When first picking up a controller, what is the first thing gamers look forward too? Epic multiplayer matches? Learning how to hack and slash the AI to shreds? Or do most players just achievement hunt? Personally, I put the game in and let it sit until the game tells me to press start. I make sure not to miss any cut scenes or anything the game may tell me before I get started. The story is what drags most players into a game, whether they realize it or not. However, the way story today is defined in games is being revolutionized. In the golden era of gaming, gamers were introduced to epic linear stories like those in Zelda, Final Fantasy, and recently Elder Scrolls. BioWare most notably is changing the face of storytelling in gaming with titles such as Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic . Dialogue chosen by the player shapes your interactions with companions and NPCs alike, which can alter your final outcome. The limits to storytelling come down to programming restrictions. However, allowing such freedom to a player can also turn someone away from the game altogether. Can choice set the story in motion and unfold to the gamers’ liking, or could it turn players away because of its limitations and predictability? (more…)
Posts Tagged ‘Games’
Choose Your Destiny
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Video Game Songs That Get Stuck in Your Head
Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010
10. “Rolling Starâ€â€”Katamari Forever
You may have never heard of this song if you’ve never played Katamari, but I highly recommend that you look it up because, despite the fact that it will probably get stuck in your head too, it will make you laugh. The lyrics are just ridiculous, and the tune itself is terribly catchy. I challenge you to look this one up on YouTube and take a listen.
9. “Green Hill Zoneâ€â€”Sonic the Hedgehog
This is the first of a few songs on this list that have been derived from older 8-bit or 16-bit games, and there is a reason for this: these songs have a very distinct sound because of their bleeps and bloops that make it very easy for the tunes to become ingrained in your head. This song is a classic for any Sonic fan, and the patterns within the music just make it so catchy that you’ll end up thinking about it hours after you’ve played a good, nostalgic round of Sonic. (more…)
What’s in a Game: Fighting Games
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
There are plenty of fighting games out there. Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, Mortal Kombat, Dead or Alive, BlazBlue, and Soulcalibur are all classics in the genre. But what’s in a fighting game? What aspects of this genre make it fit together? Let’s take a look.
First off, fighting games have, well, fighting in them. From Ryu’s Shotokan Karate techniques to Ivy’s transforming whip sword, fighting is one of the key elements to any game in the genre. In the past, most games that qualified as fighting games had limited fighting styles, usually having only one or two variations for the entire roster of characters. One example comes from the bloody brawler Mortal Kombat. Basically, there were plenty of characters, but all of them fought identically, apart from their special moves. It wasn’t much of a proper fighter, but the series gained fans due to its graphic content (i.e. ‘shock value’). It wasn’t until the advent of Street Fighter II that unique movesets and combinations for characters were implemented as a regular feature. In fact, the familiar combos we know and love today originally stemmed from a glitch in the programming! When a character attacked, certain combinations of moves just happened to be able to land on the enemy before they could block, thus racking up the damage. This is now the basis for many combos in the Street Fighter series, as well as many other fighter games. So, you can thank Capcom for creating combos for everyone! (more…)
Gaming Addiction
Thursday, November 18th, 2010
Video games have defined my generation. I don’t think I’ve met more than a handful of people who have not played anything resembling a video game nor been affected by the video game boom. Sure, there are opponents like Jack Thompson who fight video games, afraid of change. They accuse violent video games of changing the players into these ultra violent monsters. However, I haven’t met many people who could not distinguish games from reality. What is more likely to be a danger is the addictiveness of these worlds and games.
As a fan of games, I am loathe to give any ammunition to opponents of video games. But I know I’ve had a lot of trouble myself with getting distracted from doing the things I need to. Some of my closest friends have played games instead of doing things like dishes or homework. Gamers seem to enjoy games so much they will ignore real life to play.
First, video games give us a chance to experience a world or setting that we would otherwise not get to see. There are other mediums that provide this benefit; books and movies come to mind. But with video games you get immersed in the world and get to make your own choices. Game characters also get to do way more amazing things than are possible in real life. You can play as a soldier fighting against undead hordes; you can fly through space in a personalized space ship; you can lead massive armies to victory against aliens or just Catherine the Great. One of the hardest things for life to compete with is the constant entertainment and accomplishment games offer. Even in a simple game like Farmville, they have set up constant rewards that are given out as you play. (more…)
Voice Acting: The Bad and Ugly
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
There used to be a time when voice acting was only something in cartoons and movies. Video game characters didn’t have voices-they had text. It was up to the gamer to hear the character’s voice in their minds. Remember when Sonic didn’t talk? The Final Fantasy characters were silent. “Do a barrel roll!†wasn’t spoken, but instead followed with strange garbled noises. Giving voice to video game characters was inevitable though. Sonic talks now. The Final Fantasy characters seem more like movie actors. “Do a barrel roll!†is one of the most well-known video game catch phases (even if you’ve never played Star Fox).
Currently video game acting is becoming a stable, well established trade. Most video game developers take voices seriously. A game doesn’t seem complete without voices now. It’s important to have solid, first-rate acting to support a game. It doesn’t seem plausible to return to characters speaking with just text. Video game acting should be just as significant as graphics, story, and gameplay mechanics.
In order to appreciate and recognize the magnitude of good voice acting, it’s vital to look at the bad and the ugly of voice acting first. I don’t think there is a gamer out there that hasn’t cringed at their screen a few times when an actor fails. Bad voice acting can really shatter the magic of a game. When I started my research for horrendous video game voice acting though, I couldn’t believe just how powerful that shattering could be. While listening to Youtube clips I had to step away from the computer, both from fits of laughter and bouts of anger. (more…)
Minecraft and Fan Entitlement
Thursday, November 4th, 2010About two weeks ago, the popular indie game Minecraft had its servers shut down by a DDOS attack. DDOS attacks are when computers slaved by viruses are used to send junk data to a server to clog it up and prevent normal users from gaining access. These attacks are usually perpetrated by disgruntled fans. While the validity of the claims are unknown, this message was posted on 4chan soon after the attacks began.
Minecraft is currently experiencing a stimulation provided by us.
It’s purpose is to send Notch a clear message of how the future of minecraft will turn out unless he gets to work, namely by influencing the amount of sales taking place, due to the attacks.
Start providing your customers with the updates that you promise them.
We have roughly 83,000 bots available, and preserved for this seizure, we could if we wanted to keep this going for weeks, however we have decided to give it a week, and see whether or not your attitude, and commitment will change, we believe it will when money stops rolling in for the time being…
anyhow, no we’re not from roblox, or any other minecraft clone, not to mention none of us have been around 4chan for years, and nor has any real 4channers for that matter, its all newfags now, and has been for quite a few years.
Indie Games: What Are They?
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010Microsoft. Nintendo. Sony. These three gaming conglomerates have a very, very large hold on the games we play. However, there exists many a gem of gaming goodness that exists separately from any of these corporations–the indie games; those games that are not supported by a mainstream publisher. While there are many, many of these games out there, it would take a very, very long time to look at them all. However, I will take the time to talk about some of the ones that have achieved notoriety in recent years. Let’s take a look!
N
Okay, this is one I’ve wanted to talk about.N is a freeware platformer developed and published by Metanet Software, released in Spring 2005. In this game, you control a ninja character who tries to get to the end of the level, first by finding a key to unlock the door, and then actually getting to said door within the time limit. There are hazards galore, gold to collect (which increases the amount of time you have to complete the level), and many, many iterations of levels, each with a unique method of reaching the goal. There are 100 ‘episodes’, with each episode containing five maps. That’s 500 maps total! This is a game that is very addicting, and the animations look professionally done to boot (a big thing for me, the fluidity of animation is a key point). Later, it was reborn as N+, released for the Nintendo DS, the PSP, and Xbox Live Arcade.
Again, I highly recommend that you try out N, which is still available for free on the game’s main site.
Minecraft
Now, you may have read my previous article on Minecraft a while back. If you have, then you can see why this game deserves mentioning. Developed by Markus Persson, Minecraft puts you in a world where everything is collectable, from wood to meat. As such, it is your job to build whatever you want, however you want it. Build a house. Build a horse. Build a rollercoaster. Build a computer. Build a 1:1 scale model of the Enterprise. (more…)
Podcast – Outside the Box: PC Edition Eps. 5
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
WTF More Boxes?
Back again with more boxes, and stuff that are outside of them. Today I take another direction for my tangent. I talk about board games, card games, and video games all in the context of horror games and their various genres. I start with some metal and end with some ramblings about gaming stories. I hope you enjoy. Today’s episode is at the normal 15 minute length so you have no excuse not to listen.
Listen Here! Outside the Box:PC Edition -Eps. 5- The Vidja
-The J. C.
Outside the Box: Lorehammer Part I
Tuesday, October 19th, 2010
Horus and the Emperor
Today we start a special series of articles. I gave you all a brief overview of Warhammer 40k lore, but I am afraid that they were woefully inadequate. Therefore I have enlisted a number of hardcore 40k fans to write up some more detailed race/faction specific lore articles. We start today with an article not even written by someone who plays the Warhammer 40k miniatures game. Rather, this great article is written by a fan of the of the game world as a whole and as such reads 40k novels and plays the Warhammer 40k tabletop RPG’s: Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and Deathwatch. All these games revolve around the Imperium of Man, and that is was we are discussing today in Outside the Box. Enjoy.
The Imperium of Man is a xenophobic, isolationist dystopia beset on all sides by all manner of aliens and waging countless wars within itself against cults, mutants, and uprisings against the very tyranny that allows it to barely survive. It is the hallmark of the setting that this could be the best case scenario. At the core of the Imperium is the God Emperor of Mankind, a once near all powerful psyker reduced to a husk barely supported by the Golden throne to whom 10000 must be sacrificed each day so that he might light the way through the warp. Each day war is waged in his name and there are three organizations that play the largest role.
Outside the Box: Spooky Scary
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
The Stars ARE Right
While today’s post does deal with the night sky, I am afraid that it really has nothing to do with werewolves, or any of their religious observances. What we are concerned with are horror games, or in point of fact a Spooky Game. If you read my last article you already know what a Spooky Game is and what they tend to entail. The Spooky Game in question is not only a great Spooky Game but also one of the best strategy board games I have ever played. It has more bang for your strategic buck of any game I know, and when this is combined with great cute cthuloid art it cannot be beat. So I hope you too wish to bring about unspeakable doom to all your loved ones and summon up the horrors from beyond time, once The Stars are Right. A full review follows after the break.