Are you kidding me? I was playing Gears of War 2 with my brother in law today and watched as an alien invader was chainsawed in half.
I almost lost my lunch.
I am not a prude or old woman, but this is too much for me. I won’t play COD4 in front of my daughter, and it has a tame gore rating compared to most other games.
Now, I watch Tom and Jerry and the Looney Toons gang with her. The act of a cat getting his head slammed in a door is violent, but it is not graphic, and that is the big difference.
My generation was raised on cartoon violence and most of us are fine; we are not crazy psycho killers. I am not say in that graphic violence will make you a psycho, but I do believe that it does desensitizes people.
Like all of us, my daughter will eventually have to find the acceptable level of violence that society will tolerate. I found that fighting is acceptable. Fighting and using a weapon is not. It is called assault with a deadly weapon and is punishable by law. The inevitability of children throwing blows at school is alright with me. It is the desensitization to that type of violence that frightens me.
Here is an example. In 1968 the band MC5 sang the song, “Kick out the jams.” The opening line in the song was, “Kick out the jams mother@#&%*s!”
In 1968, this caused a huge up roar. Can you imagine if this album had been released today. That was the only swear word in the entire album, but is was THE one to many. Today people are desensitized to this kind of language. I would be willing to bet that you have at least 5 CDs that used that word repeatedly.
Not only has the language usage changed but it seems that the fighting that I talked about earlier has given way to gun battles on the playground.
So, the point is when we are no longer phased by the elevation of violence then it starts to become accepted and easier to do. That kind of cozy relationship with blood and guts is never good.
If you have not seen any Gears here you go, but be warned.
Music can make or break a game. That is a known fact in the industry, and that is why so many developers spend so much on developing a great score. The music from the game Uncharted really helped to set the mood for the game. From the the opening scene to the end credits Naughty Dog nails it. The rich and organic feel of the music punctuated by rhythmic drumbeats instantly transports the player to the jungle. Here is a sample from the first game.
Whereas this style and theme created a richer world for the first game. I seriously doubt that it will lend anything to Among Thieves. I have not played Uncharted 2, but I can say that with the utmost certainty because of the trailer.
The sparse mountainous setting of Nepal is a great departure from the robust jungles. So, in turn the music that frames this new adventure should be able to make me feel like I am in the Himalayas. I have no doubt that the Naughty Dog team will deliver completely, but since these games are like movies, their soundtracks should also be motion picture quality.
We have come a long way since Mario and Link beeped and dinged across our television screens, but for a music geek like myself I hope we never go back.
I like to run and workout to stay in reasonably good shape. One thing I have never done though is run a marathon. It takes too much time to train for and the amount of punishment your body ends up taking is insane.
In games though, your characters are the most insanely fit people on whatever planet you happen to be on. They can run up and down mountains, swim oceans, and climb to the heavens.
Master Chief is a good example. That guy never stops. If he were an E9 in the Navy I was in, he would be drinking coffee and waiting for his retirement checks to start rolling in.
I know that these are just games and not real life, but COD4 limited the ability to sprint for hours and that added to the overall realistic feel. I am not hung up on realism, but I find myself trying to achieve these superhuman feats. If I can do it then folks on Ninja Challenge better watch out!
Just to further my point that there is a disconnect between games and the real world, here is a video. These guys are WOW dorks, but they still have an amazing experiment.
Sorry for the Bon Jovi reference but it just seemed to fit.
I had an interesting discussion with friends the other day about life meters. Life meters are a part of games that I have mixed emotions about. Back in the day when arcade machines were fed with quarters, the life meter was a necessary evil. If you were not dieing then you were not feeding the beast.
With the advent of home consoles systems, life meters were made obsolete. Dying every few seconds to get more quarters no longer serves any purpose. It was just annoying and could ruin a great game.
So, on the one hand, new games with the old school life meters are pointless, but if the concept is modified to work so that life is regenerative then you have a visual way to gauge your health but not an instant game over.
This point is driven home by the Halo games and KillZone.
The health bar in these games were great visual aids as to how much health you have left. So, if you are in a firefight and the indicator gets low you know that you have to scurry off and heal.
Games like Uncharted and COD use the pre-death rattle red screen and shortness of breath to warn you that you are about to DIE. This type of warning system is hard for me to judge. This means I usually charge in to battle all LLD. (Navy speak for “light or limited duty” and is given to injured sailors.)
To end this post before I start to ramble, I think that the life meters of yore served their purpose but if they are not an integrated measurement tool in newer games they are worthless.
When was the last time you cut a celebration dance short to read the credits of the game you just PWND?
If your answer was, “Credits? There are credits.” You are not being a very considerate gamer.
I know that reading the end credits of a game is on the level of watching paint dry, but it is the least we can for the men and women that put countless hours in to producing the games we love to play.
My wife and I feel that it is important to acknowledge the creative minds behind the game.
This post is not a sermon, I just wanted to remind everyone that we should be mindful of everyone in the industry.
Where do game designers come up with clothes that the characters wear?
It started when I played Tomb Raider for the first time. I was like every other 16 year old boy and thought that is how every female should dress. (except some moms and the elderly) Then as I matured I stared to wonder - where does she keep all of those extra guns and items?
The latest version of this problem I am having is with Far Cry 2 and Uncharted. In Far Cry you runaround the desert in bluejeans and in Uncharted you run around the jungle in bluejeans. After all of the dust settles, both of these guys have perfect hair and pants that look like they just came off the rack with not one hole or grass stain.
On a personal note, I only wish my pants fit that well. I run 5k’s so I am not fat, but my jeans manage to make me look like I got my pants a size too big. I guess that if I got my pants made of with 1/4 denim and 3/4 spandex I could look like Nate or that other guy. (.25 denim and .75 spandex for everyone outside the US)
Don’t get me wrong I love my jeans! They are pretty much all I wear but after experiencing the climate in other parts of the world I know better than to pack only denim. If I were in north Africa with the temperature hovering between 130 degrees I sure as hell would be looking for something in a cotton blend. The same goes for the jungle! When I get wet giving my dog a bath I have to take my pants off. The feel of wet denim is unbearable.
Before you say it,”they just happened to get caught in that situation.” Bullfeathers! All of the treasure hunting mercenaries I know dress accordingly. That way they are always prepared.
Like a Boy Scout. A treasure hunting mercenary Boy Scout. (with comfortable pants.)
I have noticed an increase in the use of the third person prescriptive in games - Resident Evil, Dead Space and Uncharted to name a few.
What happened to the first person view?
What makes shooters fun and engaging is the feeling of being in the middle of the action. Floating around behind the main character takes you out of the line of fire and minimizes the overall fear factor.
When I play a game in the first person I believe that every bullet has my name on it. The intensity during a fire fight is ratcheted way up. In contrast if I am engaged in a fire fight in the third person, I feel that every bullet is meant for the character not me; I am just kind of there to watch his back.
I really like some third person games but actually looking down the barrel and sighting in a kill is just thrilling.
Since both styles of games are in the same family do I have to change the name of this blog? Something like prospective or here’s looking at shooters…
NAH! I just wanted to complain a little bit about a bad trend I see emerging.
A little goes along way when you play an entire game as a backseat driver.
I played through it with the quickness. I could not wait to see what would happen next. I liked the fact that Nate Drake was an average guy.
Because of that I was able to form an attachment to the character and the situation that made it impossible to put down the controller.
However, after the end credits finished rolling it sat on the shelf for three months and then I sold it.
With the upcoming release of Uncharted 2, I began to think about Uncharted. I wondered why it was so easy for my to get rid of such a fun game. Then, all of a sudden it hit me!
Uncharted is a B movie.
I found myself trudging through the mediocre gun fights with thousands of baddies just to watch the cut scenes. What made the cut scenes so cool was that they were real movie scenes.
By using motion capture and actual dialogue, Naughty Dog made a great movie/game hybrid. In doing so they made a game that was so engaging that you could not put it down but the flip side was that once the story was finished there was no reason to pick it up again.
So the formula that Naughty Dog uses for the Uncharted franchise is riveting but the novelty soon fades after the story is told.
I am going to get the next installment and I will enjoy playing it. The storytelling is great and I enjoy this type of adventure. Unfortunately for Uncharted [and me] after it has divulged all of its secrets I will promptly sell it.
I was not happy with yesterdays post. I didn’t feel that I explained my position on the numbering system of games and movies clearly enough. The nerd explaines it much better than I did. So, I will let him do it.
Well, in my earlier postings I said that Call of Duty: World at War was Call of Duty 5. That was not an accurate statement. There is no Call of Duty 5. The correct name is Call of Duty: World at War. That means that Infinity Ward could still be tapped to develop it.
A boy can dream.
That being said, why is it that games (and movies) for that matter can not be done in sequential order. Nothing pisses me off more than to get the wrong game because it was not in any kind of known order. With the interest in prequels nowadays I stay confused, and that sucks!
He bought an Xbox 360 and Gears of War 2. He is hooked and my sister is amazed at his regression. He stays up all night playing on-line with his friends fueled by sugar and…well…more sugar.
I remember when I started playing on-line. Counter Strike did me in. I was in college in the 90’s so Counter Strike in all of it’s on-line glory sucked me in. The sleepless nights and huge electric bills all added up to a lot of lost time and crazy amounts of fun.
So, listening to him tell his war stories and relive his accomplishments takes me back to that time when the world wide web was exciting. Plus, he is a school teacher so when he PWNS a 12 year old I can’t help but wonder if he is killing one of his students.
It is not always easy to admit that there is a huge dork lurking inside you just waiting to get out. So, I am proud of him for coming out and saying, “Yes, I am a gamer!”
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Are you kidding me? I was playing Gears of War 2 with my brother in law today and watched as an alien invader was chainsawed in half.
Sorry for the Bon Jovi reference but it just seemed to fit.
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