The Preamble
In my experience, there are an awful lot of game developers that simply don’t play games. It’s a serious problem. The excuses usually stem around “I don’t have time”. But seriously, how many writers don’t read? How many individuals in the film industry don’t watch movies? So why is it our industry is so different? If we can’t find the time to enjoy the entertainment medium we create on, how can we expect the rest of the world to take it seriously? Gamasutra ran a nice opinion piece on this recently and it rings so true.
There are three types of people I work with.
- The gaming luddites- These folks either have no interest in playing games or don’t consider games to be a valid entertainment medium. For them, working in the game industry is just a job. You’d think these folks would be contained to the accountants or HR personnel, but in reality these people are a large percentage of any big game developer.
- The gamers – I fall in this category. We play games quite regularly. We can chat about new releases, trends, etc… Some of us are quite passionate about our favourites. To us, games are as important an entertainment medium as film or television to the general public.
- The snobs – These are the designers who think every game out there is inferior to the one in their mind. You discuss GTA or Rock Band and they look down on you. They might admit to playing Braid. They don’t play many games because most games aren’t worthy of their time. Luckily this is the smallest percentage of the population in my experience.
So in an effort to curb this horrible trend in our industry I’m going to start writing brief blurbs on the games I’ve played or am playing.
Games I Played in June 2009
Fable II (Xbox360) - End-Game Content & DLC
I love Fable. I loved Fable II even more. I originally finished Fable II in November last year and it sat on my shelf collecting dust. Early in June I took a few days to complete some of the end-game content as well as the Knothole Island and See the Future DLC. Fable II really got fun once the main quest line was complete. I was no longer rushing from point to point so I spent a lot more time soaking in the living world. Now I just want more DLC or a true sequel. The combat in Fable II is simple but satisfying. The world is just deep enough without being overwhelming.
Prince of Persia (Xbox360)
FutureShop had a ridiculous sale on Prince of Persia. $20! So to preface this blurb: Would I have spent $69 on this title? No. But I certainly had a good romp for $20. The art style is what really won me over with Prince of Persia. It really was spectacular, as if I was controlling a living painting.
The control scheme was clearly derived from Assassin’s Creed but it didn’t feel as tight. The game was incredibly cinematic and was probably the best example of a game that looks like a movie while you are playing it. But I think this cinematic quality caused many of the control issues. Too often I felt disconnected from the control. I didn’t feel like I was impacting anything – rather the movie was just waiting on me to press the exact button it needed to continue.
I played through about half of the game but got bored, which is a shame because I would have enjoyed to see how the story ended. The boss battles just became so frustrating when they felt like playing paper-rock-scissors with a telepath.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game (Xbox360)
A current-gen console Ghostbusters game written by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd with voice-work by most of the original movie cast?! Sign me up! Ghostbusters: The Video Game is exactly what it strives to be. A wonderful game that faithfully lives up to the franchise. The writing is good. The voice acting is good. The pacing is mostly good except for a few annoying “solve the puzzle” instances. I honestly felt like I was helping the Ghostbusters team through a third movie plot line. The decision to keep the player’s character silent was genious. I greatly enjoyed the entire 8 hour cinematic ride and I still crave firing up another game just to experience trapping ghosts with my proton pack. Ghostbusters: The Video Game is what every adaptation of a movie franchise should strive to be.
inFAMOUS (PS3)
I was a little hesitant on inFAMOUS. Open-world sandbox games like GTA generally get tiresome for me. But the reviews were coming in strong and my PS3 hadn’t seen a good game in a long time. Wow… is about all I can say. From the moment I hit “Start” on the title screen I was sucked in. The story is good. The visuals are good. The controls are oh so very satisfying. I’m not sure how far into the game I am but I don’t care, I just want to keep playing. I should have something more intelligent to say later this month when I finally put this title down.
