Boy That Looks Like Fun Edition
Kyle Orland of Games For Lunch likes to say, when presented with a cinematic or cut scene that depicts action, how much he would rather be playing such an exhilarating sequence as opposed to just observing it. It’s a valid point. Ostensibly we—the game players—are here to simulate action-packed sequences via inpt methods, somehow a game that has to show you something cool because it cannot allow you to perform it seems like it missed a key point somewhere. I think the rule of thumb is that you can get away with pulling players out of the driver’s seat for short periods if you need exposition because even games that specifically set out to include conversational elements into the mechanics often struggle with a decent implementation, but if there is something that needs doing, you’d better find a way for the players to get involved.
I’m obviously thinking about this because I’ve been playing Metal Gear Solid 4 this week and as such I have a lot of downtime to think about the nature of cut scenes and non-interactive sequences considering I’ve put about 10 hours into the title and I’d be surprised to find that a full half of that actually required me to have my hands on the controller. Oh, and giving me a couple of buttons to push to change the camera angle or to flash some indistinguishable memory jog from a previous game now and then doesn’t count, Kojima. Just saying. There are times when these mental exercises are all I have to sustain me as the game I’m supposed to be relaxing with wallows self-indulgently in its own cleverness and awkward drama. During the game’s many interminable loading screens it anachronistically directs the player to make sure to take a 15-minute break once every hour. I find this amusing as the game itself has made quite sure to enforce this policy strictly.
But back to cinematics. I’m beginning to really appreciate the storytelling devices employed by games like Dead Space and BioShock where the story takes place via essentially the same mechanism which is like a radio drama acted out over the top of the essential game action. Sure it necessitates solid voice acting but honestly it really shouldn’t be as hard to come by as it seems from a lot of the PS1 era games that gave voiceover work in games its bad rep. Meanwhile you can avoid a lot of unnecessary game resources spent on elaborate animation renders, the player doesn’t get bored. There are two wins in this situation and no losses.
Please don’t think I’m one of these gameplay purists who disdains cut scenes on their basic premise thinking story is the unwelcome nuts in my oatmeal cookie of a game. Quite the contrary. But like films that have to stop everything and grind to a halt for 15 minutes so they can spell out to the audience what’s happened and what’s about to transpire, the premise of narrative entertainment has been butchered in the execution, and there are few patrons sufficiently famished to buy those awkward cuts.
- Metal Gear Solid 4
Most games use their cinema scenes like a reward for completing part of the game. At least that’s how I look at them, since I tend to actually play games for their story. Metal Gear Solid has so many and such extensive sequences that I feel like the parts I get to play are actually my reward for making it through the cinematics awake.
It’s not that they’re particularly bad, they’re just in desperate need of an editor. Meanwhile the gameplay is fun but flawed and the truth is I can’t tell if MGS4 is a movie that has some game in it or a game that has some movie in it. I keep asking myself if it were one or the other, would I still want to play/watch it? The answer in both cases is probably no which almost suggests that it is better for being a hybrid of the two but in fact it isn’t better it’s just weird. I continue to play for lack of anything else to try to get into since my Xbox is broken, but if you’re wondering why this week’s Edition is fairly light it has a lot to do with the fact that given the choice between playing MGS4 and getting an extra hour of sleep, I’m having a hard time choosing which says something coming from the guy who lost sleep in order to play Haze of all things.
This week, however, I’ve been very well rested. - Jericho
This game is pretty laughable although I will say it kept me more or less entertained for a few hours on a Saturday morning. The problems are plentiful from the truly awful voice acting to the awkward combat and the laborous lead-in to the core game. It’s hard to really get too down on it though since it curiously seems to be fairly self-aware of its own preposterous nature. It doesn’t wink at the camera or anything but it presents itself with a sort of consistent shrug as if to say, “Hey man, you’re the one playing. If you’re having fun, we promise we won’t tell anyone.” - Last Night on Earth
My wife and I specifically didn’t celebrate Mother’s or Father’s Day this year since our little one is still pending, but we both found loopholes so we could get each other little thank yous for the efforts that have been involved during the fairly trying months of pregnancy. My little treat was Last Night on Earth which I had a chance to try out a couple of times with Thom.
On one hand it’s a well designed game with loads of replayability since the core of it is merely a vehicle for the vast array of sanctioned and custom scenarios. On the other, I’m not exactly sure what I expected but the simplicity of the core mechanics feels kind of lacking for some reason. I think I expected something dense like Arkham Horror. In truth Last Night on Earth is fairly elegant which I think is part of what throws me off: A game about a zombie infestation should almost feel awkward and unwieldy like trying to survive against endless hordes of the undead. Instead it becomes a thematic strategy game which I appreciate but find it difficult to locate any real passion for.
I have hopes for the expansion set which seems like it could add enough layers to satisfy the fiddly mechanics freak in me, but it draws the question of whether a game I’m happy with but not delighted by shoudl warrant additional investment on the hopes that it makes it better. - Pickomino
Nik and I played a few rounds of the dice roller since I really wanted to try LNoE again but she didn’t have a game of that length in her. We stepped far afield from the original plan going from a zombie simulation to a game about chickens looking for invertebrate food, but there you go. She ended up winning our best of three set: We each ran away with a game and in the end she took the final game by a single point. An interesting thing about that game which has no basis in probability or statistical fact at all: It seems like it’s one of those games where pushing your luck almost never pays off. I’m not sure what one would have to do besides making the risk much higher than the potential reward in those types of circumstances in order to design a game that valued conservative play, but whatever it is I think Pickomino’s designers did it. If I don’t take the first worm or set of worms I roll, my chances of crapping out seem to nearly double. Any time I roll less than three dice no matter how many options I have open to me, my odds of success are (very roughly, but based on historical data) less than 25%. It’s astounding.
The bad news is that I can’t rely on these statistics being true for other players so while I’m puttering along trying to play it safe, my opponents often take the wild gamble and have it suddenly pay off, launching them forever out of my reach. It’s confounding.