As Catherine approached its launch day, many were wondering how it would fare in the Western market. The game was fundamentally strange and highly unique in a market saturated by first-person shooters and action games. As the reviews trickled out though, most fears were laid to rest. Many accredited websites and publications hailed it as a breath of fresh air and a truly mature title for an audience that had been craving such an experience. It was a game for the kids who had grown up playing older, more difficult arcade games and still craved that challenge, but also wanted an intriguing, nuanced story that related to the experiences of adulthood. Supposedly, Catherine was this game. I wondered if this was indeed the case. Could such a seemingly obscure game speak to people on a deeper level than your average video game? By the time I was finished with Catherine, I wasn’t entirely sure on the answer to that question.

Catherine tells the story of Vincent Brooks, a young man now in adulthood, but not entirely sure what exactly that means. The essential conflict of this game finds its center with Vincent’s relationship with his girlfriend, Katherine, and Vincent’s competing concepts of what adulthood really is. As the story begins, you quickly determine that Vincent is less than fully comfortable in his relationship with Katherine because of her pressuring Vincent towards the married life. His hesitation towards the whole issue clearly shows a lack of complete commitment. His commitment is further tested when the titular Catherine, a vixen who loathes attachment and views sex in a casual, flippant manner, enters Vincent’s life. The two women represent the two potential views of the true meaning of adulthood. Does being an adult mean taking on responsibilities and striving to live a peaceful, orderly life? Or does being an adult mean shirking responsibilities for the benefit of personal liberty and chaotic delight? You, the player, determine Vincent’s responses to situations he encounters and ultimately his view of what becoming a man means. The core concept here is a fascinating one: a conflict not between broad, sweeping definitions of good and evil, but between two views on a specific ethical issue. The player never forgets this conflict either, as you are reminded of it when the game frequently reminds you of how your choices have reflected your beliefs through a simple meter when you make a choice.

Note the meter. Your decisions do affect Vincent’s view on things.

As players wrestle with this issue, they interact with the game in two primary ways. The first is in Vincent’s favorite bar, The Stray Sheep. In it, Vincent discusses events that have occurred with his friends and acquaintances, while communicating with Catherine and Katherine via his cell phone. The dialog further fleshes out the story and allows Vincent’s attitude towards life to be further defined by the player. While not exactly compelling to play, it does allow for some well-needed contemplation and relaxation time in between the other more stressful parts of the game. What parts are those, you ask? Well, as the story progresses, Vincent finds himself in a bizarre situation. Every night, he finds himself trapped in a nightmare where he is forced to climb a tower of cubes. Not that bad for a nightmare, right? What makes it a nightmare is that the cubes are falling away into an infinite void below him, and he must find his way to the top first. Also, there are occasionally giant mutant zombie babies chasing after him wanting to murder him.

Nope. Not nightmarish at all.

OK, that’s pretty bad, but it’s just a dream, right? While that’s the case normally, Vincent pieces together rather quickly that death in these dreams mean death in reality. For just before he began to experience these nightmares, men all over the city were experiencing the same dreams and mysteriously dying in their sleep. Considering this, navigating to the top of the dream towers is imperative every night. And that’s when the puzzler gameplay begins. Moving and shifting the cubes to climb to the top of the tower is infuriating at times, even on the easiest difficulty setting. I wouldn’t even recommend playing above normal because of the maddening frustration that is bound to occur as a result. Nevertheless, when you do complete a puzzle by getting to the top of the tower, it can be immensely satisfying in ways only a few games, like Portal, are these days. There are some mechanical difficulties however; controlling a character when moving from block to block can be maddeningly imprecise. This is especially the case when moving behind the tower, because the camera obscures your view and controls flip back and forth between inverted and standard movement. This type of maddening, frustrating, rewarding, and exhilarating puzzler gameplay will not be enjoyed by everyone. When taken together with the story-focused interactive drama elements of the game, and its anime art style, that potential audience is shrunk even further. However, this isn’t bad in and of itself. It is merely something to be mindful of when determining whether or not to spend your time on this game.

So what is bad in and of itself in Catherine? A few things come to mind. The first, and perhaps most important, failings of the game is in its, to use a couple big words, ludonarrative dissonance. What does that mean? Ludonarrative means “play narrative” and dissonance means discord. In other words, the way the player interacts with the game and the world/story the game creates do not blend at all, and sometimes actively oppose each other. Take for example the very concept of the tower climbing nightmares. In the game, it fundamentally makes the player stop thinking about, shaping, and being surrounded with the story. The game separates that time as if to say “OK, it’s time to play the game now, we can get back to the story stuff later” and doing such a thing creates a double-mindedness in both the player and the game. It sucks the player out of the game world as soon as you realize that no story advancement or depth is added during these portions. It robs the game of any momentum or any modicum of consistency. What makes it even worse is that the whole subplot involving the nightmares, and the nightmares themselves, could have been completely removed from the game and not only would the game have been tighter and more focused, it would arguably have been better for it. Indeed, the nightmare epidemics introduce a supernatural element that is never fully fleshed out. This, along with some other vexingly pretentious elements, ultimately makes the player write it off as the flawed work of “those crazy Japanese game designers” who feel the need to shoehorn in supernatural, bizarre, and ambiguous elements with minimal explanation given.

The second failing of the game is its illusion of choice and consequence. No matter what choices the player makes, Vincent’s story will be identical. The only exception to this is the ending, which checks against a few decisions you make at the very end as well as where you are on your meter. At that point, it plays one of eight possible endings, after which the credits roll. Individual choices, except for the choice few at the end, have no consequences. To use another game as a counterexample, Mass Effect’s choices have consequences. If you don’t stop a certain character from letting his emotions take control of him, he dies, never to return. Or the player may send the wrong crew member to do a task on a suicide mission, resulting in his or her death. Contrast that with telling Catherine to leave Vincent alone. Does that change anything? No. What if the player encourages her advances, does that do anything? Why yes! She sends another text message! Now, consider if that is a choice that “matters.” Personally, I arrived at the conclusion it is not. The same goes for the player’s responses towards Katherine. In the end, all of it is just tallying points for the game to know which ending cutscene to play. It’s really laughably archaic when compared with the choice and consequence mechanics in other games. Still, one might think that you wouldn’t be able to detect the illusion of choice until you’ve played the game multiple times, however that would be incorrect. Vincent acts bafflingly neutral in cutscenes and conversations, no matter how extreme the player’s choices are. There will be times you think “What the hell Vincent, why aren’t you doing X?” Obviously, that can lead to frustration with the character of Vincent or frustration with the game for not recognizing the player’s choices. It isn’t until a subsequent playthrough when you play the game differently that you discover that the game’s plot does not change based on your input.

Want Vincent to dump Katherine early on? Sorry, no can do.

Clearly, Catherine is a game with major flaws at some truly fundamental levels. Yet, it still ultimately is an interesting and unique experience. The puzzles, in the right frame of mind, are entertaining. And the story, while sporadic at times, is an interesting one. Does it make the player think deeply and consistently? Not in the least. Is it the truly “mature” game that some older gamers have been waiting for? Probably not. Still, it tackles issues we have not seen in the gaming realm with a sense of boldness that is far too rare as of late. And while it doesn’t engage the player on a deep level, it does make them think on a slightly deeper level than your average game. All things considered, I think on those principles alone it deserves consideration.

FINAL GRADE: C+

The way I see it, there are three areas where I take issue with Nintendo: software, hardware, and gaming philosophy. Kind of broad, but I’ll explain one by one in depth.

The first area is software, or the games, if you prefer that term. We all play video games for different reasons. Different games meet us on different levels. Every game developer has to sit down and ask himself or herself: “How do I want my game to engage the player?” There’s obviously mixes of focus, but in my observation they generally break down into four categories.

The first possible focus of a game is on the personal experience of the player. These games tend to focus on engrossing a player in an atmosphere. They can be story-centric; they focus on taking the player out of the real world and putting them in a virtual world for an adventure or story, like a book or a movie. These are the Bioshocks, the Zeldas, the Metal Gear Solids, of the gaming world.

The second possible focus of a game focuses on the competitive nature of the player. These games tend to focus on multiplayer environments or they can emphasize high scores. They can range from tactical to twitch, moody to flashy, the atmosphere isn’t very important for these games. Their focus is bringing out the competitor in the player, even if it’s a friendly cooperative competition, like in a sport or a card game. For example, Halo, Smash Bros., SOCOM, and Starcraft are all good examples of games with this focus.

The third possible focus is simple relaxation. Some people just want to unwind with games. Maybe your parents play Solitaire or Minesweeper on the PC, maybe your sister enjoys Endless Ocean or Animal Crossing, or maybe even you enjoy Tetris or Virtual Chess. It doesn’t matter. It’s just a method of relaxation and decompression from your day at work/school/whatever. Some people watch TV, some people read a book, others play Brain Age.

The fourth possible focus is the hardest to quantify, perhaps because it seems unique to games. Due to a lack of a better term eluding me at the moment, I’ll define it as fun mechanics. You’ve all played a game and found some specific gimmick, some minor thing, that you just did repeatedly over and over for no reason other than it entertained you. Maybe you had fun jumping on Goomba’s heads over and over in a Mario platformer, maybe you just swung around the city as Spiderman in the Spidey games, maybe you liked the spiffy arm in Bionic Commando, or maybe you enjoyed transforming enemies into chickens in Rachet and Clank, who knows? There are entire games based around just amusing concepts like those.

Now that I’ve quantified games and why we enjoy them, my main issue with Nintendo software is now much clearer. The first two game types I mentioned are being crippled on Nintendo’s consoles, and the last two are getting way too much attention by comparison. The story and atmospheric intensive games are simply not being encouraged by Nintendo, either inwardly in their own development teams, or outwardly through encouraging other developers. The depth on the X360 and PS3 just plain beat the Wii in this area. There’s really no arguing it since none of Nintendo’s franchise have this focus anymore, except Fire Emblem. Zelda, the one I cited in the examples, used to be a good mix between this atmosphere-centered gaming and the last mechanic-centered gaming. But Nintendo has fallen into a rut, becoming more and more dependent on merely using the boomerang and bombs to compel the gamer to buy it rather than building interesting fairy tale worlds.

The second game type is harder to argue, but I can simply win the argument by bringing out a brand name that everyone now associates with inferior multiplayer features: Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Nintendo has limited all competitive gaming to local multiplayer only or crippled online modes. By cutting out an unbelievable amount of possibilities for the competitive-focused gamer, Nintendo has seriously hurt their competitiveness with other platforms in that realm.

As for why Nintendo is strong in the last two, the answer should be obvious. The casual phenomenon is almost exclusively in the latter two categories, their main franchises are repetitious and relying on mechanics alone to win over players, and the hardware of both the Wii and DS focus on bringing new possibilities for unique game mechanics. If you, as a gamer, play games for the last two focuses, Nintendo is a perfect fit for you. I, however, am mainly focused on the first two types of games. That’s why Nintendo’s software is so very unpalatable to me.

Next time, we’ll go further into my beefs with Nintendo. Stay tuned. Or don’t, ’cause it’ll probably be two months before I put together another one.

MLB 2K9 – Horrendous game. But really addictive. I hate games like this, because you don’t know when to stop. I finished a franchise year and then sent it back. Ridiculously glitchy awful game with frustrating controls. Graphics are good though.

Oblivion – Still a hella fun game. An MMORPG without the people, very much my kind of game. I really wish I liked Fallout 3 so I could enjoy a fresh Bethesda, open-world experience. Alas, I did not.

Dark Sector – Really fun action game. Lots of gore, lots of guns, and lots of spinning sharp objects flung at high velocity. Better than Gears of War people. A lot better, though I haven’t touched the multiplayer yet.

Project Gotham Racing 4 – I really don’t understand why people like these realistic sims. It’s hold the R button and hope you turn right, and if you don’t, restart ’cause you can’t catch up. Oh well.

Godfather II – Really, really fun game. I like the racket system and the time period; it makes this series so much better than the GTA games. The new RTS elements add even more depth and nuance to a solid game. A few annoying glitches and design choices though.

You’ll notice I’m not rockin’ much outside of the Xbox 360 realm, and that’s ’cause I don’t have one. I bought a PS2 recently and enjoyed Persona 3; maybe down the road I’ll get around to the other gems I missed. But by in large, I can only support one console. Xbox 360 is clearly the leader this generation, so I’m sticking with that.

Here’s hoping my next post will be sooner rather than later. Ciao.

With Mother’s Day past and Father’s Day past approaching, parents are on the mind of most. They teach us, feed us, frustrate us, and amuse us. And they are with you from birth until well after you’ve moved out, assuming everything goes well. There can be no doubt they have a huge effect on all of us, our parents mold us in a unique and special way that nothing else does. That brings me back to the world of games: where the hell are the parents in games?

Let’s think here: How many times has the protagonist in your favorite game ended up with all of his parents mysteriously dead or left? Even if they are alive, how much of a mention or impact do they have on the game? The best parental incorporation into a game I can think of is when it turns out the protagonist’s parent is working with the antagonist. There really isn’t a strong parental influence in gaming. Kotaku put together a  list of  mothers in games of significance. Some of them, you’ve probably heard of but there’s quite clearly a pattern of minor roles to  insulting roles. Sophitia is a mom, and quite clearly just an excuse to get big breasts and a short skirt on someone. Jenova is technically a mom, but it’s kind of sad when she’s one of the best examples of integrating a parent into a game plot. Lost Odyssey had a couple of mothers who actually had relevance in the game. Main characters even!

What about the fathers?  Kratos in Tales of Symphonia, uh… Norman in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald. Ummm… Jecht from Final Fantasy X, I think Marcus Fenix from Gears of War has a dad… That’s about it, that I can think of. From what I remember though, fathers are generally implemented more thoughtfully than mothers and have more key roles in plots. However, they’re not implemented nearly as much as mothers. It’s not rare to see the main character, from RPGs especially, only have a mother. I wonder why this is.

Ultimately, I understand games are about the main character, and not about his mommy or daddy. However, I think far too often you see a protagonist arise from nothingness, without parental guidance, only to become a godlike being and a legend whispered all across the game’s lands. I think ignoring this key relationship is overlooking a huge opportunity to add depth to characters, not to mention a way to connect to the player. I think the parental relattionship can be just as powerful as a love interest, and far more easy to develop. Imagine if all the romance angles and plot devices in games suddenly became one-dimensional and uninteresting. That’s what it’s like looking at the gaming landscape nowadays.

Anyway, my thoughts on something that popped in my head around the summer parental holidays. Enjoy them!

(AHOY, SPOILERZ FOR PERSONA 3 OFF THE STARBOARD BOW! STEER CLEAR IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW SOME KEY PLOT ELEMENTS!)

As one could guess from viewing the name of the game, Persona 3, the game deals largely with people’s personas. What is a persona by definition?

“The aspect of a person’s character that is presented to or perceived by others” – Oxford Dictionary

Interestingly, the word originated from the masks actors use to wear as they acted on stage. But it has taken on more of a psychological meaning through Carl Jung and others, and as a result, it was used as the term in this game. Literally, in the games, the Persona is, essentially, a guardian the characters summon to defend themselves from Shadows, which are literally Personas without owners. Every single character has a specific Persona assigned to them, except the protagonist. He can uniquely switch his Persona at will. A variety of Personas can be used by him, ranging from loose Personas that can represent an emotion, all the way to Beelzebub, Michael the Archangel, Satan and Yahweh.

As the story progresses, these facts are revealed to you. Many questions arise as to the nature of the protagonist, the nature of the Personas, and so on. Eventually, the game addresses such serious topics as nihilism, the meaning of life, and the sad state of mankind. It’s definitely one of the more deep games I’ve played, and even though it gives extremely unsatisfying answers to some questions, it accurately depicts others. I would definitely recommend it on that level. It’s also a pretty fun game to boot, so if you’re looking for a very Japanese RPG, look into this game.

The whole concept of a persona is interesting because I personally am aware of such a phenomenon occuring in me. I seem to have two moods, two personalities, two very different states of being on that level. Also considering the duality of man, and the conflict between the spirit and the flesh, that leaves me a very fractured being. What is the key to controlling our inconsistent selves?

Interestingly, in Persona 4, each character has to conquer their Persona by accepting that they are part of their being. If they do not, the Persona goes berserk and attacks the protagonists.  Once they admit that their undesirable, evil, ugly side is a part of them, they Persona is calmed and controllable, like a bridled horse. One of the more bizzare things, that must be a result of their dualistic metaphysical beliefs, is that the characters never seek to purge themselves of this newly found evil within. How all beliefs deal with evil is perhaps one of the most important questions in a pragmatic sense. Buddhist/Taoists/Hindus accept evil as a necessary part of life, which is probably why this very Japanese game hasn’t addressed the issue of the inherent evil of man in Persona 4. Who knows? Maybe they will further in the game. I do not know.

But, bringing it back to what it means to us in the real world, what are the masks we wear? If you had a Persona, what would it be? Would it be a Lover Mask? A Justice Mask? A Devil Mask? But, a better question is, what is under that mask? Do you ever take it off? When was the last time you saw your true self in the mirror? Perhaps you’ve been trying to be many thing to many people. A good student to your teachers, a good child to your parents, a good friend to your friends, a good spouse to your spouse, etc. But who exactly are you? Only when you know who you really are can you change. I encourage you to put aside your masks and look at yourself in the mirror, no matter how ugly that person may be. And when you do, do not forget that face. It is you. That is what you shall be judged on ultimately. Do not be a whitewashed tomb that  looks pleasing on the outside, yet is filled with death on the inside.

As for how you wash that tomb, that’s for the fun of special revelation. Fun stuff.

I really want some Thrice DLC for Rock Band/Guitar Hero. Mainly Rock Band, because I don’t have Guitar Hero. Three songs for them would be really cool. Here are my suggestions, though they’re limited to the ones I could find in good quality on YouTube. Hah.

Music Box:

Daedalus:

Of Dust And Nations:

I would recommend Firebreather over Of Dust And Nations, though I could only find live performances of that on Youtube, which automatically makes the audio worse.  Anyway, Thrice needs to be on one of them. They have been in the past with one of my least fav’s from The Alchemy Index, The Arsonist.

I really hate that song. Firebreather would have been such a better choice and it’s from the same album. RAWRGH.

So, like most of you who connect your Xbox 360 to the internet, I pay for the Gold service. That’s $60 a year. Good price, for sure. And with that I get online game play. That’s pretty much it. Microsoft objects though. They say I get a bunch more features! Like:

- Multiplayer games: Invite your friends into a multiplayer match and compete against each other or play co-op through expansive adventures.
- Marketplace: Gold members get early and exclusive access to select game add-ons, demos, trailers, videos, and more.
- TrueSkill matchmaking: For every ranked game you play, TrueSkill finds the best match for your skill level.
- Parties: Invite a group of friends into an Xbox LIVE Party, then you can all join games and play and chat together.
- Gamer feedback: Use the feedback system to select players you want to play with (or avoid) the next time you’re online.
- Watch Netflix movies: Xbox LIVE Gold members who also belong to Netflix can watch Netflix’s extensive library of streaming movies and TV shows right on their console at no additional charge.

The first feature, third feature, and fifth feature are all really the same thing. They all deal with online gaming. So fuck them expanding to make it look better.

The second feature is bullshit. They just did that recently to screw the Silver users. Fuck them for that too.

The fourth and sixth (Parties and Netflix movies) are their most valid points. Though I can’t confirm it, I’m pretty sure you can join parties with a Silver membership, you just can’t play with people. So that’s really misleading if that’s the case. Netflix is an awesome feature, but it’s really absurd to pay Netflix on top of Microsoft. But whatever, their prerogative.

So really, outside of online gaming, I’m getting shit for my $60 a year. I’d like to request one, simple, easily-added, additional feature.

NO FUCKING ADS.

I am tired of booting up my Xbox 360, having 7 categories, and almost every single one of them only having one or two things I actually want to access. The rest of them are ads. Loads and loads of ads. Seriously, Microsoft, I don’t fucking care about Watchmen coming to XBLA. I don’t care about the latest IGN Strategize telling me how to unlock things I already have unlocked. Also, side note, what the fuck happened to journalistic objectivity? IGN on the 360? Seriously guys? What the fuck? Those guys are selling out faster than Metallica.

Anyway, back on track, if I’m paying for a service, I shouldn’t have to deal with ads everywhere. Increase the XBL Gold $10 a year if you have to. I really don’t want to deal with ads.

Fucking ridiculous.

“Really?” She asked. “Where’d you go?”

“A little out of the way country. You probably wouldn’t know it’s name. Fun, though, I gotta tell you, they really don’t lay out the red carpet for us Americans.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, they were rather hostile. Probably wouldn’t have survived the trip if I didn’t have my friend there with me. She grew up here and has since moved back, so I had a contact.”

“Wow, sounds like you had quite an interesting spring break.”

“You could say that.”

I just made that all up, to be completely honest. But that would have been an awesome exchange, wouldn’t it have been? For those of you have no idea what I’m talking about, you probably don’t know what Resident Evil 5 is, or don’t know anything about it. So when the review is done, go back and read the last section again. Even then though, only people who know Resident Evil 5′s story will fully get it.

Resident Evil 5, here after referred to as RE5, is a continuation of a survival-horror series. However, like Resident Evil 4, RE5  is moving away from that genre into a heated action game. Gone are the days of rookie cops stuck in a city that has suddenly been infested with zombies. In RE5, you play as a frickin’ body builder. Seriously, look at this guy:

Do those muscles look like they’re about to fall victim to a rogue zombie? No. Chris Redfield, the ripped protagonist, is part of an international anti-terrorist group called the BSAA. Their purpose? To make biological weapons go away, usually with rocket launchers, flamethrowers, and satellite laser beams. This time, Chris is sent to a fictional country in Africa called Kijuju to deal with rumors of something called Uroboros. And, of course, considering this is a game that courts the male market, he has a sexy sidekick named Sheva Alomar. What’s more, she’s black. You really don’t see many black women in today’s gaming world,  whether you want to call that racist or not is another discussion, but to see one in such a prominent role is a welcome difference. I know I don’t speak for many, if any, of my fellow males, but I’m getting rather tired of busty, white blondes.

Sheva Alomar

As far as her role in the story, she’s part of BSAA’s African branch and is dispatched along with Chris to find out what’s going on with that Uroboros thing. The story takes off from there, and eventually ends along with, what I personally believe, the main story of the entire Resident Evil franchise up to this point. It’s somewhat bittersweet at the end, but definitely worth the journey. From the amazing opening cinematic to the final battle with an old antagonist, the game has an engaging story, especially if you’re a big Resident Evil fan.

As far as the game’s content, the first feature you should expect is it’s co-op gameplay. If you’re playing by yourself, you play as Chris with the AI controlling Sheva. You share ammunition, healing items, weapons, everything. Considering each character can only hold nine items at a time, strategizing with your AI partner becomes critical. The AI is amazingly capable, and only shows its weakness in the extreme difficulties. Truly, this was the largest surprise of the game for me. I expected it to be passable at best, game-breaking at worst. It clearly exceeded my expectations. And, of course, if you have a friend, next to your or on the other side of the world, you can hook up with them and play together. The internet play is a definite strong point in RE5.

The other big content feature that I’m absolutely loving about the new Resident Evil games is the depth of the game. There’s a wide variety of guns available, almost all upgradable, that really add to the fun of RE5. In addition, the game has loads upon loads of unlockable content. Weapons, video filters, figurines, costumes, modes… Certainly, RE5 is one of, if not the, deepest action games out there. The lasting appeal kept me playing for over seven hours a day until I finished everything I could do.

As far as the actual gameplay, expect big explosions, big guns, big creatures, and absolutely no scares.

Okay, maybe I am exaggerating a little. But make no mistake: this game is an action game with horror elements. Similar to Gears of War, it makes clear its main focus is to blow stuff up and kill things, but also tries to creep you out at some points. How successful this is or not is largely up to the sensitivity of the player. I never felt scared, I’ll tell you that.

Anyway, the gameplay is great fun. I’ll show you a picture so I don’t have to explain everything to you. What am I, a writer?

The over-the-shoulder perspective remains from its predecessor, as does its “stop-to-shoot” mechanic, which is self-explanatory. In order to shoot, you have to stop moving. It no doubt feels archaic, like a monument to its horror-filled past, but ultimately, it works. The game still is not quite Gears of War, it’s still not quite a speedy shooter, and the controls remind you of that. Therefore, I can’t knock it too much, as it’s not broken. But it definitely should be looked at in the next inevitable go-around.

The graphics and presentation are more than sufficient. Assuming the screenshots given isn’t enough for you, here’s a trailer to get your senses about it:

RE5 is definitely all it’s hyped up to be. The whole package. Everything you could want in an action game. The only thing that prevents this from getting 100% is the odd controls. But, like I said, that doesn’t matter much. Do yourself a favor and buy this.

FINAL GRADE: A

It is with this in mind that I will record  my opinions on games that have changed the format for the better. The criteria other than that? It has to have been made on this generation of consoles (Wii, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, DS, PSP).  PC games will not be considered unless they have brought something culture-shattering to the forefront. For example, if this was a few years ago, World of Warcraft would have received certain accolades. It should also be noted there are no “categories,” as I find them restrictive. Instead, specific games will be presented as the progressive games of this generation. Thus the term Generation Game. A game that defined the generation. The Zeldas, the Final Fantasys, the Halos, the Street Fighters of this new generation.

Now, ladies and gentlemen. The generational games:

Bioshock is the first game in our ceremony of this generation. I will readily admit that I did not enjoy playing Bioshock. But my problem was not the quality of the content, but of the interface with the content. You know you have a truly amazing product when you can stand back and say “That is a good product and I love it, but the gameplay isn’t good.” It tells you that the narrative, the art, the story, the music, the extra-playing elements of games were so compelling that you realized it and acknowledged it. And that is the case with Bioshock. The elements I mentioned above just smack you across the face from the moment you enter Rapture. They all intertwine wonderfully and make such a delightfully moody game that I would recommend its play to anyone who thinks gaming is nothing more than Pac-Man, and those that recognize that gaming is so much more than Pac-Man.

Oblivion is a game often forgot in the discussion of this generation. If you know me, dear reader, you are more than likely well aware that I hold this game in high esteem. Why? I will tell you right now, the main story in the game is nothing progressive or innovative. What makes Oblivion is its depth elsewhere in the layers of its incredibly deep existence. It is a wonderfully executed bright, beautiful world drenched in so much lore it would make a Tolkien fan do a double-take. Blades and bows, elves and dwarves, trolls and ogres, we’ve seen it a billion times before. We have not seen such a deep game that does not overstep its bounds and ends up feeling like it collapsed on itself. At least, I have not. Truly, it is an inspiration for RPGs from now on, as we saw in Fallout 3.

Allow me to be clear: Halo is not a revolutionary godsend game that unifies the world under its banner of complete and utter supremacy. There is not much more I hate in the gaming realm then when people say that, because it’s quite clearly not. The only things that are unique and progressive about the Halo franchise, historically speaking, are the way it brought FPSs to consoles and how it has implemented the online world in its games. The first has been done, there’s nothing to reward there. The second is what is special about Halo 3. Implementing the Forge, a unique way of making custom games, the Theater, an obvious, but not implemented, way of recording game films and sharing with friends, and trivial things like armor and ranks are all things that make Halo 3 a game that must be recognized. While it might be an inevitable evolution in gaming, it had not yet occurred. And therefore, it must be acknowledged.

Mass Effect is probably my favorite game of this past generation.  It would take an entire post to expound upon why I love it, and you might very well get it soon. But, to summarize, here’s what it did to progress gaming:

- Story

- Art

- Character Interaction

- Presentation

- Music/Sound

- Player Integration

- Philosophical Musings

This is the stuff of generational games. When a game evolves and revolutionizes at the same time, they are truly special. Mass Effect is such a game.

Special Circumstances

The following games were under heavy consideration by me for a generational recognition, but for one reason or another, failed to do so.

Rock Band - Ultimately, this game is more of an evolution of an age old music genre. The only truly thing new about this game is the social aspect of playing in a band, which relies on something outside the game for its revolutionary value. I didn’t feel comfortable putting it in the list for that reason.

Metal Gear Solid 4 – Everything I know of this game suggests it’d be at the top of my list. The problem is, quite simply, I haven’t played it. Putting a game I have not played on the list is not something that I believe I should do.

Wii Sports – This one was a struggle for me as well. It is, perhaps, the most impactful game of the generation, but did not progress it at all. How does one address that? It’s merely older than dirt sports games with new controls. The hardware might get a reward, but this ceremony rewards software. Ultimately, that’s why I had to leave it out.

What games define the generation for you? Feel free to share.

]]> http://cerebralgamer.wordpress.com/2009/03/01/the-generational-games/feed/ 0 cerebralgamer Bioshock Oblivion Halo 3 Mass Effect