British Academy Games Awards

Please see the link for the news on the results from the British Academy Games Awards...

It's great to see this British game from company The Chinese Room, 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture' being awarded for such a spiritual and different experience.

I've currently put Witcher 3 AND Star Wars Battlefront on hold to play through this £10 game and am finding it a really atmospheric change of pace. It's also keeping me inspired in my current creative writing about games, such as The Spiral...

Watch this space... for my upcoming PS4 notes, videos and full thoughts on 'Everybody's Gone to the Rapture'.

I'll let you know there if I've decided to join them!

Notes on... Red Dead Redemption 2

Readers may have encountered my recap on the classic Rockstar Games title Red Dead Redemption, which granted gamers the right to experience the spaghetti western in its own way...

Well, I've recently been reading that a sequel may be coming out this year or next, and I just felt I had to share some ideas (and worries!) about this event (some of which were mentioned in the recap)...

Personally, I'm hoping I won't have to sit through a million cut-scenes again which continually robbed the pace of the gaming action and didn't really add a whole lot of emotion or memorable moments (in comparison to the game itself). Keep it tight people at Rockstar! It seems that sandbox games in particular suffer from this disease. You can't keep pulling people away from the action, despite the reward for encountering a 'storyline moment'. Instead, why not keep it slick and atmospheric, with more emphasis on a dynamic gaming world that pushes the envelope of immersion.

Even having dialogue choices - I find - detracts from the freedom of acting in the game-world itself. 

What was so impressive about Red Dead Redemption was its freedom, its dynamic world, graphical detail and scale, with so much action embedded in it.

I do think there needs to be a strong storyline, but the more surprising ways to find it, the more concise and the more potential outcomes within it... the better! 

M.C. Escher would have played this...

A white, fragile little form is gingerly stepping through another door and I'm not sure where it's going to emerge... another long staircase? Perhaps I'll need to press a button, or find a cube to press a button... Maybe I'll be able to get my hat back from one of these accursed black crows... or... I may even have reached one of the big-hatted mystics at the end of a puzzle, who give me a sense that I'm achieving something as I progress through all these confining yet physics-bending buildings...

Check out the artist M.C. Escher here (wikipedia) because he would have loved playing Monument Valley, a neat, atmospheric puzzler in the vein of Journey and Flower etc... 

You've got to 'take your hat off' though to Ustwo Games. It must have been tricky to create, that's for sure, because it's tricky to play. But tricky is the name of the game and fortunately you'll never find yourself getting stuck for too long. The puzzles have been - thankfully - designed with great care and mastery to keep the balance and your humble figure never too far away from the next 'pat on the back' for progressing. Only in a few places did I have to return afresh to 'confront' a level, and if this game had been too confrontational, it would have failed.

The levels open up in inventive and unexpected ways that pay great homage to Escher and the beauty of design itself. They also reminded me a little of that menacing cube from the Hellraiser films from Clive Barker. An absorbing atmosphere is maintained through an eerie, mysterious backtrack and the light, magical sound effects.

The words 'beautiful', 'tidy' or 'neat': they don't sound that unique or alluring but here they all work consistently - and spookily - in tandem through the just-adequate quantity of intriguing puzzles. The easy playability also recalls top, classic platform games such as Prince of Persia (the original first and second 2D games) and the illusion of complexity is traversed with such simplicity on a touch device. Yes... it's all very neat. Another refreshing thing is that you don't keep dying and re-starting like so many games. You either progress, or you give up, and no-one likes a quitter, especially not inside such a beautiful, puzzling puzzle-land.

The spirituality of the storyline doesn't amount to a whole lot, but it adds a bit of mystery and enables us to feel the progression and the fact that our minds are becoming accustomed to the inherent trickery of it all by our very solving of it. The odd nature-touches are very effective though after so many blocks and squares.

And... don't forget the add-on pack of further 8 puzzles called 'Forgotten Shores' which does a good job of extending the dynamics, adding water, cliffs, flying etc... It ends up making us feel the potential of this type of game and that many more intricate puzzles could be made, enticing us with new mixes of graphical elements and physics-defying mental chocolate. 

A Virtual Reality version I'm sure would add a whole new perspective... and realism! You'd feel like you were certainly as trapped as this little figure, and the pressure to think and escape would be very real...

Thinking back to... an early Open-World simulation...

Finally... the game actually loads correctly and I'm in the car, 80's dashboard rendered. Outside though, cars are moving by and I'm parked at a crossroads... Their simple textures don't seem to notice me. Yes, it's a simulation game and there is a world going on out there. But it's also San Francisco and it gives me a huge sense of urgency to explore and cause some trouble is stirring... For someone who can't drive yet, this game will be fun...
 

 

 

What is this game that I've just remembered?.. suddenly it occurs to me... Vette!, a driving simulation game behind the wheel of a Corvette and with an actual version of San Francisco to explore. This was the first taste of total adulthood freedom for any 80’s kid with a clunky PC where sometimes games just didn’t even load at all. I don't think there were many missions apart from trying repeatedly not to get fined, and failing to capture some other fast cars.

 

 

For a full review and retro-reminiscing, visit this extensive video...

I think my uncle gave me this game as a kid, on floppy disks. But I now realise it would have come with a cool manual, a full map of the city etc. I’d love to receive such a gamebox, even today…visit more cities... especially a non-fictional GTA-style one... So…more driving simulation open-world experiences please !

The STAR WARS post !

A Galaxy of Games... A Universe Getting Closer and Closer...

The signature Star Wars universe offers such ultimate opportunities for developers that almost every type of game has a Star Wars version. Shooters, simulations, adventures, mobile platformers, lego, pinball.., It just goes on and on, and seems to be getting more and more wide-ranging. There are even mods for other games to turn them into Star Wars games (search Skyrim Star Wars mods). And as technology improves the scale and vividness will increase until… well… until we will be plunged one day into some Massively Multiplayer Virtual Star Wars Ongoing Conflict, which moves on, I suppose, a cyclical time-loop of all movies that have been made. In that universe, many types of game will exist, from entering a Tatooine pod-racer or an Endor speed-bike to piloting the Falcon on smuggling missions or Death Star raids. The question will only be how long will a character survive for, in whatever path they choose to take? How will we die and be reborn and delay player fatigue and frustration? How can we stop ourselves playing any other Star Wars games, outside of this futuristic game-world vision??

Today we exist in a world of fragmented Star Wars experiences, the newest of which as I write – the new Battlefront reboot game – surely captures a vivid sense of participating in the major battles.

Star Wars is a fantastic universe that offers a package outlined by the vivid movies: an array of exciting scenarios, characters and aliens, from the reluctant good guys (Han Solo) ,strong females to the guardian Jedis, with an even greater array of charismatic evil characters, including one of these Jedi Knights turned bad. It was just a unique combination of mythical elements brought carefully together. A deep saga for the space age with iconic fighting devices and sound effects.

How can games take advantage of all this, to create the most resonant or involved experience?

I’m still playing Star Wars games. Due to limits on time I’m reduced to the absorbing distraction of Zen Pinball and the fortify game Star Wars Commander on my phone.

But I remember a different time… especially the time of Kyle Katarn in Dark Forces. This was the first time 3d shooters post-Doom entered the Star Wars domain and we could properly begin first-person adventures in these realms.

 

Let’s think about what these early developers decided to do for a moment to really capture and sell an engrossing, exciting, educational experience, entering and enhancing the star wars universe (which they did).

Cut-scene.
Level.
Boss/Objective.
Cut-scene.

The above format simplifies a large part of it. Just as in Wing Commander the trick was firstly to make an engaging story with levels set in different – old favourite – worlds or scenarios, with a brand new character to engage interest and act as our avatar. Of course, he'd be a mix of Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, and we'd see him interact with old favourite characters. Next, the story would be coloured by exciting cut-scenes that described his situation, before we enter the first-person shoes of the hero. Over now to the level designers who – in the Jedi Knight series – continuously came up with surprising, challenging, memorable and frustrating(!) levels. On top of this progression must come the Force, of course, and the possibility of choosing a binding path through the game which is either Good or Bad, with a number of force powers to employ.

You could say this is pretty impressive and long-awaited since the credits rolled and left us stranded after Return of the Jedi. LucasArts pulled it off here at the beginning of the Age of Gaming. Add to this the variety of weapons with all our favourite sound effects and music, and a graphics engine that got better with every release, enabling it to cater for more and more widespread multi-player action.

This format is still in use today with such focussed adventure shooters. In fact, even the larger-scale open-world games simply contain this format, but offer us more widespread or prolonged interaction with a universe. But the focus gets lost and for many these ambitious games are simply too much.

There are game formats that Star Wars hasn't yet breached. I don't think there's a Wing Commander-type Star Wars game, with a campaign that gets positively or negatively affected. There isn't a full-scale RPG Elder Scrolls type game yet (although the online Star Wars Galaxies came quite close). And meanwhile we see some newer developments arising in games, in response to the improving technology. In games these days, a scenario can be more fully explored without compromising game-play or switching to cut-scenes anymore. The focus seems often now to be about not compromising one, fluid, elaborate first-person gaming experience. I’m thinking Alien: Isolation and the Nathan Drake games.

How can game companies escape the passive cut-scene without jeopardising our sense of story and character? The answer has come by bringing the cut-scene into the game itself, by merging the two into a fluid, continuous action set-piece. Or by making it a part of the world itself that the character is watching. Or by making the game one big scenario, so cut-scenes are no longer necessary. The Assassin’s Creed series still breaks into cut-scenes which tend to go on forever. But games instead are largely moving away from the retro Single-Player story experiences. Everything – perhaps - needs to be connected online and unfolding in the games of tomorrow.

So I think back with real affection at my time in the Dark Forces and Jedi Knight strategic shooters, (even where cartoon/animated elements described the blaster fire and cut-scenes). We were this separate commando-type character yet operating within this vast, familiar conflict. How would we get the Death Star plans out of the secret Imperial base? How would we free the captured rebel spy from the Detention Centre? You'd lie awake wondering how you were going to get through the tricky bits. It threw us into its large levels (where one blaster shot might shoot an alien off a walkway from long distance) and we knew we had to work it out using stealth, map consultation and the right combination of weapons, in order to achieve the exciting star wars-related objectives. Check out the Youtube videos of these old, engrossing classics.

Recently, I've been to gog.com to buy Jedi Outcast, because I might be able to find a moment to actually play this later Jedi Knight sequel, one that I missed when my PC was too slow. At the end of the day, such Star Wars games, those that enable you to 'become' a Jedi, offer an exciting promise to young adults; a chance to escape and explore, to become something, be good at something, and also to test themselves against others. Therefore the physics and keyboard controls etc. had to be finely tuned for in-depth PC controlling immediacy. It had to be a platform for wannabe hero gamers. Online, Jedi Knight was the first time I truly felt the power of Multiplayer Gaming... I would be running down a corridor and an opponent would be running towards me. I would use Force Pull to take his weapon out of his hand, and then use it on him before slashing him down with a sabre stroke. A complicated keyboard-assisted move and not so easy on a console. The pace of action was quick (when Internet was running well) and players would be re-spawning continually, but the trick was to use speed and to die less than others...

Later, with the less strategic and more accessible Star Wars Battlefront 2, the Unleashed series (a good try at more involvement with the Wii controller too) etc…we only knew the games would get more and more sophisticated until the entire universe will likely be available to play virtually and online, with the ability to play as any character… Surely there will come a proper smuggling Han Solo + Falcon-flying game one day too!…Because at the heart of this heroic, chivalric universe, there must always be: character, a sense of adventure, proximity to the classic characters, spirituality and friendship…if not cut-scenes, then ways to make you feel like you are close to the context, close to the experience you wish to complete… Good luck future designers... May the Force be With You!

Double Dragon 2 in EGA graphics

Having just downloaded the mobile game app of Double Dragon, which contains episodes 1 to 3 for a great price, I need to mention this nostalgic experience here. I only had the sequel, but now I get to be Billy Lee once again, fighting to rescue some unenviable lady friend and avenge myself with a variety of raw fighting moves. It's not easy being a small Patrick Swayze-like bitmap character. However, I find myself tapping away on a mobile and re-living the same excited sensations of seeing new scenery unfold as I fight my way onwards - rightward - to the edge of the screen.

click to enlarge this 80s Game Box Artwork

The last time I saw these graphics in Double Dragon 2, was in the 90s, in EGA graphics, using a keyboard with keys so big they made a sound and now I get to see it work at a decent, playable speed. In the process, the controls of attacks have lost a lot of their depth but the mechanics were never subtle. Back then we hoped they were subtle. But this was before Mortal Kombat combos.

In this adventure fighting game, it was also possible to play Co-operative, with Jimmy Lee helping out against the assorted baddies. Seeing the magic of these Coin-op classics (yes, I had Golden Axe too), to play in the comfort of home on a PC/console was the real start of gaming, family and social. We were fighting our way through this key-stroked action movie, just after watching one on VHS, before leaving the house on BMX bikes.

 

 

Video gaming will get ever more advanced, and more immersive, and maybe more social. But we should never forget the simple (and frustrating) kind of experience that being Jimmy and Billy Lee in a platform-style adventure provided. What would the next baddy be like? Laughable or insanely difficult to thrash? What keystroke combos would work best? How long could we last before being sent back to the beginning of the damn level? And what would be the nugget of wisdom we might glean from the wise master at the end of it all?

Well in this case there are no nuggets... but you do get to fight the final boss from Double Dragon 1 and then... a spooky clone of yourself !

I Made the Journey and Transcended

I’m just beginning to wonder where I seem to be heading or being carried along to, when the world starts speeding up and the music gets more light and airy. I seem to be hitching a ride with some kind of paper dragon down some ancient, ruined corridor… then another… then I float downwards and start surfing along this incredible golden sand. A great vista has opened up, filled with dazzling golden light coming from... the mountain... which is now… closer. My excitement rises as I’m still so curious about reaching it and getting up to the summit.

Journey is an interactive parable, an anonymous online adventure to experience a person’s life passage and their intersections with other’s. You wake alone and surrounded by miles of burning, sprawling desert, and soon discover the looming mountaintop which is your goal.Faced with rolling sand dunes, age-old ruins, caves and howling winds, your passage will not be an easy one. The goal is to get to the mountaintop, but the experience is discovering who you are, what this place is, and what is your purpose.Travel and explore this ancient, mysterious world alone, or with a stranger you meet along the way. Soar above ruins and glide across sands as you discover the secrets of a forgotten civilization. Featuring stunning visuals, haunting music, and unique online gameplay, Journey delivers an experience like no other.

I can’t add a lot more to the above, from thatgamecompany’s site, the text to accompany a project that went so over-budget the company run aground. Wikipedia provides more detail.

Let me just say it’s a game that needs to be experienced, unlike a book or film… although there is a story there and it’s an ancient, moving, collaborative one. It’s an extraordinary achievement: original, intuitive, spiritual and absorbing. You are not alone either. Someone else goes with you.

It was one of the first games I remember playing that was completely linked cooperatively. Once you started playing, there would be another avatar playing alongside you. If they disconnected, there would be another who would appear. Somehow the game ensured you had a human partner sharing the gamespace throughout from somewhere else on the planet.

It was a simple, atmospheric and cheap game I remember downloading from the PSN store for about £8. It involves simple interaction with the differing environments of each level - and there are only about six or seven. It’s about atmosphere. There are no words spoken at any time.

What we see in this game is how the control over an on-screen avatar can be made to feel fluid, spiritual and organic. Your robed character emits musical sounds and wears a scarf that glows with power. It glows with proximity with items in the world and with your companion. This means co-operating shares power and enables an easier journey.

The use of space and simplicity in the design makes you feel like you’re in a Buddhist animation from the Far East. It’s not for everyone; for the gun-toting or the restless gamer. It wants to make you play a game that leaves you with a different kind of resonance. After half an hour or more the controls become familiar and then it’s just about progression, about finding the best or obvious way forward.

It dictates nothing but impresses itself with the sound and beauty of an experience. It asks nothing. It invites you to play along. It leads you to what to do. It won’t frustrate you or do anything more than suggest its purpose in the act of playing. We get a few cut-scenes about some ancient civilisation.

What is the aim or purpose?

Perhaps just to enjoy the feeling of movement, freedom, sound, melancholic music and open space, and find your way to some sort of mountain in the sky and there transcend - finally- to some other plain.

Your character weakens but this is possibly the hardship of the climb. You begin to feel the Journey's toll as you encounter strong winds.

I do wonder what this game would be like if/when it’s ever translated to first-person POV and inside a VR headset… It would truly be an experience. And what games could follow in its wake for people always looking for experiences that offer something deeper and richer...?

To ‘watch an entire Journey’ you can find one on the Youtube channel (top right of site)

Wikipedia explains a lot more detail about the game and its story: