Category: Video Games

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Video Games

Going old-school

I had an epiphany about gaming yesterday. I was stuck at work, being paid a lot to do very little (the holiday period is good like that), and after we had exhausted showing off our meagre guitar talents (yes, that bored), somebody suggested a little Quake 3 action over the LAN.

After a little scrambling to figure out the best way to do this with three Linux boxen and two Windows machines, we stumbled upon OpenArena, which is a great cross-platform implementation of Q3. We were soon partying like it was 2000 again.

Anyway, the realisation I came to as I railed somebody from one of my favourite camping spots for the 10th time was that I hadn’t had as much FPS fun in ages. Sure, graphics and story and other things might have improved, but I seriously have had less fun combined with all three Halos, Gears of War and Doom 3 than I have across Quake 1, Quake 3, and Half-Life (and mods), Unreal (and its earlier sequels).

By no means am I near the top of the bunch. I mean, sure I can run rings around a newbie, but I was never dedicated enough to garner some of those advanced skills that come so natural to some players so as to appear somewhat godlike. But it’s still a lot more fun. The gameplay is free-flowing, over-the-top and a lot more funny than the depressing realism, grittiness, and grey palettes that seem to be infesting the genre at the moment.

I might be accused of indulging in a little nostalgia, but I don’t think so. I played for a good 3 hours before being forced to take a call, and would have kept going. It’s not that I’m an old fogey refusing to play the latest and greatest. I’ve tried a few, and they’re just not as fun.

What about you guys – do you stay on the bleeding edge, or prefer to hang on to the old classics?

I might go see if I can find my old Starcraft CD.

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Video Games

Play it again? You’ve got to be kidding me!

I finally got round to finishing my second play-through of Mass Effect. I got a couple of the achievements I had been chasing, but not all, and this has reminded me of why I’m not really a completionist.

Mass Effect, like many RPGs encourages the player to talk to every character, explore every planet and complete every sidequest. You only get rewarded (via Renegade/Paragon points) for taking part in quests, even when inaction would leave far more impact on the game world. On top of that, there are specific sidequests that require you to explore every last nook and cranny of the galaxy hunting down this widget or that ore seam. All of this I did on my first play-through.

The game, however, dangles the carrot of Xbox Achievements (and in some cases, enticing character improvements) for you to re-do a lot of these tedious paper chases in subsequent runs through the game. I can understand that; RPGs tend to be single-player games, and without the fun of multi-player deathmatch, replayability becomes a strong indicator for “getting your money’s worth”.

Unfortunately, the main thing holding me back from yet another go at Mass Effect is its lack of variability. Even if I didn’t remember where everything was (I don’t, but it’s not hard to figure out), all the planets, buildings and quests are so similar they blend into each other. There are no surprises, and the outcomes for your character choices don’t really impact the game in ways that force you to wonder how it might have gone if you’d done something different.

Why would I want to go through all of that so I can get a little badge that tells me:

  • I’ve played the majority of the game with each of the party members actively by my side
  • I’ve mastered each weapon, biotic, and tech ability
  • I’ve completed it on each difficulty level
  • I’ve taken my character to the maximum experience level

Sure, some of them come with a little bonus for building my next character, but that doesn’t eliminate any of the drudgery. Tech powers and biotics have the same activation mechanic, and very similar visuals. The three weapon classes are very similar. By the time you’re level 45, you’re nearly unstoppable, regardless of your character class, choice of companions, or established battle tactics.

At least in Fable 2, the landscape around you changes as you make choices. Whole towns develop along different lines and prosper or suffer under the consequences of your actions. This is more likely to impact your willingness to replay the game.

For me, the pinnacle of replayability in a proper RPG is still Planescape: Torment. Even though the bad old Infinity Engine doesn’t produce awesomely immersive 3D worlds, I still return to Torment for a different swing at things. You can take completely different approaches to the game, have wildly differing experiences, come out with amazingly different plotpaths, and still have as much fun as the next guy.

Maybe I’m not well-versed enough in video games, but I can’t think of a narrative-based game that allows for such a rich experience. Can you name any?

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Video Games

Auditorium

Auditorium is doing the rounds at the moment, and I figure I’d jump on the bandwagon. It’s being compared to a number of previously innovative Flash games, but I don’t think it matches any of them except in its luminescent visual aesthetic.

I love these kinds of games. They challenge us to rethink what we think a good game is. There’s an elegance to the bare-bones approach that Auditorium and flOw that force you to think solely about the gameplay. I won’t deny that I enjoy exploring an immersive gameworld, but there’s something even more addictive about being presented with a simple situation, a mechanic that allows you freedom to explore your own solution, and being left to your own devices.

Maybe that’s because I view a lot of games as puzzles first and interactions second. Whatever – I like ’em and think you should too. I’ll fork out for Auditorium either on XBL or iPod Touch.

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Video Games

Rockin’ the suburbs

On the weekend, I invited a bunch of people over for a Rock Band party. While the main aim of the event was to have fun and play the game as a group, I was also interested to see how it would all perform in a group of mixed skill levels, musical taste, and musical ability.

Overall, it was a pretty good success. Everybody had some form of experience with either musical performance or rhythm games or both (well, almost everybody). That meant we were all able to jump in straight away and play the songs we wanted to.

Continue reading “Rockin’ the suburbs”
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Reviews Video Games

A whole new Experience

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Microsoft released a major update to its dashboard system yesterday.

While some people are experiencing some hiccups, my experience last night with it was generally quite good. I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow because plenty of other sites have previewed it. I did have one issue: it refused to ask me to upgrade on my account, but the minute we switched over to Flip’s, it presented us with the familiar upgrade dialog.

Anyway, once we got through that, we spent at least an hour making our new avatars and taking photos of them. We’re having trouble getting Lego Indiana Jones to play properly, so we installed that to the hard drive, and it works a treat.

One thing I did notice that may give you a shock the first time you encounter it is that it won’t play movies that use the additional codec pack. A quick trip to the Marketplace to re-download the pack sorts the problem out though.

One thing that I find disappointing is that Microsoft hasn’t found a local partner to do video rentals, like they have with Netflix in the US. While I wouldn’t use it that often, I might consider it more seriously if it were available.

So what do you guys think of the New Xbox Experience? Any horror stories yet?