Tag: Video Games

Storybook Gaming

Chris Ammerman tweeted about an article last night titled Saving Zelda by Tevis Thompson. I recommend that you read it because it is a good expression of one person’s take on what is wrong with the Zelda franchise since The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I don’t think I will ever comment directly on the essay.

Tevis and I come from two completely different angles as far as what we look for in a video game and probably where we derive our enjoyment from. I can’t speak for him entirely, I can only speak for myself … and that’s what I am going to do.

I love storybook gaming. If you look at The “Short List” 2011, you’ll find it completely overridden with games that are heavy with story. Most of them are some sort of RPG and even games like Ocarina of Time and Starcraft I tend to play for the story. After I get through the story, then I’m pretty much done with it unless it has a compelling multiplayer component (like the original Starcraft). Otherwise, I’m playing the game for the story because … I like stories.

I think that is why I can play a game like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and find it amazing. It is probably also why I can’t get into games like Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto. I WANT the structure that a story provides and I’m really not bothered by a game that is as prescriptive as Twilight Princess if I find myself engrossed in the story.

I want to be engrossed. I want to care about the characters who I am working with/for (Midna is a great example), and I want the gameplay to get out of the way! I’m not a huge fan of open worlds because I have enough choices to make in my life, I don’t need to be making too many other choices when I’m playing a game.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 were interesting because choices you made could have lasting effects  on the next games and who knows what will happen with Mass Effect 3. I still remember choosing to let Kaidan sacrifice himself in Mass Effect 1. I made darn sure I had all of the upgrades for my ship and make sane squad choices in Mass Effect 2.

Those were the worst parts of those games. They’re still great games, but I want to get back into the action and into the story, not sit by and make choices … to me, that isn’t fun.

Maybe that makes me boring, and I’m okay with that. I’m never going to have time in my life to work on a speed run or replay too many games multiple times to see what nooks and crannies are available for me to explore … that’s just not in the cards for me.

I think we’re talking about differences in how people derive enjoyment and the worst thing that a company can do at that point is try and please everyone. It’s a good thing there is something for everyone.

Next-Gen Wish List

IGN has posted Your Most Wanted Next-Gen Feature and it is a compiled list of what they see as the community wanting the most in the next batch of consoles which should be coming out in the next few years. I’ll break it down here and post my thoughts.

Focus on Entertainment

I’m torn here. I really don’t care that much about the entertainment options in my gaming console, I really don’t. I think that the console is going to be pushed back even more as TVs continue to gain the needed entertainment features and more and more consumptions is moved to other computing devices. This might be the place I want the manufacturers to spend the LEAST amount of time from this list.

Carry Everything Forward

A nice thought if it can be done. We have seen this featured touted, not used, and then finally dropped on almost every console available. The funny thing is that looking back at the start of the industry it was even worse.

Physical cartridges pretty much killed any chance at backward compatibility.

It would be nice to see the new consoles carry 100% compatibility with this generation, but it just isn’t something I’m going to cry home about. This becomes more of an issue, however, when you starting bringing digital downloads into the mix. Add in the fact that the increase in gaming networks and you get a mess of questions:

  • How long do we support old games?
  • How long do we NEED to support old games?
  • Should that digital download work with the new hardware?

That’s just the beginning. The question becomes one of resources: how much do you want to give up for more advances in hardware and software?

Digital Rentals and Streaming Games

Digital rentals would be awesome. Make ’em cheap, make ’em quick, make ’em fun. That’s about it.

Not sold on streaming games mainly because I think people really overestimate the level of broadband that the majority of the world currently has. Also, it gives LESS control to the gamer and only brings up more questions of who owns what and when a game will just go “dark” because they don’t want to support it anymore.

More Motion and Touch Tech

“There be dragons here!” Be careful what you wish for.

I’m a huge fan of Skyward Sword, but even I understand the limitations of motion and touch technology. I shudder to think about what types of games are going to come out as people just start bolting on stuff for the heck of it (and to check off another box).

If you are going to do this, go all-in and do it right. Please. The majority of the Wii titles are a huge warning to the whole industry about what can happen when you don’t care.

Wireless Everything

Oh. My. Gosh. No. Please, PLEASE include wired options. This is such a bad idea I can’t help but think that whoever recommended this has never actually worked with any kind of wireless technology … ever. Such a terrible idea.

Wireless is wonderful, but for something like a game console that is not going to be moved you really want to be able to hardwire that thing into place as much as possible. If there is one thing I wish my Wii had, it s an ethernet port.

Controllers? Sure. Headsets? Alright. After that, what you really want is a person who has a clue about what they are talking about.

Social and Community Focus

Nintendo really needs to step up here in a big, no HUGE way. Xbox Live is really the gold standard for community focus and the idea of being able to share certain things is nice, I just caution against spending too much time here and not enough on actually making a game console that … goodness … plays games.

I  believe we have enough narcissism in the world.

Modifiable Hardware

Wow, we are really going off of the deep end here. Part of what makes console gaming attractive is that you DO NOT MODIFY THE HARDWARE. You buy a console and you have the same experience as your friend. It is bad enough when console manufacturers sell a crippled piece of hardware (looking at your Microsoft) at the lowest price point to drive sales, but allowing people to then mod their hardware?

Besides, you already have PC gaming and the buggy drivers and inconsistent performance. If anything, you want one canonical piece of hardware that never changes … giving developers only a single run of hardware to aim at.

Of course, that would require more thoughtful hardware in the first place and … we can’t have that.

Playable Used Games

With digital downloads and required gaming accounts, this becomes a much stickier issues than it used to be. I, for one, would be very sad to see the used game market go away if for no other reason than it would kill the joy of playing older games after that console is EOL.

The fact that we are even at the point where this is an issue is truly sad.

Closing Thoughts

Most of what was brought up really doesn’t matter. I’m thinking that if you want this console it is already there … in the form of an awesome PC.

If this is the way that next-gen consoles go, we are in for a very bumpy ride.

Nothing mentioned really helps the gaming experience at all. If there is one thing that I would recommend, it would be: Eliminate. Loading. Screens.

Wait, I already did.

Loading Screens

One thing I have noticed since playing A Link to the Past again is the extreme absence of something I had just gotten used to: loading screens.

The entire game is, more of less, seamless. You just keep on going without too many breaks in it besides the occasional telepathic communique from someone. Otherwise, it is a lot of walking and sword-swinging. It’s refreshing.

The introduction of optical media really introduced us to loading screens as the consoles needed to load the larger textures from slow media. Larger capacity coupled with slow disk drives really killed the “flow” of games. I distinctly remember how different it was playing a Final Fantasy game on the Playstation compared to The Legend of Zelda on the N64.

Granted, I liked both games.

As the graphical capacity of the games has gotten greater, the information involved has gotten larger, and the disks have gotten bigger. Sadly, game consoles don’t carry the amount of RAM needed to load the entire game up before you begin and so you get longer and longer loading screens.

Mass Effect Elevator

A game that tried to mask loading screens was the Mass Effect series. The first time you rode in an elevator you were essentially sitting through a slightly-interactive loading screen. of course, they were still there throughout the game, but it was clever.

However, with the next batch of technological advances are we going to see the removal of loading screens (within reason)? Will the advent of viable SSDs, dropping price of RAM, and multi-core processors allow a game to both load faster and and also do more in the background. With digital downloads, will disks go away and thus allow faster access to the data again?

One can only hope. Of course, there are other hurdles involved, but it looks like there might be a time in the future when loading screens are a thing of the way past … and just the past as well.

Past Links

A Link to the Past

There really is no better top-down adventure game out there. Even though Phil and I might quibble about the meaning of 3D, what we cannot quibble about is how amazing this game is.

So I started playing it again tonight. It really is a masterpiece, and it also sits in stark contrast to the huge, monster, cut-scene enhanced games that are found today on home consoles and the PC. This is coming from a person who loves Bioware’s games and is really looking forward to Mass Effect 3.

However, there is something refreshing about fast-scrolling text just pointing you in the general direction of where you are supposed to go and then getting out of your way. If you have a chance to play it, or many games from this era, give it a shot.

Not a Skyward Sword Rebuttal

My friend Phil Wels posted his 12 Egregious Sins of Skyward Sword over on his blog and I promised him that I would post something of a rebuttal.

This really isn’t a rebuttal.

First of all, I’ll agree, for the most part, with numbers 1 through 8 and 11. I don’t really see how you can disagree with them. I tended to just ignore those things for the most part and enjoy the game without really thinking about them until he brought them up.

I will, however, post my thoughts on the other three.

9. Ghirahim

He’s strange, I’ll give you that, and I kind of liked him because he didn’t really seem to be all there. Yes, he was not your standard “let’s all destroy the world” bad guy … but I guess I didn’t see that as a bad thing. He was a little goofy and just off, which I think added some color to the game.

Finally, when you find out that he was really nothing more than Demise’s sword, it all seemed to come together, in my mind at least. He brushed off Link because Link wasn’t really a part of this … he wasn’t supposed to be there. Much like a person brushes a fly off of his arm and doesn’t think much of it, so Link was thought of as well until the very end.

Overall, I like the “off” bad guy. He is not Ganondorf, however.

10. Wii Controls

Overall, I think that you’re either going to like them or you’re not and there really is no way around that. I had my fair amount of do-overs when attempting to navigate areas with my beetle or seemingly needing to get my bearings straight before I would aim at something, but I think that is the price you pay for working within 3 dimensions.

The ease of movement that a top-down game provides is lost when you both narrow the focus and add a dimension of movement (such as aiming or the beetle). It took me a while to figure out that I really needed to just make tiny little adjustments and if I did some big … I could expect failure very soon after.

The same could be said with all of the controls. While the Wii Remote Plus is good, it is not going to be as good as you want it … no current motion control system out there on any console is going to be. They are always going to be trying to guess what you wanted to do and sometimes they are going to fail.

Overall, I found the controls more than usable and a great step forward over Twilight Princess. One thing I am fairly certain of is that this is going to be the control scheme for the next batch of console-based Zelda games. Much like Z-targeting is now a “thing” for Zelda, motion controls are in that same category.

12. Item loss when “continuing” after death

You can always quit and then load the game over again. I like the added degree of difficulty if you decide that you just want to rush in again.

Maybe I’m just a glutton for punishment.

In Conclusion

I know that Phil and I are going to talk some more about this game in the future, and I look forward to doing so. I know that I can always count on him to find things that I would otherwise have overlooked, and the things he listed were definitely annoyances that I had at different parts of the game.

It was just those three that I really had any quibble with.