lost in games

Have you ever watched people unfamiliar to videogames trying to play games? At first I usually laugh at the awkwardness when trying to get a grip with the controller’s buttons and the games controls. Sometimes I even think to myself “Is this guy dumb or what?”

Take or example a simple action like reloading your weapon and the thought process involved in executing that.

Gamer’s thought process:
Just Reload or at most press left face button

Now a Non Gamer’s thought process:
Which button is for reloading
Oh yes
It’s X
Look down at the controller to find out where it is
Press X
Look up to see what happens.

But that’s the way it is to people who are not into games. We, as gamers on the other hand, take too many things for granted.

Gamasutra has a very interesting article about an “experiment” they did with a family trying to play games together. It is not just about controls but the entire experience from start to finish and how they view it. It’s a great read which gives you an idea how foreign our hobby is to them and how big the barriers to entry are in spite of the success of the Nintendo DS and Wii.

Click here to read.

XBLA

Geometry Wars
Assault Heroes
Zuma
Bomberman Live
UNO
Catan
Sensible World of Soccer
Space Giraffe

PSN

Stardust HD
Calling all cars

Above is the list of games i have purchased from the XBLA and PSN. 10 games in total. But for how many of these can i truthfully say that i have spent time playing? Only Geometry Wars. That is just 10% of these games.

Why is that though?

I mean these aren’t bad games. Stardust HD is probably the best game on the PSN and while i loved playing UNO and Catan i then just stopped playing them after a few days. Bomberman is an absolute multplayer blast. But again, zero game time invested since those first few days.

Since i can see that they are great games then what’s wrong with them? What is it about these games that makes them fail to grab my attention for long? Is it the nature of these games or just me?

It’s both actually. It’s their repetitiveness and my preference to a story and variety of gameplay.

These are in general arcade games which have one core gameplay element which repeats itself over and over again while the difficulty factor increases as one progresses through the levels. The only repetive games i manage to play through are the ones which also have an actual story to tell. But most of these games don’t have one or at most the story is just there to give you a reason why everything is happening the way it is. For example the bad guy kidnapped my girlfriend or save the universe from a bad life form.

The fact that skill wise i am just average when it comes to these games (which usually require fast reflexes and good finger coordination) does not help either.

I fully support the advent of downloadable arcade games on consoles and the chance for smaller developers to get access to gamers and their wallets. This is an age of extremes with games of huge production costs such as Metal Gear Solid on one side and a one man’s Everyday Shooter game on the other.

But as i come to understand the nature of games in general i am also understanding my gamerself. There will always be the exception of a Geometry Wars every now and then but it seems that XBLA, PSN and WiiWare and what they are offering might just be irrelevant to me.

Have you ever played a bad game? I mean a REALLY bad one. To be honest i never have. Although i bought a lot of games, i had always done my research first so these games were well above average. Therefore I have decided to live the experience of playing a really bad game. My game of choice is Hour of Victory. This game got 38/100 on Metacritic based on 32 reviews. The highest score was 60/100 while Gamespot and Edge gave it a 2/10. So everybody is pretty much in agreement on this gamet.

I am a man on a mission. A mission to learn what it’s like to play a crap game.

What was the worst game you ever played and what was it like?

Realistic graphics? Ever evolving AI? Online gaming? Is this what this generation of games will be known for?

No. The Wii, 360 and PS3 will be remembered for bringing gaming to the masses in the form of social gaming. Not with the FPS’s, the RPGs, the Sports games but with party games. Games which are very easy to get into and allow people of all ages and genders to play, even together.

The Wii already has an abundance of mini-game kind of titles like Wii Sports, Wario Ware, Raving Rabbids and now Mario & Sonic at the Olympics. I had some friends over on Saturday and we were all hooked on Mario & Sonic. Mindless, simple and pure fun. We had a blast and got a good exercise as well. That 4×100 swimming relay event was a killer!

On the other 2 consoles the complexity of regular controllers make it harder for non-gamers to get into a game. That is why Scene it?, Guitar Hero and Rock Band are so brilliant. They are using peripherals which everybody can feel comfortable with. And people are also familiar with both themes, music and movies.

You can expect more board games getting the videogame treatment. Imagine a turn based pictionary on the Wii. A trivial pursuit with buzzers on the PS3. They can be even better than the original games.

I believe this generation of consoles’ greatest contribution will be establishing social gaming as a true, mainstream entertainment.

Wouldn’t it be great if Portal had co-op? Basically it is important for players to talk to one another and co-ordinate their actions. It is still just a rough idea but here are some suggestions on how it could work.

• Each player will have a different shape/size so that he can only access his own two portals and not that of his partner e.g. cube vs ball or tall and thin vs short and fat­. This way you don’t have four portals.
• Continuing the above thought. What if each player is holding the portal gun which only the other player can access. i.e. Player cube opens ball shaped portals for the ball shaped player. Then co-ordination between the two players will increase as each player will direct the other on when and where to open the portal. Imagine those moments in Portal where you flying through the air to open portals on the next level platform.
• Simultaneous actions to pull off (two portal guns) like switches or balancing levers or exploding platforms. For example, imagine a platform which can only be stepped on if there is one player at the same time on each side thus balancing the platform.
• Stages where one player is imprisoned or trapped and needs to escape with the help of the other. For example one player cannot go out of a certain perimeter because the platform will explode or because of a laser fence.
• Player 1 sees things which Player 2 cannot. For example switches, boxes, and other items. This means that once the two players enter the room, they will need to talk about what each player sees and thus have a complete picture of the room.

Ok, i was reading EGM’s review of Disgaea: Afternoon of Darkness for the PSP yesterday and one of their comments was that one of the good things about the game is that is very convenient when you are on the move. Whether you are in a dungeon or you are just upgrading/levelling up your characters you can just go to PSP’s standby mode and get off your bus or the tube. Very convenient for short spells of gaming.

And it hit me. It is!! I remember how often i used it for Jeanne D’Arc, Lumines and for so many other games.

If consoles at home had this feature we wouldn’t be annoyed so much with whatever saving system the game had. Playing Metroid Prime 3 and after half hour of playing you don’t actually get to a saving point and you want to go out? No problem, just put the console on standby mode. Then when you come back you can pick up the game where you left off. You would not even have to worry about your battery dying on you.

The 360 currently has a sort of sleep mode but only for downloading stuff or when charging the controllers. They added this in one of their dashboard updates. I can not see why they can’t do it for when you are in a game. It will allow us to play longer games, games with few saving points or infrequent checkpoints.

Come on Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. I demand the standby mode feature on my home consoles.

NOW!

For the past few days i have been seriously thinking of just giving up Metroi Prime 3. Why? For a few reasons.

1. Saving system may be the most crucial one. The game forces you to play for a considerable amount of time and then reach a saving point. I hate that. You can’t have small junks of play at a time. You need to invest a minimum of around 1 hour at a time to play Metroid which is especially difficult on weekdays.

2. The game is not that good. If it wasn’t for the controls i don’t think i would be playing it. The controls are carrying the game.

3. Backtracking. Going back to planets you visited before to open sections you could not complete because you lacked the equipment at the time is not something i like doing. I want to be able complete the planet and then move on to new areas not having to go back and revisit the same areas just to unlock a small section.

4. Bosses. Marathon, pattern style bosses. I have mentioned it last week how much i hate bosses but Metroid brough back memories. Bad memories. Boring and tedius.

So we come to the dilemma.

Should i continue this sometimes frustrating, filled with marathon bosses, lots of backtracking game for the sake of the controls? Or should i just give up on it (30% completed) and move on to something else?

I am listening.

Gamasutra has begun a series of articles called A History of Gaming Platforms and the first one is about Commodore 64, which was by far the most successful console of its time. Although for some what is being written here may seem alien as it was a long time ago i really recommend for you to read it. In fact i didn’t have one, i only got into games when the PCs became more affordable. But it’s the history of our hobby and it deserves to be read.

In short, the C64 was a powerful gaming platform for its time, and it was heavily supported by some of the most innovative and talented game developers of all time. There is no doubt that along with the Apple II, Atari VCS, and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), it represents one of the most influential game platforms ever built.

I just read this great piece on Gamasutra about how developing companies are trying slowly to communicate with their fans and allow them to have their say in the development of games.

I wish i could comment on this some more but i got to get back to work. Here is the LINK

I read a list this week which had the 15 most influential first person shooters of all time. I am not going to agree or disagree with the games included in this list but it’s just that one of these games brought back a lot of memories. The list is in chronological order and number 8 is Duke Nukem 3D. I am not sure how many of you played this PC, FPS game but whenever I remember Duke Nukem 3D I have a wide smile on my face. I think it was around 1996 (not sure) and it was the first game I ever played “online”.

Deathmatch

“Online”……In those days it was just dial-up internet, and it was WOW!! You just connected directly by calling another person’s phone line. It sounds simple enough but believe me, it wasn’t. A friend of mine and I were on the phone for a few hours (or was it days?) while figuring out how to set it up and after he did 90% of the work (thx Frixos!!!!!) we were on!

When we started playing it was like we were in a ghost map. It was a huge Duke Nukem level but without the CPU enemies. We weren’t even really sure we were on the same map. I knew that somewhere out there was just another all swearing, guns blazing Duke Nukem guy trying to find me and then shoot the shit out of me. Finally, we found each other and the shooting started. I was in awe and I was laughing with excitement at the same rate I was shooting. It was like a dream…..

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