have modes specifically for that purpose that doesn't interfere with the story telling devices presented to the player.
  The next time you play MGS4 when you're walking down those corridors at the end or even when you step back into Shadow Moses think to yourself, would those flashbacks and nuances of nostalgia carry any gravity if three of your friends where playing with you with their own Snake models in different clothes?
  

  • Posted Feb 21, 2009 10:50 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
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• 17Feb 09

  Will it ever be good enough for you?

  With the imminent release of Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li upon us I felt as though someone should examine a certain phenomenon in the gaming community carefully and thoroughly. The phenomenon of hate surrounding video games being adapted into movies is rampant in forums and chat rooms across the net. It carries a pretty bad stigma in the gaming community and with good reason.

  Let's think about it

  There have been some pretty bad offenders over the years. We all know the classics, Super Mario Bros., Street Fighter, Dead or Alive, House of the Dead etc. All of these movies had their problems of course and I'm not going to get into them because this blog would never end. These are prime examples of the seeds of hate that were sewn into the subconscious of gamers everywhere. Those seeds have grown into a thicket of hate that is clouding the exit to excellence in other video game movies that have actually done some special things. That thicket I just mentioned is the worst type of cynicism in the gaming community and it's absolutely ridiculous.

  So very jaded

  Have you ever visited a gaming forum or even read the comments below a video posted on Youtube about a video game or console related matter? If you have and you are the type of person that thinks before you speak or write, you realized that the internet is essentially a place for people to complain without logic, reason or any definitive research to back up anything that they are saying. I can give you many examples of games turned movies that were not terrible but were deemed so because of this baseless, thoughtless cynicism. I'll make it clear off that bat; I won't spoil anything if you haven't seen any of these movies yet.

  Not as bad as you think

  Silent Hill

  I've heard numerous, slanderous rants about this movie and the bottom line is the movie is very good. The primary complaint I've heard concerns the fact that the main character and slight plot points from the game have been changed. This is exactly why the movie works. Why would I (or any other reasonable person) want to watch a movie based on a game if it is going to follow the game word for word scene by scene? I've already played the game so give me a new experience within reason of the source material. The writers took those points, included them into the movie and altered them in a way that made their version its own viable story while maintaining the integrity of the intellectual property.

  Doom

  Personally I think this story was a minor miracle based on what the writers had to work with. Doom is an important game in many ways but its story sure was not one of them. Everyone complains about story in these movies but never realize that many (not all) of these stories that are being adapted were not Faulkner level literature to begin with. They actually took the main character of Doom and gave him a personality and a solid story that fully explained the point of what was actually happening. Now I know a lot of people did not like the fact that the main character was antagonistic to a fault, but is that so far a stretch for a character that has been a soulless avatar up to this point? I honestly believe that if this story was saved, never turned into a movie and adapted into a game reviewers and fans alike would have applauded it for its creativity and evolution of more subtle themes in the series' past games. It was a movie though so of course everyone found fault with it because some gamers love to complain for the sake of complaining without thinking. It's starting to become a past time in our world and it needs to stop.

  Within Reason

  I'm not saying that every movie could realistically translate on to the silver screen. Anyone remember the Double Dragon movie? That movie was pretty dead on accurate when it came to the story but once you saw real people acting it out you realized the story was stupid anyway. I'm also not saying that the two movies I mentioned earlier were above criticism (nothing is) but what I am saying is that these movies should be taken in as they are and given a fair shake without all the "nerd rage" clouding our judgment. Take Street Fighter (the one with Van Damm) for example, The creators said the reason the movie was so bad was that Capcom gave them a guideline saying how much screen time each character had to have. If you know anything about Street Fighter then you know that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for any character development for the rather large cast of that game series. The creators of the new Street Fighter movie have their heads on straight by focusing on a few choice characters at a time. They've even said if this movie does well the other characters not a part of this story will have their own movies one day. I think this is a smart approach. Most people don't know this or even want to hear you out when you try to explain it to them.

  Why do you do this exactly?

  A lot of hate is starting to gather around the new Chun Li movie and blatant explicit reasons about why the movie is so terrible. What is so mind blowing interesting about it is that all of the people screaming about it haven't had the opportunity to see the movie yet they have somehow come to a conclusion about why the hate it so much. That's a special type of ignorance/stupidity that plagues our community. I don't get it myself. Do these people complain because they think angrily writing about something makes them appear intelligent? Are they so conceded that they think because they are gamers they have some duty and right to moan and criticize the creators and actors involved in a movie simply because they might not be gamers themselves. I don't know about you but I would rather see Kristin Kreuk play Chun Li than somebody's cos-playing girlfriend.

  I'm asking these questions because I honestly don't know the answer to them. Tell me friends what will make you happy?

  Will it ever be good enough for you?

  • Posted Feb 17, 2009 5:44 pm PT
  • Category: Editorial
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