Yup, grabbed this game during the good 'ol flash sale for $5. I had been thinking of getting it before, but there were better games sort of calling me for the $20 its usually going for (Fuse, Demon souls, syndicate, deadspace 2 or 3, heck I might even consider aliens a higher priority). The demo came off as generic with some decent characters and a nice setting as well as a damn good trailer wrapped inside of it. Meanwhile the internet was raving about how brilliant it was for being "mature" (in other words pretentiously edgy and self-critical) and making players feel bad about themselves for playing a violent game. Yeah sounds like a blast and a real good excuse to sit through a generic 3rd person shooter (*cough* sarcasm *cough*). So yeah despite some incentive to grab this, it wasn't a top priority for $20. So even though I'd rather have it retail, I'm not so particular about this one and going for a discount that makes retail 3-4 times more expensive is a price drop that's worth it. Yet that's not the real subject here so I'll get on with it. Also there might be some small spoilers, I wouldn't recommend reading this if you plan to play the game yourself soon.
Spec ops is a solid game that places it priorities on weird places that make it worth your time if you're a fan of shooters or even simply stronger than average narratives. I have some issues with it on both sides, gameplay and story, but overall its been fun so far. The game does just enough minor tweaks to the generic style to be interesting while mostly motivating you through a better plot point than the average game. The most interesting aspect of it is probably the squad. You can order them onto a target, and you have to care for them if they goof up and get too injured. However best is how they will sometimes detect you as pinned down and offer a free flash bang, or sometimes they'll damage their target with a precise and free frag grenade throw. In other words they're really useful for speeding up the combat, but that's not to say enduring the combat is bad either... its solid fun. The main problem I have is that the cover system likes breaking itself. Sometimes you can't duck into cover, other times you can't vault over something even if you were just able to a moment ago. So you'll find yourself at moments where you soak up fire trying to get to or over a spot that doesn't register even when it should. There is also an occasion where that cover wont matter and you'll be taking damage when you should be well covered, but its not consistent enough to think of it as anything that randomly awful hit detection yet it also means its only a minor cheap death nuisance. What isn't is again that other broken cover trait which is what caused me to die as much as 3 times in a row earlier this morning. I remember hopping over a bar table and gunning down some enemies from that cover when they through a grenade at me. I tried jumping over the exact wall I just did only to wind up clubbing the air as the vault prompt wasn't working, then boom... dead. Thanks for wasting 5 minutes of my time with that.
Still I'm kind of done talking about the sour points there, because overall its a fun game and I've been enjoying my time enough to talk about it here for a good reason. Actually I also plan on doing a follow-up article for the narrative assuming it goes well (or incredibly bad... either way I'll have something to talk about). For now though the game's narrative is surprisingly smarter than I would have believed listening to the summary from others. Its less like Far Cry 3 and Last of Us's awful attempts at compassion and more like what Killzone and bulletstorm had issues with installing into the game's plot. Its about putting context into the shooting, not about just making you feel bad for pulling the trigger in a game that forces you to do that anyways. Thankfully Spec ops mostly understands that you can't tell a player they're evil puppy burning heartless souls for doing something that is forced to proceed.... at least it MOSTLY gets that. Instead its giving you signals that everyone has something they're fighting for, and ultimately you can't be a power fantasy hero. People will be cruel, trigger happy, misunderstand you, and play with your head, and in order to stop that you must kill them and fight their motives to get to your own conclusion. Its a game that is smarter than to throw you at a bunch of "bad guys" and then roll the credits when you stop some random nuke threat. Instead you have what appears to be a state of anarchy between a rouge US solider groups, some likely dead soldiers that refused to turn, and some agents that have given angry locals weapons to fight the rogue soldiers. You're never told their clear motives, and you never get to feel safe between either team. Your best bet is to stay alive and to help out any civilians left.
This isn't actually as interesting as some people will make it sound. Killzone has context and sympathy to the side you're hurting hidden within undertones and an ignored timeline of fictional history contextualizing the Helghast's stolen territory and industry. Meanwhile BulletStorm turns from savaging killing tribal neanderthals and mutants to killing elite military forces. During the later half of killing military forces, you get lectured by the enemy you're forced to work with. Your character was fighting him for giving out orders to kill innocents, but later on your pushed to think about the soldiers that may have been just like you and had family, morals, and a life to all care for while you're just ending them left and right. Oh but according to the internet critics and core gamers those stories are garbage and don't count because they aren't hammered into your head every second and the gameplay is better than average. So spec ops is refreshing (unless we count gameplay, who wants that?), mature, and a hidden gem for being executed just a bit better. Yeah you can tell I'm a bit sour over this. For people who make such a big deal on adding mature perspective in gaming, they sure seem to have a narrow view of it when it comes to analyzing games. I bet if they took out the dark toned loading screens and civilian casualties they would have missed the morals entirely and dismissed it like they did others. But anyways yes Spec ops does do a good job with these morals, and its a far stronger focus point than the other games I've mentioned. Where as Killzone makes it a little too subtle, and BulletStorm does it a little too late, Spec ops has its main attention on it and it works. I guess it also helps hammer the message home because its not as cheesy, but that's more of a taste thing and I have to say I guess that's why I prefer the other games a bit more in terms of the whole package.
The only main problem I have with it is that it still occasionally pushes you into those awkward moments where you couldn't really do anything, and thus the guilt or conflict itself is tied to the oversimplified game control and a lack of player input that is needed to successfully work its message. The best example is a spot where you meet the first living American soldier. You rescue him from a guy that seemed at first glance to be a typical villain, yet things don't go quite as planned. He's very uneasy, and terrified that he doesn't immediately recognize you. Both you and him are demanding weapons are put away. You... can't do anything. There is no way to "lower" the weapons for a truly different interaction or to attempt to establish trust in the first possible friendly face you see. I really did feel safe enough to put the gun down and watch a conversation unfold. Instead my virtual interaction wasn't there and I was scripted to demand the other soldier just puts his gun down, and suddenly the main character is a bit broken from caring about soldiers to being surprisingly cynical on the guy he just rescued. You have to keep your gun raised and it feels like you are forced to be an uncooperative guy with a life threatening weapon on a target that hasn't done anything wrong to you. Then the solider finally says "I can show you the rest of my squad you came to rescue, wait here.". Then he goes away and you're forced to disobey him and trail him. If you sit there and wait like you're told, the only thing happens is that you get your squad mates mad for not moving along the generic objective marker faster. That sense of realistic context, and any attempt at choice to properly justify a question of your morals is thrown out the window at this scene as well as the characters as you know them, because again your guy seems like the type who would have been glad rather than cynical and bullying towards another soldier. If a game wants to make the player question their morals as this does to some extent, its best to actually let them freakin' choose so they have actually feel weight tied to their decisions. You can't guilt trip someone for something they would never have done in their own free will. Imagine if you got to the flag in Mario bros, and then you got lectured for being a mean guy who vandalized property for changing the flag. It doesn't make sense, and it turns the potential for good moral investigation into a pretentious "art form" that is predetermined to mock the player for morals they never owned up to on their own.
With that being said though I've got to restate what I did before... for the most part this game is more about context than player morals so far. I like that. Context and motives to enemy actions is awesome, and makes them more interesting and develops a better investing plot that has real drama rather than an artificial A to B story. That part truly is where a game can say its more "mature" than the usual. However the problem is when it tries to force a scripted context on the player's morals and then lectures them on it. Unless the game is mocking or about the lack of control within game design (probably the closest example would be MGS2) this just wont work. You can't feel like a monster by doing the only thing possible to avoid a game over screen. That's also why similar things such as Tomb Raider's "survival" hype fell to shreds. It forced you down the road of a one man army. There was no survival to it more so than just returning fire like any other shooter. However a better example was what was wrong with FC3's narrative and the later half of Last of Us, it gifts you ammo, forces you to use it, and then tells you you're a monster for doing the only thing possible. It doesn't work like that! Again, when the game sticks to telling you background details about the commander of the rogue army, the radio man, the agents, the revolutionaries, or the city in general... its awesome, and a truly gripping and wonderful narrative experience that I aim to finish today, tomorrow, or the next day. When it breaks that in a couple of moments to guilt trip you for dodging the game over screen, its a shit move done by lazy moral pushing hipsters attempting too hard to be edgy. Its a part of the self-critical trend that needs to die already, and I'm tired of the internet saying this is the "mature" way to go. Its the opposite, its just childish. Even Infamous is more sophisticated than that, and that is the game that put the silly moral meter into the mainstream. I think a part of the Spec Ops creators know this as well... there are moments where the game tries to flash a quote that contradicts the scripted nature of this moral pushing. "There's always a choice" your squad mate says as you're ironically forced to use white phosphorus bombs. Sure there's a choice, in real life and RPGs that are ahead of you. You know if this game actually does turn around and blow me away with some 4th wall breaking thing about lack of choice I can sort of apologize for bad mouthing its few sour parts like this.
I wish I could say more, but I feel like I might already end up repeating myself in the follow up article. Its not really a review either, just chatting about what I'm playing... and I've noted its narrative, and I've noted its play it safe gameplay. I've ranted about its wrongs, and I've complimented its rights as compared to similar games. Its a good game overall and I'd say it was more than worth the money put down. I hope the game's ending doesn't let me down, and I'll probably put up another article talking about it when I get around to it. Then... I'll probably resume Okami or something.
As I've been saying, I've been really hyped for this game. I also recall mentioning I may do some articles relating to my excitement to help kill wait time. There was already sort of one on FPS, so here's another one covering the most basics, and there might be a 3rd closer to the release. Here's the top 5 things I'm potentially looking forward to within the game....
5) PlayStation 4 Fuel
More power!
This is a bit of a stupid reason, but then again that's why its not that deep on the list. However its not quite as lame as it sounds. If I were just looking for more games to put on a system, I would have Infamous by now. However Wolfenstien is the sort of shooter that I hope I really love, and brings back an odd sense of nostalgia mixed with a new sense of excitement and energy. Energy I'd like to really aim to get all the trophies to, a game to capture and record the best moments and upload them to Youtube, and another shooter to test the might of the Dual Shock 4 with as well. I can't help but feel some excitement just to play a new but familiar and refreshing corridor shooter on a new console. With the new Sharefactory stuff it'll also be a little more fun to mess with recordings.
4) The Nazi regime and the cheesy story
Legit?
It sounds weird to hear people just enjoy the sake of killing nazis, as that seems like such a minor thing to put down $60 for. However if you look at it beyond such simple terms there's actually a certain depth to it that started personally exciting me. The parody soundtrack helped bring this to light... its just cool to see a game so covered in a foreign theme. Everything about the game has a german or pseudo german nature to it mixed with cheesy action and mad science. There's just something enjoyable about a really foreign culture theme in a game, and blending German into a familiar FPS formula I love is something I can be excited about. Plus to be honest while Nazi crimes make for some scary tales and haunt some folk's memories, I think the influence of it on mad science makes for some interesting potential. Speaking of which, its not just the nazis on their own but the story they can inspire around it given the setting. The story is full of humor, horror, and a grim dark retro sci-fi style. There's nothing about that which sounds underwhelming, and I'm actually excited to see what they do for the narrative (while hoping it doesn't cut into the game too much with awful scripting). I have good hope that the game will deliver in an entertaining setting and story bits. With that being said I'm also a little worried, as its clearly not aiming to be the Last of Us or anything of that magnitude in narrative, yet it has that sort of market attitude. I get the feeling critics will rip on it for being above the average but for falling short of something incredible. But who cares what they say, I'm excited and I can hope that it delivers my expectations rather than some critic's.
3) The secret mode and similar hidden enjoyment
Secret documents are a secret....
A corridor shooter has collectibles.... surprise? Ok the real surprise is that they actually unlock more than a stupid trophy. It actually unlocks a freakin' mode. Its unannounced what this will actually be, but it might be pretty awesome or really lame. Either way I'm kind of excited to not only get into that, but the surrounding secrets of the game. Just finding those idle conversations, silly portraits, potential parodies and goofy one liners, etc. Also I have a small feeling that the collectibles may be audio logs, or documents that can actually be read which are always fun.
2) The small things
Have fun looking this one up....
Maybe this is just repeating what I just said, but at the same time I don't really care. I've heard that the game will have an FOV slider for consoles, the difficulty scales from QTE events and health regeneration to low defense static health numbers with far more lethal surroundings. Care like that, as well as a talking over the top protagonist, are often done by hardcore developers that put love and care into details they wont actually be hyping up or seen in reviews, leaving the player all more surprised and pleased by their personal gaming experience. I really look forward to seeing all the little details, the extra features, the fine tuned gunplay, and how it all effects or immerses me into the great world. I also hope it has great ragdoll physics, but oh well... we'll have to wait and see. :)
1) A return to strong roots
Military shooters couldn't take down these brutes!
I think this is the most obvious and well deserved reason to be hyped for this game... its old school corridor shooter fun amped up to the next gen level. Better story, stealth options, RPG perk trees, and branching paths all collide with the very roots of the genre that add the depth we've been losing with most shooters. You'll be challenged to look for health replenishing and boosting resources (which includes dog food :p), armor, and ammo for your complete arsenal held within a weapon wheel. Its even got secrets, probably not in a way totally like a 90's shooter but still there as something worthy of your time. Instead of the 90's approach, it looks more like a half-life or halo era theme with its level design and style... which will turn off some people, but honestly its something I prefer personally. Its still old school in core mechanics, and I prefer its mentality to level design when its in the right hands. Either way though I'm glad its just not more of the same that we've been getting for the past 6 years or so. It'll be another breathe of fresh air with a spin on a better older formula, much like Resistance 3 was. I really hope it pays off.
Well that's all for now. I'll probably write another article to kill time before the game releases, but for now that should be do.
Honestly I'm not too comfortable with picking favorite characters in gaming. Its just not something I'm good at or take to heart. Gaming has some great potential like any other to set up amazing characters, and in a couple ways it even stands potential to make you care more so than other mediums. Some of these games, especially now more than ever, are letting you make big defining choices for these characters. Games like Last of Us and Walking Dead especially come to mind here taking emotional appeal to a high level with player interaction and story telling done in a way rarely seen. Even some simpler things, like just being able to call and chat a buddy into action like in Saints Row 3 or getting data from someone in MGS help push you closer to the character in a way movies and books can't do. Yet... I never walk away with much care. Very few characters in the history of gaming have my attention for a long time, and overall I seem to look at them in a short term way. I sort of see them as part of the "experience" side, which sort of turns off when I hit the switch. Meanwhile I take strong note of the gameplay, the options, and the culture surrounding the game, but the characters..... meh.
However this list is still something really fun to try and make. So at the risk of making dumb decisions I'll later regret (like another ancient favorite character list of mine floating around on the net), I'm going to try and name my top 10 list. Of course I don't expect others to agree. As I've sort of said before, I'm not a major fan of admiring really cinematic games and even in character and plot points that often remains. So try not to set the usual expectations.... oh, but first some honorable mentions. Because again, I feel like better characters exist but for some reason or another I didn't find a spot for them in my top 10 spot.
Honorable Mentions:
Bowser (Mario.... duh!)
Bowser is a classic example of a cool basic villain. I thought about adding him for that in its own right, as its honestly respectable to have such a solid basic villain stay memorable and enjoyable across several years. Sometimes less is more, and Bowser is a good case of that. He's an evil fire breating cartoon turtle monster thing that lives in lava filled castles, and pretty much invented that cliche of lava filled castles to begin with. That's pretty awesome. Still as this list went on, I found it difficult for myself to seriously leave this guy in. At the end, I found a better cheesy classic villain to throw deep into the list and wanted to make some more room for better general roles. Plus I just can't say he stands out that special to me personally. He looks cool, has nice sound effect, but his fights and the general mario franchise don't resonate with me quite as much as they should for this villain to be on my real list. Much like his post-game status, I'm going to have to say better luck next time Bowser.
Ezio Auditore and La Voulpe (Assassins Creed Brotherhood)
I loved this main character from the AC2 trilogy. Hearing him speak, his attitude, and his ways all make him the classic romantic rouge style hero which is my favorite archetype of all. Maybe this is just me though, but I can't remember a damn thing he really did though... and that's what really makes me against having his character on here. He was an assassin, doing his job, but in between doing mission to mission stuff I can't really say I care about his motives. In the end, his character doesn't stick, its just a charm in itself. Maybe that's really good writing and stands to help the character because he was highly enjoyable to see on the screen, but at the end of the day I have trouble bringing him up in time for this list. I nearly cleared a space for him at the last second when I suddenly remembered why I had a hard time remembering him. Ezio proves my point clearly about characters being more of an experience role, when they go off the screen most of them go out the window as you just remember the fun things the game did as a video game. Meanwhile La Voulpe... he impressed me even further. The way he unintentionally and faded from visibility, to even the way he simply snuck around the place, and his back story, and his care for his people all made him a fascinating character that really showed off his nickname (Italian for "The Fox"). He really was somewhat of a personified fox drawn into character, making him an enjoyable trickster character that compliments the same game Ezio was in. However... his screen time.... seriously, its just a waste. I'm willing to bet his time was about 10 minutes, and he nearly didn't exist in the running game, so how can I really put him on this list? Maybe this is all my fault since I missed out on AC2, a key element for both characters, but either way I really can't find myself putting them on this list. Regardless, they were amazing and I am glad to say I've played a game with people like these in them.
Rico (Killzone)
Seriously he's not all that bad. I kind of take sympathy for him just because the entire internet just despises him so much for little explained reasons. Sure he's a trash talking trigger happy marine, but we see that quite a lot without hating it so much... heck sometimes we're practically playing the role of Rico in other games. Even without that though, I enjoyed rico before the internet because he had a massive gun and straight forward attitude. In future games I loved his cyncism against commanders, because honestly I don't trust them to make the right moves for the same reason that our politics and government keep screwing people over. Its a very relatable and interesting input to see compared to the usual lack of care or personality given to soldiers. Still at the end of the day Rico isn't all too great, and there's a much better side of Killzone's characters I'd rather give attention to.
Samus Aran (Metroid)
Samus used to be my favorite character of all time at one point. Honestly she had an amazing background, story, and was just an awesome sci-fi character all around living as a traveling bounty hunter in a dark and interesting space world, especially by Nintendo standards. However I have to admit as time went on, I began seeing her as increasingly dull, and honestly she's a bit outside of her game when it comes to some of the best of story. You can honestly enjoy this character more based on a wiki page, meanwhile in game she's some silent sprite in a suit that moves forwards and shoots.
Now the real list begins...
10) Sly Cooper
I didn't actually play Sly's games in the proper time, he just sat on shelves while I was gaming on the PS2. Fast forward to a month after he became one of the first HD ports, and I picked it up and enjoyed it. Well ok, that's a bit rushed. Truth is the games felt like a fun but flawed mix bag, with me mostly enjoying them more as they progressed. I didn't truly love the series up until Thieves in time, which was kind of odd considering some disappointing moments during its hype. Either way though, I enjoyed my time seeing the cast on screen. Just choosing sly is a bit unfair really, but I don't plan on gushing about the full cast and sly clearly is among the best of the bunch. He really feels like a proper cartoon character, taking on a romanticized thief role while staying true to that strict archetype while being surrounded by people with other loud contrasting archetypes. He just so happens to be both the main character with plenty of screen time, and possibly my favorite archetype. On top of that his character was just designed to perfectly suit a specific style. From his nice hook cane, to his tip-toe creep when approaching enemies, his intentions are among the most clear and well realized I've ever seen out of a platformer. His jokes are funny, his morals are interesting, and his friends complete him. On top of that he's hands down my favorite character in Playstation All-stars. In the end I actually feel kind of bad leaving him at number 10. He's a great character honestly, and I could see him going from 1-10 with ease to be honest, its more of the sort of mood I'm in. However he could also be kind of forgotten at the end of the day as I reminded myself of him in the middle of this article. There's just something about him that doesn't exactly make him as incredible as he should be, even though I can't think of a single flaw. Maybe its the fact that he just isn't surprising or impressive enough to me. Still he's worth getting on this list in some way, so here he is.
9) Spyro & Hunter
Ok so this duo isn't exactly the best character development ever. Regardless I really enjoyed their time on screen. The voices were great, the lines were good, and they had basic but effecient personalities that were fun to enjoy. Being a big part of my childhood, and enduring them throughout a lot of playthroughs, I would have to say that they clearly hold a place on this list. Especially for me personally. Also Hunter in his own right was great. He's just one of the more clever written and interesting slackers, but he could still get work done and provide you with some real help in the games. Speaking more on Spyro, he was kind of a small dragon with a dorky voice and hot headed yet chilled mentality, but that's kind of what worked for him. He was realistic to what the player could do with him and fit well within his world's style. Being two key characters delivered effectively from one of the better game franchises I've ever played, their names pop up in mind all the time when it comes to game characters. No question about it, they're going on this list... even if I have to hold them pretty far back compared to other characters.
8) King
Here we go, the Jaguar masked fighting champion! Ok to be fair this is partially similar to Samus, and I suppose for that reason he doesn't make it very far. Like most fighting games, the story is surprisingly there and interesting enough to grip some people and get folks arguing over cannon and whatnot. For the most part character story is not a real big deal in the game, yet the character still is. Either way I look at it, I loyally choose King as my favorite fighter from my favorite fighter series. Yoshimtsu, Paul, and the sillier chooses like alex the raptor are awesome to, but King is the sure way to go. His moves aren't anything super fantastic in style, but the execution and power put into them are perfect, and his appearance is pretty awesome as well. His mask is oddly a bit realistic at times, while still giving off the illusion that he's just a mask wearing wrestler, and while his default costume is just dull he has some of the best alternatives and suits out there. Ranging from priest robes and business suits, to tapout Tshirts and Sheik's clothes, he has some awesome things to compliment the awesome Jaguar mask. Also where recoloring is allowed, like in SFxT, there's always the ability to change his mask fur to a panther which looks just as awesome.
As for the story side, he is still interesting even if its not that major big of a deal. He's a guy brought up under the influence of the Catholic church, and ended up turning to wrestling for charity and good will as well as out of the respect for his mentor Armor King. As a result he takes on more of an honorable and protective light compared to the majority of any fighting cast, and his Tekken 2 ending was even giving an orphanage Christmas gifts. However he has his own dark parts to the story to... as you can imagine it gets convoluted and weird to follow like most fighter stories do after 8 or whatever entries. Apparently Armor King went missing, original king died while searching, and new king (raised by old king like old king was raised by the church and armored king) is the current king with the same goal and no real differences, and suddenly a "fake" armored king is playing tricks in the competitions so now he has to go and beat up the guy who's posing for a guy he's looking for. Yeah weird... but either way I'm strangely interested, and its to the point where King is often a thought that comes up in my mind for great gaming characters. I would even say he's naturally more cool and interesting than the hero of my favorite old series ever, and even though that's not saying quite as much as it seems its quite an achievement. However he doesn't go much further than that, so sorry King. You'll be #1 in the ring, but you'll have to settle for #8 on this list.
7) Ellie
Ellie from the Last of Us is a weird pick for me. I don't usually like the idea of gaming going cinematic, and while many games do it fine and still remain fun I often like more gamey alternatives to nearly everything. Including characters. However to be honest when gaming does something, it often has a way of just being better... and now its done so with its cinematic characters. Ellie kicks several typical and predictable character routes right in the teeth, and ends up taking on (and winning) one of the most irritating problems within our society thanks to a realistic attitude under dire circumstances. The whole gun scene on its own is worth mentioning in this article, but it goes further. Joel was a cool character for capturing the realistic and horribly overused adult mentality of underestimating people and being a "because I dictated it so" sort of parenting mentality. I've always held a sort of grudging tone towards that trait of thoughts, and don't ever plan to use it if I have kids. Meanwhile Ellie... takes on that argument, proves her point that she deserves more trust and respect as well as better reasoning from Joel's part. When he tries to escape still refusing to give anything but the "I say so" argument, she stays appropriately mad, irritated, and pokes around at the logic until he drops the mess. She ends up saving his life, and gets repaid with better trust and her first gun, and the relationship generally improves and is even felt in the gameplay.
It goes beyond that though. She also beats the survivor cliches around, and is just a far more complex character than most people would settle with. She's tough, spiteful, swears, and gets up close into fights if she has to, but at the same time she still shows appreciation and a common factor with the expected age group of her type. She isn't the tomboy archetype she's probably expected to be within the first hour or two, but she isn't exactly anything else either. She totally breaks free of all formulas whatsoever to create a very fluid, protective, reasoning, argumentative, and unpredictable human being all while still being a scripted game character within one long escort mission. That gun scene, as mentioned above, is more than just something that personally resonated with something I hate but it also is an example of just where her character goes. She reasons, she has arguments, she's clever, she doesn't do what is expected, and yet she still manages to be a calming and mild person at the right moments. Movies and television are still stuck making character too stupid to argue back without making it a comedy routine or some generic break up scream-fest, but the Last of Us shows everyone how its done through a video game character and a 12 hour adventure through the apocalypse. I guess Joel deserves some credit, because even though he has his moments of despicable bits they were realistic and interesting bits that paired well with Ellie's counter parts. He's gruff, talks about how he hung out with killers, and has this blind sense of grumpiness in his watchful views over Ellie, but that's supposed to be the case and you aren't supposed to like him all the time. However on his own he's quite generic. Meanwhile Ellie makes him change, fights to put more reasoning into him, and yet provides some interesting troubles of her own where Joel clearly improves her. The two work together in a way we hardly ever see in fiction, however Ellie is more of the one that kicks in the main plot and surprises.... even if you mostly play as Joel. So I'm putting Ellie on the list, even though I was originally leaving her out only thinking of a couple good things at first. It takes me a second to recall all the good in the story, writing, and adventure, but once I did it was clear she is worth a good spot. The main reason she isn't higher like most would do? Because to be honest, I'm still not a massive fan of the big time movie and heavy realism approach done. Even though her character outdoes it by far, she's still a part of this "serious" act and sometimes a really incredible use of an archetype can beat that... even if she feels very real, relate-able, and interesting, I don't play games to get that and so I can't really be but so dazzled. Yet she still manages to impress quite a bit either way, so I feel comfortable leaving her at a near mid-way point.
6) Captain Qwark
Speaking of archetypes, its becoming a very strong cliche to see a fake hero role. I suppose at one time it was a revolutionary satire, but now its become such a major character type its been all over the place. Dreamworks has like 3 different names using it! Still that doesn't mean they all come off tired, or worn. Sometimes you can still find the very best in a very stale batch. Captain Quake would be this spot. He's been a staple side character in the Ratchet and Clank series, and while he may have his missed joke moments and some childishly predictable bits, for the most part he's a good thing to see and puts a smile on my face. He has his own spin-off video games within the main video game, puts badly done crown drawing for his "master" plans, ran a silly and unreliable agent group, became president of a galaxy only to screw that up horribly, served the villains while being clueless multiple times, has been a death match arena host, and has one of the best nemisis characters I've ever seen. To put it more simply, his character archetype goes far and wide into some very strange situations each game, and manages to hit on a ton of satires and good joke opportunities along the way. Whether he's your friend, enemy, or fumbling man pretending to be your companion, he's always been there to bring a great sense of humor and casts a good amount of the light hearted nature the series has had over the years.
5) Imperial Chaplain
Ah, the Emperor's professional troll as we know and love from Dawn of War and Warhammer 40'000 fiction. Ok now I guess this is a bit off and feels wrong to put on the list for two reasons. One is that he's a broad unit rather than a real character, and the second problem being that he's existing outside of gaming and is in one for the same reason SpongeBob has his own games... licensing. However I'm willing to put this guy in for several reasons regardless. For starters, this character role was the first I really ever took notice and care in the Chaplain's role. Also Dawn of War was for many things, including the chaplian, the start of countless fans and voice acting expectations within the entire source of fiction. Without DoW we would not have the same outlook on the franchise as it stands, and that includes the Chaplain's tone and enthusiasm. Furthermore even if this guy is a supportive hero role with a title more than a character, his voice and status just sells you on the investment. Personally this is always one of my goals in any match I play as a space marine team... I work up to the tech tree to produce one of these guys, and put him in a well protected and checked squad. He's so awesome I've even found a way to get him on my ringtones on my cell phone... yes, seriously. If I can't put this character on my list, and show how much I appreciate this guy's effect on the game, then I would instantly lose enthusiasm to make this list at all. May you lead us into battle Chaplain, and your faith prevail against the xenos and heretics of the Warhammer 40K world.
4) Everything about the Helghast
Ok I warned you about this being a weird list that bends your expectations. As I was making this, I just have to put in the Helghasts. What about them though? Radec, the most iconic villain role on their part despite such little screen time? Well what about Stahl, his performance and disputes were unquestionably awesome! No wait, I was rooting for Orlock to prevail and liked him a bit more. Oh, but lets not forget Visari's charisma and acting that fueled the Helghast war to begin with and made me so excited to see the intros of the first 3 games. Heck even Hakha, a half breed who was a helping hand in Killzone one, was a somewhat forgotten favorite from the original. Yet its the Helghast iconography in itself that stays so strong amongst the fans and even the general internet, and is an undeniable icon that gets recognition in nerd culture even if its confused with the Anime it likely stole from. Not to mention the awesome undertones of how the Helghasts have been one of the first and most notable antagonists to sympathize with, and get the fans caring more about them than the heroes. In the end I'm choosing them all. Even the lesser guys that are hard to recall, like Lente and Kratec, have special moments that make them ok. Usually when they're done like that though, people complain about more screen time because they actually commanded a special sense in what little attention they got. So even in bad times, I can't help but say the Helghast side of Killzone is nothing short of noteworthy for this list. The developers were too lazy to fully realize their own potential and actually hurt themselves a bit when it came to designing the full story and detail behind the war of Killzone and the Helghast, and yet part of its essence still bleeds through and people who pay attention to detail want to know more.
Speaking personally, I just adore the way they've been done save for that complaint about potential being wasted. I love their voices, their fictional propaganda, their military suits, their combat in game (even their worst AI from the original or shadow fall is fun to fight), their commander voice overs, and their planet's fusion of grim dark shooters meets Steampunk aesthetics. Even their civilians look freakin' cool. Every big scene with them on screen is a moment to appreciate. If I'm bored and need a video to watch on youtube I watch back on some cut-scenes or tribute videos, I rewatch Killzone 2's ending to death, as it just entertains me that easily. In game I try to play with the AI long enough to hear lines, some of which will occasionally surprise me as new or in-frequent. Someone once ripped open the files on that game and said there were nearly 300 separate lines of in-game dialogue, some of which hardly ever are heard even for the most hardcore replaying fans like myself (I have to have over 45 hours worth in a 6 hour campaign by now). In the end of the day the Helghasts have gathered a group of fans for a darn good reason... they just ooze an essence of awesomeness that probably best demonstrates a well done faction in a gothic war setting. Ultimately they're one of the faces of gaming I best know, and I consider it a great achievement in FPS settings. No other shooter enemy I can name gets this kind of attention, devoted fanbase, discussion, all while staying very fluid and normal to the base game itself. They've provided the perfect mix of cartoon-ish villainy and yet a deeper and sympathetic sort of self-righteous war machine attitude that its just become such a joy to see the many characters and solider of the Helghast army in action. The Helghast have stormed this list and gotten a very well respected spot as the 3rd greatest bit chunk of cast in all of the games I've played. Now here, have a running 13 minutes of propaganda speech from stahl mixed with tribute footage. Why? Because its fucking awesome and one of the best representation of what this whole spot is talking about!
3) Dr.Nefarious (and Laurence)
Remember when I mentioned Cpt.Qwark has an amazing nemesis? Yeah him and his henchmen are worth their own spot on the list, far ahead the captain himself. Doctor Nefarious is easily among my favorite villains out there. He's hilarious, has an awesome voice, has entertaining though cheesy super villain plots, but mostly its the humor. He's just a geniusly constructed character that is pleasing to hear and laugh at. He has a ton of cut-scenes, a worthy plot, lots of good jokes, and several games to help flesh out his character, and even if he was just left in his original appearance that would still be enough to please me. I really loved this character, and for a long time he stood out as one of the only ones I would seriously remember for his writing rather than just something as basic and dumb as "well he looked cool" like most characters at the time came off. Whether he planned to turn the world into robots, completely destroy time, or just seek plain vengeance, he was a great villain to see on the screen. His sidekick/henchman laurence as well as some other occasional minions would add extra flare and humor onto his style, and often worked to make him angrier and sillier while adding to the ecentric Doctor's attitude. Oh yeah and then there's the running gag of his radio re-workings. He wasn't always a robot, but now that he is his gears have a side effect of picking up radio soap operas. Not a pleasant thing, but funny never the less.
2) Solaire
"Oh, hello there. I will stay behind, to gaze at the sun. The sun is a wondrous body. Like a magnificent father! If only I could be so grossly incandescent!"
This line touched me a bit, especially given the "father" comparison to the sun. It was a proper analogy to old pagan and shamanic connections with the sun representing a higher sense of godly and masculine presentation. The fact that Solaire wants that sort of status, and has such a friendly and happy attitude makes for a character that sort of has his head in the clouds. While trying to achieve his goal, and chase his dreams, he fights along other warriors and helps them to give them hope so that they may follow their dreams. Despite his cheery optimism and heroic lifestyle, he's surrounded in a very dark, wet, cold, yet full of many creative and interesting creatures, and generally its a very "feminine" theme world in terms of similar shamanic symbolism (though a bit extreme). That's what sort of makes him that much more of a "head in the clouds" sort of fellow, even to the point where he misses the awkwardness of his lines that leads to humorous memes and images like the one above. Even though he strives to feel closer to god(s?), or even be godly, he's ultimately just an optimistic fellow fueled by hope and friendship. He sadly turns towards a pretty sad ending, possibly (probably) even death. While many think chasing the sun + Tragedy = Icarus I actually think of him under a different light (har, har, get it? Light.... sun.... bonfire?). In a weird sort of way that is extremely close to how the player may feel, and personally I know I can certainly feel a strong connection towards this character personally. In a very dark and grim world where most are so insane that they've lost most conscious decision and just hack away at you, Solaire is hopeful and dreams of things beyond actual existence (uh... spoiler: Sun is an illusion in Dark Souls). Much like how the player may feel a little foreign and out of place in the dark world, with only hope fueling them and a need to co-op with others for the best results in tough areas. I run wild with my own personal imagination, and usually would love the ideas of flight, air ships, and similar such things. Yet personally I can't ever match up what I want in my head to anything
exactly in the world, or by my own physical creation, so its kind of a blind dream to keep on chasing while I live in a contrasting reality. The average gamer that likely enjoys something such as Dark Souls probably also enjoys immersive worlds that serve escapism. Either way though we all live on the earth and make the best of it. We all live in a world with great success and tragedy, and imagination and culture exist more as dreams and artificial creations to enjoy while on the journey of life in a truly real world that is separate of our direct dreams. Still like the game itself, the world has its opportunities, risks that hold rewards, and an element of surprise and wonder that doesn't leave you for a long time. Also like Dark Souls there is that person or people like Solaire that knows hope of some kind to help share it and lift your spirits... even if his core hope comes from something that may not be achievable and physically real. In the end we must embrace the real world, and Solaire shows us both what happens when we do and succeed.... and yet when we don't, and how it makes us lose ourselves and our grasp on things. In this way he's a very realistic and fascinating character that builds an interesting relationship with the player that I haven't really seen in games.
...yet at the same time, its funny I say that because the opposite is actually kind of my only complaint and why he doesn't quite make the very top of this list. He still manages to be somehow predictable and very basic as a game NPC. Even if he's programmed and written perfectly for his world, lore, and the game's theme, he's also going to repeat the same line over and over again, stay stiff in place as he stares awkwardly or out of sync, and he has a very anti-climatic sort of role as a generic summon. There is no true immersion or interaction with him other than the possibility that you go all hostile on him in an act of cruelty. Apart from that he's just some stiff guy with the same lines, scripts, and very basic instructions. Furthermore, the game has no cut-scenes or real answers for him, and possibly the greatest tragedy of his set up and place in the game is that his "good ending" is not a real ending at all and he leaves no closure because of the game's cryptic and low production style NPC system. Still this guy is one of the ideal "best gaming characters" and one of the first to come to mind. He's one of the few I actually find myself glad to say I can relate to, and he does so in a way that is interesting and unique to his character as well as myself (considering its partially interpreted by me, so duh). His lines, although limited, are emotionally loaded to a person like myself and
deliver a serious impact that had me thinking of him long after I met up with him and turned off the game. There's never been any single character so thought provoking, so relate-able, so interesting, and so unintentionally humorous all at once. I've enjoyed him so much that in the sequel I've honored him by joining up with the remnants of his clan, and I haven't left for my entire run even though it is 100% counter-productive to my melee only build. I wont forget Solaire soon, and he's one of my top favorite gaming characters out of one of the best games ever made.
1) Team Fortress 2's cast
Its hard to compete with a cast that is so good the internet has practically used their attitude and personalities to make a fan driven cartoon series across youtube and mods. I'm not sure if TF2's character set is truly the best, but they're so clever, so stylish, so interesting, and have opened up so much potential and community driven fun that I don't think they'll ever stop being enjoyable and fun to see. They all play up some silly and 2 dimensional character personality, but in a way and world that fuses together with game logic, video software, and community to make a truly unique experience and infinitely fun. Now it may seem like a problem that they don't actually hold up much on their own, nor have a traditional sense of character development, but that's also kind of the point and part of the reason they're done so well... they don't have to have that.
They work so well within the game itself, and feel so fluid and attached that they don't need their own wiki page, they don't need a background, and they don't need your sympathy or morals to enjoy them. They just need you to understand the game, and once you do its a major canvas for them to portray their style and deliver some good comedy or drama. I can't really find much more to say, but I don't think I need to. Watch their original footage, go play the game, and then spend an hour or more watching some great fan videos whether done in Gmod or source movie maker.
Well that wraps up my list. As I said this is probably not a very well done traditional idea of "top 10 characters" but I still think I got the closest I could to naming it from my perspective. I hope you enjoyed reading the list as it actually took a while to complete but was fun to work on.
I have quite a decent list of articles to write, but I've been holding them off during a busy week. Though I wouldn't have time for an easter idea never the less time to write it.... but now, I might have one and write it on time. Its actually something I've been wanting to talk about lately, and it appropriately ties in well with the idea of being reborn... more specifically its games I want sequels or more appearances from. Everyone has their own personal wishlist, well here is mine. Its in no particular order either, as I couldn't really feel motivated to put them all over each other.
Warhammer 40'000: Space Marines
In addition to just being awesome and one of my favorite games out of last generation, Space Marines is just a really good concept and use of the 40k license. Its finally a game where you're truly controlling and feel the immersion of a space marine up against a large conflict. You wield the chainsword and hack and slash with combos, can swap into shooter action with a bolter, metacannon, plasma pistol, and more. Finally while its clearly a 3rd person shooter it replaces cover system and regenerating health for a style that forces you to really get into the action and tear up the battlefield. The game doesn't instantly come off as gold, but you end up coming back to it again and again until the value and joy all sinks in. It was a unique and fun experience, and of course the setting and all that comes with it certainly helps to make the experience incredibly enjoyable.
It needs a sequel for a couple reasons. For starters, it held an interesting cliff hanger for the main character's fate where his allegiance was questioned and he might be corrupted with chaos deep inside. Playing as a chaos space marines with powers might be interesting... however even if that's not the case, as the main character seemed just fine, it would be great to see this plot continued. Maybe he ends up fighting some other space marines and goes "rogue". On the gameplay side, there is some refining to do. You could be hurt during animation locks causing for some cheap moments or useless health grabbing. Some felt the enemies and lack of deeper combos made the game feel repetitive, and even if it wasn't always repetitive to play it could be said that the level design was damn near one of the stalest I think we've seen in last generation. They didn't even try to dress up the fact that it was hallway after hallway mentality, with invisible walls, super straight paths, and of course the setting was as dull and brown as possible to the point where it could have been better suited in a satire game. It didn't help either that the graphics themselves were barebones, with flat textures, generic resolution, and no noticeable effects of any kind at all. It was just dull looking all around. I think the PC version had some armor sheen, but that's about as much that can be said for it. A sequel would give us a new location, new refinements, new visuals, new weapons and enemies, and potentially more than what we'd just be typically used to expecting. Oh and the competitive multiplayer was barely tolerable, they need a makeover for many reasons in that department. This is just one of those games that just begs for a sequel on every level. It was so good, a great title to remember (and maybe one of the few I'd say was catering to the hardcore market), however its just something that needs to be continued and improved.
Dark Messiah
Kind of like what was said about space marines, except more extreme. This game has a cult following that loves it for its ideas and some enjoyable laugh and fun times, but at the same time we all know very well that it has some serious issues and looks more dated and difficult to work with as time goes on. When I was little I adored this game's ideas, and it was the first step towards serious melee combat. Kicking enemies, impaling them on spikes, playing with physics objects, hacking and slashing in immersive first person with multiple bladed or blunt weapon types, and playing within an interesting and fun fantasy world. Again though, it had some serious problems, and as I've mentioned in the past the combat could have done more than one click and critical wind ups. The gameplay needed heavy refinement, and honestly I might even prefer a remake and re-release over any idea of a sequel. However a sequel wouldn't hurt.
Turok
I've mentioned my love of this game with the topic on games I love but few others do. The classics series is more recognized and regarded as incredible, especially by "console standards" of that time, but either way the series feels kind of like it just went out quietly. Evolution came out to a mixed reception and so did its weirder reboot. Personally I want turok to come back in sort of a mix between Classic, evolution, and of course modern sheen of higher graphics and whatnot. The reboot was something too different, and I'm not the biggest fan of the pure classics style. However even with all picky-ness set aside, just the basic concept could be better executed and deserves a place again. Crazy weapons, monsters and dinosuars, and a setting within a collapsed time of cool stuff. All done in FPS style fashion, hopefully with old school mechanics. I really do just want to see the series again, heck an HD boosted trilogy of the original 3 would be great to. The name alone could bring a smile back to my face as well as a couple others that still fondly remember and idolize the title as a great early step in the FPS industry.
Gex
Ah yes, gex. Yet another forgotten lizard associated icon of the 90's gaming industry. I'm not quite sure why he was forgotten, whether it was because people were genuinely annoyed with his style of comedy, or just because the company themselves stayed away from it to keep pumping out tomb raider. I suppose his satire and television style wasn't quite as strong as Mario, Banjoe, Spyro, Crash, or Donkey Kong's original colorful worlds by comparison, but never the less this was a solid and notable platforming icon that holds strong value and nostalgia to a small following. For those that may not know of this series, it was basically a gecko full of one liners and puns spoofing various people and television shows. It was a bit more crude, and "mature" than the usual platformers, but still quite fun and colorful in the end. The original was a 2D game that was at home in an age before saves were a thing, while the others proceeded into more of a Mario 64 style game going from level to level collecting various TV remotes as the key item to progress. Each level had a sort of theme, and often some light gimmick that mixed things up while keeping the usual ground rules at play. I suppose the camera and draw distance could be criticized, but in the end they were solid and fun games. After the 3rd entry on the PS1 and N64 the series just sort of died, and it rarely gets brought back up into the mainstream light.
I think it needs a sequel for two good reasons. 1) Nothing like this seems to exist anymore. Seriously, apart
from Sly copper 4 there hasn't been a great 3D platformer out there... and no, the Wii U mario game doesn't count as its done in more of a way to the 2D's sense of style. I'm talking real 90's style 3D platformer fun here. At best there are a couple of indie games to remedy the strange lack of what was once a powerful and loved trend. The second reason is because I think Gex had enough of its own DNA to be worth seeing something new from again. While Nintendo has become quite predictable, Gex and video game comedy would be a more welcomed approach to the market now if its done right. At the very least, please just re-release them for those missing out on such an underappreciated hit. I'm hoping the recent and awesome $0.99 sale on PSN with Gex 2 being up for grabs will help a bit.
Timesplitters
By the time you've gotten this far in the list, 5 other people have complained about the absence of this series for a whole generation. Timesplitters is considered the successor to the famous 007 Goldeneye shooter for the Nintendo 64, and in case you didn't know that was basically the Halo and Counter-Strike of the PS1/N64 era as far as consoles go. Timesplitters updated that style and some of its aesthetics towards PS2, had better bot based multiplayer, better customization, and was just a generally pleasant successor with its own face and IP. Basically its level of customization, its fast paced blissful style, and its packed content level made it one of the best shooters of the PS2 days. Future Perfect was also an entry that left off on sort of a high note with a great campaign that had lots of laughs and some good moments. Oh and did I mention there was a level editor to build your own scripted campaign-like levels and multiplayer arena maps? Yeah that's great. :) If you can't figure out why I want a sequel, especially in today's lackluster FPS conditions, you need to do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this game. The good news is that an indie scene with approval from Crytek are making a fan version of a re-release, and its supposedly coming to PC and PS4/Xbox one. It might not be a Timesplitters 4, but its coming close.
Well that's all for now. I'm considering a return to this type of list some other time as there are other games worth mentioning, but this is a good start to naming them and a good way to go about an Easter blog post.
Gaming as it is can be amazing. However possibly more than any other form of medium, its interaction and technology melts together to from nearly unlimited potential. As another generation has been set into place, its good to wonder what might come out of it soon. Gaming doesn't need to change much, and heck it actually has some roots it needs to re-explore, however its fun to estimate or hope for some fun changes you feel have yet to be seen. Or sometimes its just about things that have yet to be properly implemented into the mainstream. Here are my personal hopes in an odd top 6 list...
6) Continue to explore online potential
Jolly cooperation time!
Dark Souls and Journey have some common grounds in breaking through to try and do something different in online play. I'm not a huge fan of forced online, so I want to be careful about what I wish for. Still its nice to see games that try new things, and push the barrier between online and solo experiences. It would be awesome if we could continue to share our adventures unconditionally by friendly anonymous gamers that are on that same quest for fun.
5) Weather. 'nuff said
Rain... Snow... Warm sunny days. These are common weather habbits most will experience and be more than familiar with. So why is it so rare that a game even tries to slap light aesthetics of basic weather on? It feels like magic if rain occurs on its own in a game. We have some strong tech now, can't we see more natural weather and even effects it may produce? I would be thrilled to have an open world game where snow can actually build up and needs some management. Of course I guess it would be great if that sort of thing was optional and didn't become a tedious chore. Maybe that sort of risk is more of the reason to its disappearance rather than tech? Still I want to see some efforts made in this area. Even something as simple as seeing tree leaves twitch to dynamic rain.
4) More Destruction!
Simply put, we've been wanting more destruction in our shooters. It doesn't have to be Red Faction or Bad company 2 amounts, though those are nice, but it would be just great if something like... Killzone went a little further. Killzone has the aesthetics down to where decals actually give the illusion of a dent, and many objects leave rubbled particle effects when shot, and certain edges or very specific objects (toilets, and couches) can actually be broken down. Amplify that up just a bit, and that's awesome. However it would be great to have more games like bad company 2 as well where they're built from the ground up to change over time, and to become a strategical difference within and fluid and living field of war you have to adapt to. Also, why am I just restricting this chatter to online talk? There should be a heck of a lot more to this destruction trait going on in campaign side of gaming. This is where the land really is built piece by piece and you don't have to account nearly as much for player vs player balance, so let the one and only guy available tear things up if they want to. I'm kind of surprised we've been going as long as we have with so little use in destructive terrain innovation.
3) Steel blade Renaissance
Despite being a person that gets a heavy does of combat fun in through First Person Shooters, there is a better way to hook me. Swords. Slashing. Maces pounding a skull inwards. Oh and kicking that guy off a cliff when he's already dead... just because I'm mean like that. :p I love sword fighting in games, when it is done right. However that boils down to Chivalry, Dragon's Dogma, and Dark Souls. Maybe Mount and Blade. 4 games with a dreamy combat system sound nice, but the real truth to it is this is kind of embarrasing. Fantasy medieval settings are one of the most oldest and cliched things to gaming, if not the most cliched thing ever to nerd culture. Yet so few games have made blade combat more complex than mashing a button. So few games have made it truly satisfying. Its been so bad its literally kept me out of RPGs for years, just because the combat on its own just sucked that badly. It was ran by numbers, not andrenaline, steel on steel, and heroic swashbucking adventures. Games like Dark Messiah occasionally come along and dress it up nicely enough that its fun, but few really pull out with an incredible experience that I know sword fighting could become. Even then, you still have the matter of the game itself to build upon. This is why I can barely put M&B here as the game just bored me, and then there's how poorly Dragon's Dogma handles it compared to Dark Souls (still good, but the two just don't compare.... DD is way too arcadey). So you have a major two step process to grab onto... make an amazing game, and make an amazing combat system, and tie the two up right so that the combat is a thrilling and deep part of the game without making it tedious. To be honest I would probably put this on the #1 spot of what I really and truly want, but I'm also ranking this by true innovation, and chivalry exists to do it really damn well already. It feels like there is that and some others that are slowly building an aim to introduce the world to deeper melee experiences, and I can hope that it might be coming into play already.
2) Lets get philosophical and spiritual...
Ok honestly this is heavily biased in what I like, but it could extend to just suggesting that games try to cover diverse themes. However I specifically want to see more religious and spiritual themed games. I want it a bit over the top as well, like any good theme. That can include the game portion of it as well, because if you know me you know I hate games taking themselves too seriously. Dante's Inferno and God of war are fine, Okami was another good example, and then there's Journey that traces around the shared spiritual aspect of reincarnation and just generally has some theme of finding something spiritual, even if its not specific to any religion. Out of those, only Journey was a "serious" game while the others could be quite silly and gamey at times... and that was still nice and they were fun themes to play within. Now some may bring up sensitivity, but Religious sensitivity shouldn't damage our will to make great art out of it. Do you think Dante really stopped his great story because it might be offensive? Did that stop great games like Okami and God of War? It certainly didn't stop bioshock from fooling with it either and becoming a big seller. If your religiously sensitive, you should stay away from it just as a strong pacifist would shooter genres. Anyways... outside of those games though it starts to become difficult to find a relevant use of religion in gaming. Assassins Creed vaguely brings it up in between throwing terms around, and comes off more as historic fiction that has to accept religion happens but nothing more. Bioshock infinite could be taken in as good use, and I appreciate what it does, but it feels like it later gets tossed out before it ever amounts to anything memorable aside from being a part of the old fashion American theme. Then "god" games are too arcadey to seriously count, as it does nothing to get you thinking on the content but rather is an excuse to feel a little "meta". I would love to see religious and spiritual content dug into a bit more within gaming. It makes incredible grounds for story telling, has plenty of tales at high scale and great power already set up, and it plays with the fabric of philosophy and inspires critical thinking. Oh and where the heck are the Ancient egyptian themed games!? I want to see a god of war style fight with Anubis!
Now outside of religion, I feel like this still applies in some way. It'd be great for games to explore new themes, and form around places that don't already get much attention in games. We've seen plenty of games that just don't care about their own themes and settings. Whether its COD or similar military shooters, Dota, generic RPG fantasy, or simple arcade games, they never really engage far into their own world or nature and never leave you thinking or impressed. I want to see new places, themes, and thought provoking bits explore, and contrary to popular belief you don't have to sacrifice the integrity of the gameplay or even cheesy "fun for the sake of fun" tones. Actually I would say some of the best and most cheesy games have a heavy theme to them. Yakuza is a somewhat arcadey brawler and free roaming game, yet its awesome in how it captures the city and life of Tokyo. Metro is russian themed, but full of fictional events and silly odd moments and dumb character writing. That's ok though, it still provides a freshing and unique experience. Meanwhile Hotline Miami supposedly explores the nature between killing and virtual killing without being so serious or hung up about it. Then Killzone explores a gothic war themed universe that revels in propaganda, war crimes, bioweapons, and conflicting interests without removing the competetive multiplayer or exciting gun blazing fun moments out of the system. Oh and lets not forget just how cheesy the cast sounds in that game as well. Unlike the push for artificial maturity, these games remain mentally engaging and philosophically different from most peers while keeping fun if not better cheesy game experiences than their peers also do. My hope is that more games end up like this and push for stronger use of themes without losing integrity as a video game. Besides having a theme might also set it up for that terribly awkward morality system that is trending in games now, and speaking of which....
1) Polished and intuitive morality
This is actually something I didn't care about so much until recently. Well... it bugged me, but I didn't have an idea on how much better it could be until recently... and I do mean really recently. Like Okami HD that I started this week recently. Morality in gaming is starting to pop up everywhere, but its nothing less than black and white or arcadey at best for most notable games. Infamous has the good and evil sides, Mass Effect has obvious color coded choices that influence the story, and possibly one of the better examples with Dishonored still breaks down the effects in binary differences based on whether or not you played like a pacifist. Look I love games being cheesy, and I don't mind good and evil stuff, but if your trying to drive home this morality idea seriously (I'm looking at you and your hypnotized fanbase Bioware) then this just wont cut it. Its not even fun, it feels robotic, drags the game on, and there's that artificially padded feeling that you haven't beaten it until you switch your chooses into another full gear. Either way though the current system is set up so that the player gets the idea that they'll be making choices A, B, or C and each time they hit one they end up pumping their meter some direction. You essentially corner the player into caring about that meter for consistency rather than the story. I think that sounds actually pretty damaging to the integrity and story of the game in question, and honestly I'm surprised entire series got off well on it. Still maybe those are just baby steps.... but its not exactly effective, and we've been able to do better so I'm hoping to see it. I want a game where the choices actually feel natural. No meter attached, no binary function, and heck maybe even ditch the idea of separate endings altogether. Instead make me choose things, and give me consequences based on them. Most of them probably short term. Give me rewards that suit the actions I've done. Certain RPGs have a radical form of this in place thankfully where they let you kill NPCs off. You get to steal their stuff, but lose a possible companion or even entire quests as a result. This is good, but it could be expanded on. Dishonored again is a nice mention for coming closer despite a binary end result. Killing people changed dialogue to suit it, and made people fear your mask rather than hunting the face under it. However being the closest to good and sparing your targets using some alternative also gave you rewards from admirers or people who gave you an alternative. If it wasn't so repetitive, and didn't bottleneck the end result, this would have been perfect! Imagine dropping loot by an NPC's door way, and later on hearing them tell an NPC friend about how they found a gift they were delighted in. Wouldn't that be so cool to hear and send a strange sense of fulfillment in you? Or how about robbing from someone, and instead of magically being busted you instead have that NPC leave town out of insecurity and you lose out on anything valuable they had to offer.
Where does Okami come into this? Well... possibly without even doing so intentionally, it kind of has a fluid and intuitive morality system, and one of the best at making it feel so good and showing me how valueable an effective system comes into play. You play the role of basically a super powerful goddess without the power, and as you progress on your adventure to collect power you get the ability to fix the natural order. However apart from a select few nobody even knows you exist, and your powers also go unnoticed when used wrong as it goes quite off hand. However whether they notice you or not as the wolf you're playing as, they notice the miracle and restoration of the world and start to regain a sense of faith and belief in miracles. This Praise powers certain character attributes like health and immediate ink storage. So doing nice side stuff basically powers you up, but you'll still get by even if you decide your not going to waste your time with praise. You get the bloom ability and get to go running around growing trees, fixing patches of land, buy food for animals, shutting down evil demon gates that choke the world, and all in addition to saving the general day within the main adventure. Many of the good things you can do are optional and don't truly effect the plot. Its mostly just to give Praise and a nicer aesthetic, like animals that cheer as you walk by, or just a more detailed and majestic cell shaded rural Japan. Its not a perfect example, as there's no real feeling of doing wrong to balance this out and the Praise bit might still be arguably arcadey, but heck this still beat Mass Effect's attempt at morality any day. It just felt so good, worked with the game's theme and story, and felt like you were actually making a difference in the world because you wanted to rather than being prodded into it. I want to see this done more, and to think so many try and stumble so hard with this "innovative" thinking while a simple and undersold PS2 game did it stealthily better is quite an embarrassment. I think morality is a mechanic that has entered gaming for good by now though, and its here to stay and improve. Again its probably ok to keep things silly and black and white in some cases (Infamous might be a fine example, they're quite happy with radically going one way or the other with a theme of hero or villainy clear at the goal), but I think we really need to see it improve to. Seriously guys, its awesome when its done right, so lets fix the formula for the better of gaming. Thanks to the reference of Okami, and just the potential I can see in having players feel so good (or evil) in how they influence a digital world beyond poor binary functions, I'd really like to see it happen more. I think it could be one of the better possible innovations yet to be truly found. So its my #1 thing. Ok well... I'd give it up for good sword play, but again we already have Chivalry for that.
Quality control, and store management have been issues among those that take daily notice of steam's store... which happens to be a lot of folks. Steam has currently very poor and loose feeling of control over their store, and while that's not but so bad in itself its the way its executed that is directly tied to Valve's fault more so than the garbage raising the complaints. Its nothing really new, and quite a few have called steam out on it before including popular internet critics/commentators Jim Sterling and Totalbiscuit. Heck they've both ended up practically making mini series out of the embarrassing nature of the store's situation. These include old obscure games, knock-offs, broken games, and even outright stolen material that just gets dumped by the load in the exact same spot you would usually expect to see triple A releases and ambitious new indie titles. I was originally going to join in and write an article about the situation, but as I was doing so it felt redundant and out of my place. I actually felt ill when originally writing it out, and just scrapped it as it wasn't my natural sort of thing. However it got more personal today. Some ancient but slightly popular point and click pre-school games got a proper port job and dumped all over the front page right in between new games.... including Secrets of Raetikon, a game I was looking forward to seeing in the spotlight so that its fascinating style could get some well deserved recognition.
Why this betrayal putt-putt!? WHY!?
Well now I have nostalgic ties to some of these games. I spent hours upon hours building mazes in freddie's maze game, and I remember bits of putt-putt. Regardless though that doesn't excuse them (and others, like Fate that re-released today) when they bump up the entire new releases list to the point where brand new and ambitious indie games get shoved all the way down to the 3rd row. Indie developers count on that sort of attention and spotlight. The sales of launch day are a big deal, and getting on that page used to mean something special. Now anything can get on it, and it looks kind of like a description of the old gaming crash. This especially bugs me since this was the day that Secrets of Raetikon released and was one of the games to see fall because a bunch of 15 year old children's educational games decided to cram their way back into the "new" releases. SoR was a refreshing title where you play within a mystical nature world as a bird, freely flying and interacting with the world around you. It was the first and still the only game I liked enough to go into early access with, and I was lucky to even find that thanks to how well hidden the thing was. It was worth it though, and quite a refreshing and nice game. There was good testing done for it, developers that cared to evolve the game in suiting ways and across a wide range of computers, and there was even a level designer built into its core so that you could re-design the game. Amazing concept, only it was going pretty obscure and unnoticed for a while. So I was really excited for when the world would wake up and see it new on steam. Obscurity is not really a problem when it gets that shiny position on the biggest PC gaming client out there, right? Well its all shot thanks how lazy steam has been with their management. I hope the indie team can still make it with some fundings, but it looks like they'll have to either count on TB or resort to a flashy sale to get noticed by those that don't dig through the newest 30 games. Again... slow clap to you valve. -_-
Now don't get me wrong, games of all kinds have a place on Steam. Old ones, new ones, obscure ones, ports, and of course whether or not they're good or bad is subjective. The only thing is, they need to work and be placed right. Steam does not check for these well. Steam will cram anything onto the store's new page, no filter, and almost never the appropriate release date either. Heck its so bad even the dump is being dumped over. Before the day was up even these children games were pushed away, because apparently the update wasn't finished kicking enough titles around. The answer to fixing this is so stupidly simple. 1) Make sure you know what the heck you're putting in your own damn store. 2) Put it in a matching category. Both of these could be fixed with either a toggle filter on new to steam vs new overall, or there needs to be a totally new tab. That's it, assuming the honest release date is included in the description to. Nothing else necessary. You've fixed a major problem. Do it already valve, and earn back the respect you're losing fast from the community. This crap needs to stop. Your damaging some wonderful games out there by this unmatched laziness.
