The Gaming Experience: Part 1

What is it that keeps gamers gaming? Why do we spend so much time and money on games when there are cheaper and simpler forms of popular entertainment? A good game is like a good book, it has to have a good story and has to keep you interested somehow. The key with games is they create a two way experience, an input and an output. A good game meshes this idea of input and output seamlessly to create a genuine and unique experience that keeps people coming back for the new and the interesting. As an example of this I will use the game Earthbound(SNES), because I believe this game represents what’s good about all games.

First of all Earthbounds style is extremely unique and quirky as is its story, but in this way it's able to be extremely immerse and memorable. When it was first released it was not well received as other games of its genera at that time were really pushing forward graphically and gameplay wise while Earthbound was relatively simple in both respects. However today it has a cult following because years later we can look back and not be so hung up on how cutting edge it was and realize what a wonderful experience the game is. An example of something Earthbound does to achieve such memorability is the in game coffee talks it gives you. In the game at a select few points the player is presented with a table and a coffee cup on it. If the player interacts with it they are presented with a “coffee talk” which is basically a cut scene with a trippy back round, soothing music and scrolling text. The text is basically the game acknowledging you have been playing it, praising you for your accomplishments and treating you as if you are actually the character you have been controlling. It’s a very grounding experience for the player and immerses you emotionally unlike most games today are able to even with their hyper-realistic HD graphics.

I believe this type of gaming experience is what keeps us playing over the years even though a new generation of gamers are being introduced to games that operate more like classical conditioning experiments rather then experiences. Multi-player FPS games and cookie cutter MMOs work by giving rewards at certain intervals that keep the player engaged in repetitive tasks so they can get a small reinforcement. I know how it feels to sit in a halo server for hours running around the same map, getting a rush every time I kill someone. The end result of this experience usually ends up being frustration when the rewards stop coming at the same frequency i.e. you start losing. Also, you start become alienated from those experiential games that you love so much, because you are addicted to the impulse games. So remember kids; Hugs not Halo.

And I'm Off

No posts over the weekend, I'll be heading to Rhode Island for Digital Overload. It's Ctrl+Alt+Del's big LAN party, unique in the way that, somehow, they think having access to the internet is mandatory. Wouldn't that upset the whole concept of a LAN party, you ask? Wouldn't that mean the only way to play with people in the room would be to join their laggy internet games, you ask? Yes.

And lol, yes, people still ragequit at LAN parties. Our assistant editor can attest to witnessing that last year

Nevertheless, I had fun last year as I had never been a part of a gathering of so many PC gamers in one room. Alas, I won't be having my computer this year, due to Ctrl+Alt+Del's fail website design that leaves the registration button up far past its days of functionality. I'll be sticking to a little hub of a friend's Xbox, which should be aiight

I suppose there should be some point to this update......So here's Jerry Jackson!

The Best Games You've Never Played: I Swear It's Not Fetish Porn Edition

The 1993 point and click adventure game, Day of the Tentacle, is a shining example of doing it right. You may recognize titles such as Sam & Max or The Curse of Monkey Island which were similar, more popular Lucas Arts adventures. While these franchises are getting modern a re-envisioning, DoTT is left alone, fading slowly into obscurity. However, I believe it is by far the best adventure game of its time. The game is about a group of 3 misfits that appear to be out of an 80’s teen movie, who are transported through time by way of portable bathroom time machines. They become stuck in 3 separate times, the past, present and future. The two goals of the game are to repair the time machines and to stop a purple tentacle from reducing humanity to mere house pets. This game does a lot of things better than other point and click adventure I have played and on top of that it’s a lot of fun.

Why It’s Great:

-Does not frustrate the player with “pixel hunting” to find important items or paths, something that plagues the genera.

-The time travel aspect is interesting, many puzzles involve changing things in the past to affect to future and help you characters progress.

-Item usage is for the most part logical, albeit wacky at times; at least it makes sense in the context. This is another problem with the genera, “How was I supposed to know to nail the banana to the string and lure out the baby moose from the rat hole?”

-Game is full of humor and interesting characters; they have more personality then most modern games.

-Voice acting also much better than most modern games.

-Meet real historical figures in their natural habitat!

-It’s also totally bitchin’.

News and Booze

Bioshock 2 review that I've been working on the past couple days is live. Click on Mr. Bubbelz for the goods.

Summary in short: There was no change where change was needed

It's time for a little honesty: I suck quite awful at most RTS's. I've come across maybe one or two in that vein of style that have really engaged me. World in Conflict comes to mind, as does, uhhh Demigod? The Diablo style games as well if you count those. Already, I'm straining to bring to mind what titles really hooked me in the genre. Maybe two out of hundreds.

This makes the impending release of Starcraft 2 all the more painful, knowing the parthenon of battle.net 2.0 will collectively steamroll me. It was a great game when I played ages upon ages ago, but it's going to be interesting coming back. I'm on a strict regiment of some WC3 single player for training, but it's going to take alot. I refuse to take that baby online until I find the basic ingredient that's missing from my ability to just sensibly coordinate any kind of attack. Open to attack/defense strategies. And beta keys, if you would be so kind.

Perhaps an RTS online journal to catalog the progress that will never be made? Hmm?

An Indie Moment

Trying to make money as an indie game developer is something of a challenge. Gamers aren't willing to shell out between $10 and $20 for an indie game because they could get a "real" game for a bit more. Also, independent games are very platform limited, and by that I mean they barely reach the console market. It's gotten much better recently with some indie WiiWare and XBLM titles, but most indie devs aren't going to have to resources to get their games ported and accepted on these various platforms. Finally, piracy is a big issue with ALL software, but it hits indies games much harder for a few reasons. They already have a very small market of people to sell to coupled with the fact that their games get almost no promotion. Literally every sale counts toward, at the very minimum, recouping production costs. Secondly, they use almost no DRM of any sort and due to how most gamers view them, they just start distributing them like freeware. You might even pirate one by accident, who's going to question some 8-bit platformer they download, if it doesn't have 3D graphics at least one post-processing effect and some dude with a gun its probably freeware, right?

VVVVVV is a delightful 8-bit indie platformer with one simple mechanic, you can only reverse gravity up or down, no jumping. Its quite challenging and unlike other similar platformers you get a checkpoint after almost every obstacle rather then doing a whole set and dieing at one part then having to do the rest over and over and over again just to get one more crack at the difficult spot. The whole thing takes place in a trippy alternate dimension where you must find the crew of your spaceship. There are also challenging trinkets to collect that unlock bonus content. This game kept me glued to my screen for hours on end. Its fun, challenging and a nice throwback in terms of graphics and music. So, try it out here and if you like it consider buying it. If you don't this developer might have to end up taking your order at the local fast food establishment.

How I use computer?

Well that took far too long to find out how to make a new post.

Ubisoft's new DRM scheme for upcoming games is the topic for tonight. Really, utter hilarious. What it boils down to, and I saw this as being where this DRM mess was heading all along, is it's like having a Ubisoft representative with you in the house at every moment you are playing one of their games. An uninterrupted internet connection is required, and if something goes wrong with it or a serverside fiasco, the game will boot you out and all your progress since last saved will be lost.

And a $60 price tag on Assassins Creed II. Whatta joke.

We can look at the obvious reasons why this won't work. One, it will be cracked. There will always be cracks, and since it's confirmed there will be an inaccessible by nature save file created on your PC, that inevitably will expedite the process.

Two, I really don't know who they think they're fooling, but really who can see a large PC audience going for this? If anyone was prepared to buy Assassins Creed, they invested alot of time and money into building or buying rig powerful enough to run it. Researching things almost becomes second nature; I can't describe it, but anyone who is the least bit skeptical can see why something like this wouldn't work. Trying to undo years of building the PC as the ultimate open platform won't win them any fans.

Someone at these companies is getting to be quite the slacker. There are many ways to make a successful game on any platform, but when you start ignoring the strenghts of each one, it doesn't look very good. Call it console wars, but any reasonable gamer on a budget has a sense of pride of their platform of choice. Stripping features of a port because of how the original is handled won't look good to that audience.

And face it, through all the "PC is dying" insanity, there are THOUSANDS of excellent titles to be had. Noone is going to settle for a mediocre product , and for what? Assassins Creed was good, and I hear the second is better, but I don't think this was exactly the best vehicle for this feature.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 on the other hand.......could be a problem.

The Best Games You’ve Never Played: Animals That Are Named After Instruments and Drive Cars Edition

As an avid fan of the Banjo Kazooie series I was, along with many others, disappointed that after years of teasing the new game was not going to be the classic adventure platformer. Instead we were presented with horrific images of our beloved duo driving around in cars that looked as if they were made of Legos. However being the wise gamer I am I waited patiently in my mountaintop castle not passing judgment until I had further information. The game came out and received decent reviews, but fan reactions seemed very polarized. Many people hated it; however some were praising it as an amazing game. Eventually I willed a copy into existence with my divine powers and I didn’t regret it for one second.

Why It’s Great:

-The missions are varied, interesting and sometimes wacky which keeps the game fresh from start to finish.

-The vehicle editor is not only easy to use but it’s flexible enough to allow you to create almost anything you can think of.

-You can spend a ton of time making and tweaking a creation to use for a specific mission or just use one of the premades just to get by, it’s all up to your own creativity.

-Tons of BK fan service throughout the game and it keeps the humor and charm of previous games in the series.

-Very bright, fun and surprisingly good graphics.

-Hero Klungo Saves The World Minigame!