['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch opinion column by Tom Cross focusing game narratives and the ways that play, gaming, and narrative mix. This week, Tom examines the pitfalls of an industry dominated by Modern Warfare.]

Infinity Ward's Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has come and gone, although it isn't really gone: it lives on, unstoppable, powered by XBL and the PSN. The game's release may have been highly lucrative (750 million dollars, the last time I checked), but it was also fraught with controversy. Most notable among them were the “F.A.G.S.” scandal (and Infinity Ward's response to such criticisms), the lack of dedicated servers, and, of course, the “No Russian” level.

As Michael Abbott points out, while a small slice of the hardcore demographic and gaming press took offense, a large portion of the game's potential customers were either unaware of or unmoved by any of those issues. For them, the game lives and dies by its multiplayer.

We may natter on about FPS narrative conceits, forced participation, and issues of player agency, but this game doesn't care. It doesn't need to. It's built as a multiplayer juggernaut, and its single player is like some kind of vestigial malformed appendage: it sticks around almost out of habit.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': "Modern" Warfare" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing game narratives and the ways that play, gaming, and narrative mix. This week, Tom continues his earlier examination of the sexual politics behind games by examining the sexual narrative and characters of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

In my last article, I expounded upon the more obvious and systematic methods of conservative, regressive sexualization that can be found throughout games, the video games industry, game critics, and gamers themselves. While I singled out Prince of Persia as a game that stepped (slightly) outside of these traditional boundaries, I also pointed to Uncharted 2: Among Thieves as a game that both subtly continues these traditions, and blatantly, brashly confounds them. It’s a game that is both safe and radical in its depiction of sex.

This isn’t to say that Drake (and the relationships he is a part of) is not sexual in any way. In fact, he and his various compatriots stand out as some of the few video game characters that are crafted to evince sexual desires and frustrations that are connected to actual human emotions. In that way he, Elena, Sully, and Chloe are similar to the Prince and Elika.

However, their romantic entanglements fall into extremely comfortable filmic roles: the plucky, independent female lead (who will end up with the roguish, devil-may-care male lead even though they have their differences), the lecherous old guy who isn’t really that bad, and the so bad she’s good femme fatale. They may be ahead of the grade by being empathetic, emotionally heartfelt, and sexual, but it’s well-worn territory they’re treading on. It doesn’t turn any heads.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Sexualization Among Thieves" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing game narratives and the ways that play, gaming, and narrative mix. This week, Tom continues last column's examination of the sexual politics behind games by examining game designers' (and gamers') reactions to certain games.]

Video game designers, PR companies, and gamers are deeply worried about sex.

Now hear me out: the average “mainstream" game is both obsessed with a peculiarly fragmented (but extremely popular in mainstream culture) version of hypersexuality, and deathly afraid of more realistic, meaningful sexual connection. There's a reason our games are filled with snarling, emotionless (aside from their totally straight love for their buddies) bros and women being crushed under the weight of their hypersexualized characterization.

People are very worried about sex. The worry may vary in its shape, orientation, and direction, but it is still something that makes a lot of people very nervous. They're very worried about thinking about sex. They're worried that thinking about sex, or consuming certain representations of sex will show them to be any of a number of deviant, unpopular, stigmatized representations of sexuality (or worse, to be party to those sexualities themselves).

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Sexualization in Video Games" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines the sexual politics behind gamers' reactions to certain games.]

It’s no secret that I am a fan of the most recent Prince of Persia game, and that I find the criticism leveled at that game to be puzzling. In some ways, the rejection of the game (and of the Prince especially) always struck me as incomprehensible. Recently, while playing Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, I was reminded of the Prince, and not just because Nolan North voices both Drake and the Prince. Specifically, the sexual tension in Among Thieves reminded me of that less-well developed, much maligned tension in Prince of Persia.

It's not a secret that a lot of people were annoyed by the Prince’s voice. They were annoyed by the way he sounded, and the way he talked, and what he said. I think that there's something interesting about what they didn't like about him, and about what they aren't saying when they say they don't like him. One especially common knee jerk reaction went as follows: “The Prince sounds like a callow frat boy, and he has too many muscles.”

Likewise, people found the sexual nature of some of the Prince and Elika’s conversations unpleasant or off-putting. It’s too sexualized and too plainly stated (by the main characters), they said, it would be better if their changing relationship was implied.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Sexualization in Prince of Persia" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines reboots and remakes, and why such games can hide wonderful surprises.]

Franchise reboots are extremely popular these days. Video games may not have reached their reboot saturation point (Hollywood, on the other hand, definitely has), but reboots, remakes, and “re-launches” of games and franchises have become an important part of the industry. For developers and publishers, established IPs can be (or are often seen as) a boon for marketing, thanks to the supposed, vaunted built in audiences such games come with. Their significance for gamers is something to be debated.

Sequels are, of course, par for the course in the video game industry. No one is ever surprised when successful, bankable games receive their second or third sequels (assuming they don’t drop the ball on the second game), but a series reboot does elicit a raised eyebrow and word or two of censure or approbation.

Though this is doubtlessly a habit inherited from our days of seeing wretched 70’s and 80’s properties reborn for the screen, reboots are definitely an interesting prospect. Not content to produce a somewhat similar title (gameplay-wise) with a few tweaks, and a new story, developers head out into uncharted waters, in search of that elusive beast, innovation (or the almost as sought after “fresh” ideas).

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Remade in Whatever Image We Want" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines Lara Croft, her strengths and weaknesses, and looks to her future]

It's pretty obvious to most people that Lara Croft is not the "everyman" so many developers are mistakenly, humorously obsessed with. Never mind that this everyman is often a gravelly-voiced, shaven-headed, hugely muscled lout who kills lots of people. He is, after all, “relatable.” He cracks jokes while curb-stomping aliens! So Lara Croft is not a guy, right? That's one step in a different direction. That already sets her apart from an unpleasantly large number of video game heroes.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': On Lara Croft And "Relatable" Heroes" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom continues his previous discussions of game narrative with a look at The Last Express's attitude to storytelling.]

If we want to explore the possibilities for branching, reactive, fluid narratives, we obviously need to explore possible ways to realize this goal. We can talk all we want about the potential for deep, almost procedurally generated stories, or emergent narratives, but it’s also important to examine the material we already have before us, be they video games or other.

The problem with video games, as I’ve mentioned previously, is that they so clearly start and end unto themselves. They do not take place in a world, they do not provide views onto separate lives. Even the ones that aim to do so fail in their ways. Grand Theft Auto creates a city that moves and lives around you, but in your absence, in your presence, during your inactive moments, it refuses to change.

When worlds do change, they do so only in the most perfunctory, ineffectual ways. Stalker: Clear Sky creates a set of factions that war for territory. Yet when one faction defeats another, the effects are only temporary. When you boot the game back up, the same mercenaries will have reoccupied their lost fortress. Tangible, permanent persistence is a lie or trick, regardless of the format or system.

Perhaps the answer is not, then, to create so massive and “realistic” a world, but to consider the ways in which a smaller, more detailed, more controllable world might work as a place for plotting to occur. It’s no secret that games that focus on fewer people and places often can imbue those things with more life, more character. Playing the most recent Prince of Persia, or Half Life 2, leads one to appreciate the controlled, directed method of world-creation and characterization.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': All Aboard The Last (Narrative) Express" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom continues his previous discussion of calls for video game design reform in the areas of narrative and story. In the latest instalment, he begins with a discussion of what "narrative" is.]

Narrative can’t help but have an internally coherent organizational logic (called “plot”). The important things about this logic are that it a) unfolds in time for a reader, that is, has a beginning, middle, and end, b) that the experience of reading is one of reading—of discovery and deciphering rather than production and self-creation, and c), that because of this, narratives appear for readers as pre-existing objects, things separate from a reader that demand to be seen and interpreted.

This last point is critical: narratives happen to readers, and speak of an intelligent, exterior design to readers. This is true even when we tell stories to ourselves (the principle on which psychoanalysis works)—we encounter a structure of meaning, or plot, outside ourselves, and re-narrate it to ourselves.

Narrative always comes first, and unless we’re very clear about what we mean by “story spaces” or “tools for making narrative,” it’s unclear how we might provide readers with tools, rather than pre-existing narratives, out of which they themselves will produce narratives, ex nihilo.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Plotting, Emergent Narratives, and 'Story Spaces,' Part 2" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom looks at calls for video game design reform in the areas of narrative and story.]

Recently, bloggers, gamers, game designers have been discussing the future of video games as they’d like to see it. Some of the more intriguing conversations they’re having concern emergent narratives, authorial control, and story making as opposed to storytelling.

Notable bloggers and game designers, Doug Church, Michael Samyn, and Steve Gaynor, have argued that traditional narrative modes of in-game storytelling need to be replaced with newer methods. Church (albeit back at GDC 2000!) argues that we should "abdicate authorship"++ altogether, while Gaynor and Samyn argue, in their more recent and suggestive articles, that video games are a medium uniquely able to create a new tablet for user-created content, termed “story space,” and that the narratives that come from this will be “emergent.”**+

This article will examine the assumptions and statements already made about these topics. Next week’s article will conclude by exploring their flaws and strengths, and ultimately the potential, both good and bad, of their ideas. A final article will bring my discussion to its conclusion, using an older game to point the way forward for narrative in games.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Plotting, Emergent Narratives, and 'Story Spaces'" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom jumps into X3: Terran Conflict, so you don't have to go through the hassle.]

There’s something to be said for complexity, especially when it comes to games. This is despite the fact that so many ways, simple or intuitive games are easier, more fun to play. It’s not just Nintendo and various designers telling us this: we understand that our experiences with games are often hampered by muddled instructions, overly complicated UIs, and jam-packed missions structures.

Most people know what they want, and they filter their game consumption accordingly. This isn’t to say that a person who loves Peggle can’t also love Neverwinter Nights 2. On the contrary, many gamers enjoy switching back and forth between these different kinds of games, depending on their moods.

Even so, some games revel in their complexity, and for the right gamer, this complexity is absolutely worth it. The harder it is to succeed in a game, the more rewarding the experience, supposedly. There comes a point however, a certain level of obtuseness and opaqueness in game design, where I just give up.

I’m willing to play shooters with way too many buttons, RTSs with ridiculous amounts of options and tasks to perform, and of course, RPGs with long, wandering stories, murky, deep leveling systems, and unclear directions. I like the fiddly bits in these games, but I draw the line when a game makes enjoyment a nigh-impossible goal.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': More Complicated, Please" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom looks at combat, dialogue, and other methods of engaging with game worlds.]

Combat is the biggest, most central game mechanic in most titles today, with platforming and environmental interaction coming in a close second. Even games for children feature extensive combat and platforming.

From Pokemon to Madworld, combat is the easiest and most popular method of interacting with and affecting the gameworld. And you can see why—developers are good at this. They’ve done it a lot, and they kind of have it down. When designers attempt to give gamers another set of tools with which we can affect the game and its denizens, gameplay often suffers.

There may be exemplary games that follow this route (Myst is the aging heavyweight of this genre, while games like Indigo Prophecy and Portal are examples of the newest generation), but for the most part, developers, designers, marketers, and even consumers have learned to steer mostly clear of such titles.

While I think it’s admirable that a portion of the industry still strives to forward the puzzle/adventure genre, it’s exciting to witness the evolution of other, less popular alternatives to combat. In particular, I like games that let the way I’ve built my character affect the outcome of the games. This kind of approach often manifests itself as RPG or RPG-lite gameplay elements, like those seen in many action adventure games today. Sure, you can change how you win, but you can’t change what you win.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Forget 'Combat Mode Engaged'" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive opinion column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom discusses questionable and offensive imagery and themes in Resident Evil 5, and how these elements undercut the rest of the game.]

One thing that has been repeated about Resident Evil 5 is that the game may include offensive imagery, but that you become inured to these images when you get in the thick of combat. This might be the case during certain sequences where you don’t have time to think, but there’s no escaping it for long.

As soon as you do, Chris and Sheva find a butcher’s block, topped with a dead animal and buzzing flies. The game’s helpful text blurbs will then say something like “The smell is awful. Why would this be here?” A butcher shop with meat in it isn’t offensive or out of the ordinary, and in fact is part of everyday life all over the world.

However, the peculiar Othering of normal occurrences (like a butcher shop having meat, knives, and flies) so that they fit into a frantically horrified conception of village life in Kijuju is pervasive and carefully orchestrated.

This is What's Horrifying

This kind of characterization is prevalent throughout the first two chapters. Some of the initial establishing shots are careful to emphasize the flies that are everywhere, and thus, the unclean, eerie aura that such sounds bring to each scene. If you are going to depict this kind of situation, you need to have a strong authorial voice, one that presents the events either as “objectively” as possible (a task few, if any, attempt), or one that clearly directs the player and takes a side.

Art does not exist in a vacuum, nor do any forms of media or entertainment. You cannot make this game and portray these events and not telegraph your feelings as regards the proceedings. And Capcom hasn’t; from every “creepy” slaughtered animal to every collection of skulls and candles in a shack (”It must be some kind of ritual,” Chris advises us), Capcom’s intentions are transparent.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': How Does This Make You Feel, 'Partner'?" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom returns to Alone in the Dark to get an enhanced perspective of Siren: Blood Curse and non-episodic episodic content.]

Episodic content is becoming less and less of a joke. It’s gone from being a way to make fun of Valve’s release schedule to a clever tool for developers looking to maintain interest in their titles long after release.

When it works, episodic content can create an interesting mix of video game and television sensibility. It allows customers to pay for their entertainment in relatively small installments, and make decisions regarding the quality of the product based on smaller (and cheaper) portions of the game.

What’s interesting about companies’ approaches to episodic content is how they are and aren’t engaging players’ notions of what “episodic content” means. It’s obvious that designers want us to anticipate the next installment of episodic content, just as they want us to appreciate the smaller, easily beatable portions of their game. What they don’t often capitalize on is the baggage that comes with the term “episodic.”

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': And Now, The Conclusion" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines how The Longest Journey and The Witcher create more interesting, fully realized protagonists through the use of diaries.]

To most people a “journal” is a pretty simple thing. It’s a bit like a diary, but it can range from anything to a travelogue to a collection of rambling thoughts. To people who play video games, a journal is always one thing: it’s where your quests are written down, and if you’re playing an ambitious game, it’s where you can make your own notes concerning your adventures.

This “Journal” is especially endemic to RPG’s, where it allows harried players to keep track of who they’ve accepted quests from, how many rats they’ve killed, and what kind of loot or experience they can expect as a reward. Even when games like Baldur’s Gate II feature slightly more involved quest and journal entries (that are written in the first person, perhaps), they’re still just elaborate explanations of plot points or quests.

As a result, it’s interesting to see games that treat these “journal entries” a bit like you or I might think of such things: as a places to record how your avatar feels about the things that have taken place in game. This really only works for games that feature protagonists with strong convictions or very thoroughly constructed personalities. Otherwise, who really cares what they think about the events transpiring around them?

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': The Next Big Thing: Video Game Character Diaries" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines Saints Row 2 and Fable 2, and how "great" games can be less fun than "bad" games.]

Many video games concern themselves with providing “realistic,” “immersive,” and “transparent” game experiences. In these games, the developers try to postpone the moment when the games “gaminess,” the certainty of its simulated nature, becomes unpleasantly or blatantly apparent to the player. Games employ fixed first person perspectives, transparent UI’s, hidden loading screens, and seamless transitions between gameplay and cutscene.

For some video games, these concerns are secondary to another set of concerns, namely that of entertaining the player with as many or as intricate game systems as possible. These games forgo narrative and sensory depth, and instead attempt to provide the player with such interesting and varied options that the player will be having too much fun to notice the paper thin quality of the more “stylistic touches.” And, the reasoning goes, if they do notice they’ll be having too much fun to complain.

Saints Row 2 is unapologetically in the gameplay-over-story camp, providing countless diversions, activities and options, right alongside a ludicrous story, bland environments, and highly derivative style.

Fable 2 is also focused on providing a wealth of options and activities for its players, but it also strives to create a complete, fulfilling experience from a stylistic, aesthetic approach. The world of Fable 2 is meticulously realized, brilliantly and beautifully designed, and wonderfully fleshed out with characters and voices.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Mixing Albion and Stillwater" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines Left 4 Dead and Mass Effect, and how the former especially leads the way in a new brand of pseudo-storytelling.]

To play a video game is often to be party to a strange chorus of grunts, yelps and insults. Characters in games are designed to react to their environments with as much "realism" and responsiveness as possible.

From the unfortunate pointedly, ethnic enemies in Drake's Fortune to the pained grunts of Big Daddies, to your teammates telling you not to shoot them, all games have hundreds of snippets of sounds in the wings, waiting for you to provoke them.

Even games that feature voiceless snarling enemies can create palpable atmosphere just by including interesting, scary, or numerous enemy and character barks. A game like Doom 3 relies heavily on such mechanisms: the groans, screams, roars and screeches that your enemies produce are all the information you’ll be provided with about their nature, aside from a few introductory cutscenes and forced expositional text documents.

Of course, there are also games that trade in verbose, incredibly context-sensitive responses. In Deus Ex, leaping on a table will elicit disapproval and derision; entering the woman's bathroom will earn you a disapproving coworker for the foreseeable future.

All of these interactions are worked out within the minor conversations and comments seen in passing through the game. Likewise, enemies in Deus Ex respond to you or what you are: a dangerous, fearsome genetically modified murderer and policeman.

But Deus Ex provides these interactions alongside traditional cutscenes. Games that don’t have cutscenes have to work even harder to get mileage out of on-the-fly, in-game narrative tools, because that’s all they have. Thus, it is not surprising that the most interesting and subtly successful practicer of this trade is Valve.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Making Storytelling Look Natural" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom examines No One Lives Forever and other titles, and what makes their dialogue systems different from your average branching dialogue tree.]

Telling good stories in today’s games is a contentious issue. Different genres tend to approach storytelling from different points, some use CGI cutscenes and little else, some use in-engine cutscenes and even in-game cinematic moments (a la Half-Life 2), or just plain text dialogue.

Regardless of the method of delivery, the choice to be made when writing the scripts for such games is that of a single storyline or multiple story threads. A game like Final Fantasy VII has one script, on storyline, which never deviates from its set path. Other games contain key plot nodes that never change, but allow for multiple paths to each node. Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed and the Grand Theft Auto series are all practicers of this method.

Ambitious games feature multiple nodes and multiple paths, and these games require the most effort when it comes to hidden or optional content: games like Fallout 3, Deus Ex, and Mass Effect allow players to reach the same conclusion through two separate paths or different conclusions using the similar methods.

This necessarily causes a lot of trouble for game developers. Do they really want to write enough dialogue for 10 games, only to have one playthrough (which is too much for many players) encompass a fraction of their work? This is normally a problem faced by RPG and adventure game developers: they’re expected to produce convincing, branching story paths, and the trendsetters in these areas (Bethesda and BioWare are responsible for the mainstream examples of such games) are constantly upping the ante.

It’s fascinating, then, to find games that have nothing to do with RPGs, have extremely linear storylines, and yet still utilize certain branching story or script paths. Mostly I’m thinking aboutNo One Lives Forever, a game that was a stealth/action shooter through and through, yet featured long, interactive branching conversations within its cutscenes.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough' : Space Marines Need Dialogue Trees Too " »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom explores the new Prince of Persia game, and why it sets a new standard for creating characters you care for.]

It’s not exactly a secret that I’m a fan of games with strong narratives, and am often willing to sacrifice a certain amount of gameplay and interface quality in the pursuit of interesting characters, stories and dialogues.

When I started playing the newest Prince of Persia, I suspected that I’d found one of those rare games that was completely willing to subject itself to the rigors of actual storytelling and narrative substance. I was correct, and had one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had playing a game.

Imagine my surprise, then, when it became apparent that most of the gaming press disagreed with me. People have criticized its emphasis of “style over substance,” a demerit that I can’t believe people are still using, seeing as it relies on some extremely problematic assumptions concerning the definitions of the words “style” and “substance.”

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough' : Caring About The Prince" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly scheduled GameSetWatch-exclusive column by Tom Cross focusing on aspects of games that stand out, for reasons good and bad. This week, Tom explores Fallout 3's strengths and weaknesses.]

Playing Fallout 3 reminds me of many of the difficulties I faced when playing Oblivion, also an open-world RPG by Bethesda, as well as many of the joys. It also makes the deficiencies of that gameplay model increasingly apparent. While Fallout 3 makes some impressive strides, in certain structural aspects it is so backward that it makes other games look revolutionary. Jedi Outcast and The Witcher take an entirely different approach to their worlds—are much less obviously “open”. And yet, their common gameplay and storytelling goals are actually more ambitious and innovative than Fallout’s.

While Fallout 3 meticulously recreates a desolate, expansive landscape that is strangely full of activity and experience, it does so by a very specific and often narrow-minded method. While most reviewers have said that Fallout 3 is one of the most vast, varied and rich games of our time, it is also possible to view it as flat and lacking in the things that actually make a game deep.

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': The Mutant Behind the Curtain" »

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[In this new opinion piece, writer and commentator Tom Cross examines EA Redwood Shores' Dead Space, a title he believes that 'triumphed despite itself' - here's a look at its failings and strange accomplishments.]

I've recently been thinking that too many games operate in the shadow of Aliens, especially in the atmosphere created by that movie’s characters.

So, it's with bemusement that I encounter a game that derives everything else from Ripley's world: setting, plot, enemies (after a fashion), and lines of dialogue. When you hear somebody posit the notion that somebody might want to study or preserve the game's horrific monsters, you know exactly what the writers are thinking.

Taking after Cameron, Not Scott

Many people have of course pointed out this fact since the game shipped. However, most people are focusing on how the tempo of that movie is similar to Dead Space’s gameplay. They say that this game is like Aliens, with its frantic action and small scares, and less like Alien's slow creeping dread. What they don't mention is that the story, which mixes the aforementioned movies with The Thing and a bit of clichéd religious zeal, is hackneyed beyond belief.

The game sends you from one end of the deep-space mining vessel Ishimura to another, fixing leaks, restarting generators, and basically acting like the meanest, most badass space janitor/engineer in history. Let me say, right out of the gate, that I loved this game. I thought that it was beautiful, fun, tense, and occasionally scary. I never for once thought it was original or creative (except in its depiction of zero gravity and vacuum situations, which are absolutely brilliant).

Continue reading "Opinion: Why Blood and Guts Make Up For A Dead Story, Characters" »

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['Diamond In The Rough' is a regularly updated column by Tom Cross focusing on innovations that a game makes on an old, tired aspect of game design. This week, Tom compares Jedi Knight II and LOTR: The Third Age to appreciate those relatively staid, formulaic games that "provide a safe place from which to slowly, carefully refine video gaming tools and traditions."]

Some great games aren’t innovative in the slightest. These games don’t try to do anything new because they don’t want to. Instead, they take (some might say, steal) the ideas of trendsetting games that were rough around the edges, refining and tweaking them into a smoothness they lacked the first time around.

These games are often delivered to us behind the façade of established franchises or IPs, settings and fictions that we as gamers are often highly loyal to. Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Final Fantasy, Mario—all of these franchises have included such entries, games that would be labeled as “competent” or “uninventive” in another setting. And indeed, it somehow seems wrong to love a game that’s really just super-competent plagiarism. Or it might just seem wrong to admit it.

Yet these games are often a place where I find solace hard to come by in other games. I can enjoy smoothly executed mechanics and gameplay tropes that I would otherwise shun for their “tiredness” or unoriginality. Simply put, these games provide a safe place from which to slowly, carefully refine video gaming tools and traditions.

Continue reading "Column: Diamond in the Rough: 'If You're Going To Shoot Low, At Least Do It Right'" »

Posted by Thomas Cross at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

['Diamond In The Rough' is a new column by Tom Cross focusing on an unusual innovation that a game makes on an old, tired aspect of game design -- one that might get overlooked, because the game is not otherwise remarkable or is hindered by major design flaws. This week, Tom explores the possibilities for meaningful and deep narratives in Clive Barker's Jericho.]

It’s often hard to say exactly why most video game stories are terrible. There are so many reasons — overwrought acting, nonexistent acting, nonexistent characters, hideously clichéd characters, and finally, settings and plots we’ve seen a million times — that when a game actually has a good script, or actors, or story, we almost don’t know what to do with it. How do you say something is good, when so much is bad, and for what reasons is it good?

One way to identify a good story (or at least slightly better than the rest of the pack) is to carefully examine its integration with the gameplay, and the integration of the story in general (and the gameplay) with the in-game implementation of the story (dialogue and other expository devices).

Continue reading "Column: 'Diamond in the Rough': Beauty Amid the Filth" »

Posted by Thomas Cross at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

['Diamond In The Rough' is a new column by Tom Cross focusing on an unusual innovation that a game makes on an old, tired aspect of game design -- an innovation that contributes to the advancement of video games as a medium, but that might get overlooked because the game is not otherwise remarkable or is hindered by major design flaws. This column? All about distance and Prince Of Persia.]

As gamers, we are often asked to identify with some pretty rough-and-tumble characters, and often, those characters are cruel and violent, not just tough. Whether the hero of a game is good or bad, dumb or smart, we are asked to be that person, control them, and hopefully like them (or at least like being them).

In the previous installment of this column, I lauded games for using certain techniques to increase the sense of immersion and connectivity with one’s in-game avatar.

That got me thinking about the games that head in the exact opposite direction: games that, for whatever reason, choose to divorce you from the settings, characters, or events that unfold before you. Why do these games present themselves in this fashion, and what are the results?

Continue reading "Column: Diamond In The Rough: 'Far Enough Away to See Clearly'" »

Posted by Thomas Cross at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

['Diamond In The Rough' is a new column by Tom Cross focuses on an unusual innovation that a game makes on an old, tired aspect of game design -- an innovation that contributes to the advancement of video games as a medium, but that might get overlooked because the game is not otherwise remarkable or is hindered by major design flaws.]

When playing a video game, the physical presence of your character is often strangely difficult to get a visceral feel for. In first person shooters, very few attempts are made to simulate mass, friction, or a feeling of the solidity of your character’s body.

Games like Portal and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic use mass and momentum to attempt to create a virtual space that your body appears to inhabit (Portal does this well, DMoMM does not do it so well), but in general FPSs avoid the question altogether.

Third person games must take an entirely different approach. Since the player is staring at their avatar’s front or back for most of the game, the developer must create a believable surrogate for the player, both visually and physically.

This is a tough issue to get around, and most games don’t find a perfect way to solve it, but some are worse than others. Even major titles like Oblivion and Knights of the Old Republic have produced egregiously stiff and robotic character models.

Continue reading "Column: Diamond in the Rough - 'A Body in the Dark'" »

Posted by Thomas Cross at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)