Better Too Human Review

I apologize to keep writing about this game that seemingly no one cares about, but Cisco had asked me what I liked about the game in my last post, and I tried to explain but then further fumbled the answer by getting extremely wordy.

So, with that said, Brian Crecente of Kotaku, a far better writer than I, has posted a fair review that I think pretty much nails my own feelings about the game as well (unfinished for myself, so far).

The Thought Behind Mega Man 9

An interesting interview with MM9 producer Hironobu Takeshita.

Misguided Moralizing

So a lot of people are talking about Jonathan Blow’s recent speech on game design and how story can conflict with gameplay.  (Braid is coming out this week… and the artist is a guy I went to high school with.)  They’re generally very positive about the examples he uses, but to be honest with you, I think Blow is quite misguided in how he views the impact of such decisions - at least in practice.

Take, for example, his Bioshock discussion:

“[T]here’s a ‘Little Sister problem’ in altruism versus balance. Blow noted that there’s only a marginal difference in the rewards you receive, no matter whether you choose to rescue or kill the Little Sisters. The game mechanics are telling you that it doesn’t matter which way you choose.  ‘So effectively, the game says that the Little Sister doesn’t matter, while the plot says that it does matter.’ He suggested that ‘…this is disingenuous [and] robs the game of its emotional impact and potential.’”

I completely disagree. 

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Famicomity

It’s been a slow day today as I start wrapping up my work over here in Korea.  So I appreciate long, rambling retrospectives like Jeremy Parish’s meditation on the Famicom, the latest installment of which can be found here (and I mean long and rambling in the most complimentary sense).  The series won my heart by referencing Little Nemo, which I think is perhaps one of the most under-rated games on the NES.  It also touches on Clash at Demonhead, a game that Nintendo Power made me want passionately, but which proved underwhelming when I finally got to try it out, years later, on an emulator.

More Miniposts (#?)

• An amusing take on the differences between Atari box art and Atari games, from Insult Swordfighting.  The post is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but the poster doesn’t mention explicitly that perhaps the reason the art was so superior to the game graphics was because the latter couldn’t keep up and needed some way to sell themselves visually.

• Also from IS, a meditation on the permissibility of “cheating” in tough games - apropos of my prior comments on game puzzles.

• Another installment of the Game Anthropologist, which has been fascinating me for reasons that aren’t entirely clear.

• A post at GameLife indicates that, as I had suggested earlier, Nintendo is going to have a very hard time even meeting expectations for the next generation of its console, let alone topping the Wii.

• Can Diablo III survive a more “colorful” - i.e., less darkly Gothic - art style?  My suspicion is yes, although it starts blurring the lines between a Diablo feel and a Guild Wars-style experience.

Looks like somebody’s listening to me

Or, I get lucky sometimes.

Bungie has announced that there will be a free map download for Halo 3 available on Monday. But, not only that, the Legendary Map pack will be reduced in price from $10 to $7.50 a few months after its mid-April release.

Hmm, I believe somebody recommended step-down in price every few months back in November.  Strange how that works out sometimes.

Speaking Of Slowing Down

Kotaku cites a post suggesting that we have “too many” games, or rather that because of the number of solid games that we should slow down every so often.  Agreed, although I’m more posting it because it’s related to my previous “taking a break” post than because it’s particularly insightful.

Taking A Break

One of the side effects of my time in Seoul is that my game playing has been significantly curtailed; it’s been over two weeks since I’ve played pretty much anything (although I did bring my DS, PSP, and 360 with me), and it may be up to another month or so before I can play again.  Interestingly, although I’ve missed it a bit, I think the break has been pretty helpful in reorienting me. 

First of all, pulling myself out of the release schedule has given me more time to think about what I enjoy playing and why.  There’s a temptation to play every big new game out, and this is probably counterproductive to actually enjoying your gaming experience: the hype is sometimes overwhelming and I’ve bought games that I had little interest in simply because they were being talked about so much.  Second, the birds-eye view of commentary is perhaps more illuminating once you can breathe freely: in the weeds it can be very tough to understand which stories are particularly relevant and contextualize them, because there’s a lot of media to be consumed and not much time in which to really consider its value or validity.  Finally, you gain more perspective on how gaming actually fits into your life and its relative importance in your priorities.  I’ve never been concerned that I couldn’t stop playing - but it’s always nice to have a reminder that there’s plenty else out there to occupy your time.

I don’t know that I would choose to take such a break frequently, but it might be worthwhile for people to consider periodically. 

Power-Leveling = Bad?

Would anyone care to explain to me the deep moral dilemma that apparently is power-leveling?  I honestly don’t get why this is so controversial that Kotaku AU had to label its column with a disclaimer.

Sure, it violates Blizzard’s EULA (a position on character ownership that I find rather reprehensible, while we’re at it).  But Blizzard can always ban you.  It seems to me that if your game is so unpleasant that the prospect of leveling back up to 60 gives you “stomach cramps… Brain cramps… Cramps in my hair…” there are bigger problems in play.   So that’s out.  The next option would be the Chinese sweatshop angle.  I sympathize more with this, but frankly, if the players could be making more money doing something else, they would.  Clearly this is better than their other employment options, and I thus have a hard time distinguishing WoW power-leveling from the average call center in Costa Rica.

Now, it’s beyond me why you would pay for someone else to play a game for you… the level and loot system, to be blunt, is the only reason to play in the first place: it’s the lone reward for the huge time sink that is WoW.  Without levels and loot, you basically have nothing to do but gank lower level players (assuming you’re a jerk).   But if you have a lot of money, and you want to pay some guy to get you to level X, I don’t see why you shouldn’t be allowed to.  You’re not hurting anyone but yourself.

Masocore

Ever heard of masocore games?  They exist primarily to make you hate them (and to make Battletoads look easy).  More specifically, they have almost no coherent rule system: masocore games’ rules change constantly, and the only way to beat them is constant trial and error.  The videos here, particularly of I Wanna Be The Guy, are instructive in their blatant disregard for your time.