I’d always figured that videogame characters were so unlike ‘real-world’ people that they couldn’t prepare me for anyone that might be thrust into my life. But walking my nine-month-old daughter around my kitchen, like a living marionette, I was suddenly hit by how much these miniature humans have in common with the characters we play in our games. And it’s more than just their uncanny ability to double jump. Continue reading →
07
May 10
Who killed the high score? Part 2: RIPG
By Fraser Allison
It seems as though point-scoring systems, once an indispensable part of videogames, have slowly been dying out. High score tables are far from extinct, but among the immersive single-player games that are considered the flagships of the medium – commercial colossi such as Half-Life, Uncharted, Fallout, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy and Grand Theft Auto, and critical high water marks such as Braid, Portal, World of Goo and BioShock – few use scoring in any significant way.
Why has the high score fallen out of favour? And are we overlooking an element of games that has not outlived its usefulness?
In Part 1 of Who killed the high score? I wrote about Halo 3‘s campaign scoring system, and how it greatly improved my experience of replaying that game. That got me thinking about another well-realised scoring system, in a game at the very opposite end of the developer budget scale: Spelunky. Continue reading →
04
May 10
Hell is other players
By Fraser Allison
Part of the reason games make such an interesting topic is because they are so multi-faceted. You can talk about a game as an abstract design, as an individual experience, as a part of a broader culture, as an economic product, as a technical showpiece and many other things besides.
Sometimes it’s not about a game at all; it’s about the people. Continue reading →
01
May 10
Who killed the high score? Part 1: Combat Devolved
By Fraser Allison
A familiar refrain in recent weeks, as everyone has been discussing the nature of games, is that videogames are no longer all about head-to-head competitions and high scores, as they were back in the heyday of the videogame arcade. While we often scoff at the ignorance of commentators who say you “get points” for killing enemies in, say, Grand Theft Auto IV – or pretty much any game that makes the news – it’s come up more than ever in the past fortnight, since Roger Ebert’s myopic dismissal of videogames-as-they-were-in-the-1970s-when-he-last-played-one has been countered by everyone in the entire world, all of whom have pointed out that most games aren’t about points or scores any more.
With typical obliviousness to the zeitgeist, and entirely by coincidence, I just discovered the campaign scoring system in Halo 3 – a game I’ve owned and played regularly for more than two years. Continue reading →
18
Apr 10
Thank you, Roger Ebert
By Fraser Allison
I’d like to thank Roger Ebert.
The world’s most famous film critic, and noted long-time opponent of the idea that games can be art, has written another article explaining why games are not art, cannot be art and never will be art, at least within the lifetime of anybody alive today. He bases this argument on two assertions: that art requires complete authorial control:
I believe art is created by an artist. If you change it, you become the artist. (…) Art seeks to lead you to an inevitable conclusion, not a smorgasbord of choices.
And that games are crap:
[V]ideo games represent a loss of those precious hours we have available to make ourselves more cultured, civilized and empathetic. Continue reading →
17
Apr 10
The game they let you play in heaven and make you play in hell
By Fraser Allison
God damn it.
It’s 2am. I’m tired. My back hurts. My eyes hurt. I can’t think clearly. I want to go to bed. I can’t stop playing Fire Emblem, because it’s so much god damn fun I want to stab myself with a pencil.
Playing Fire Emblem is like being in an abusive relationship. It’s a frightening, nerve-sharpening, anxiety-inducing experience. The game makes you hate it for its cruelty, and love it for its rare, begrudging approval, and hate yourself for not being good enough for it. Continue reading →
13
Apr 10
When the trailer is better than the game
By Daniel Golding
I’ve already consumed the best that Gears of War 3 has to offer. And I did it for free.
It’s nothing to do with the game, which I have no burning desire to play. It’s the trailer. Continue reading →