Well it’s getting to that point again where developers start rolling out all their big guns in time for Christmas. I’ve been enjoying Blazblue these past couple of months but also counting down the days until I could get my grubby mits on some new games. Over the next few months I expect to be playing..
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2
Call of Duty: MW2
Assassin’s Creed 2
If Gran Turismo 5 gets released in December as planned, let alone released AT ALL considering how long it’s been in development - well I’ll be pretty surprised. What about you guys, what are you looking forward to and indeed wat are you playing now?
Steam had “Braid” discounted by 70% last weekend, making it a paltry 4.50 Eur.
I couldn’t resist (curious about what all the ballyhoo was about on its initial release…) and now I’m seriously hooked. This is just one huge string of clever design decisions with a fairly standard game underneath it (a 2D platformer with control consisting of only 6 buttons, 5 of which are up, down, left, right and jump), but it’s incredibly polished.
It starts not with a menu, but with the game. Finding out what happens and where the first level is is automatically the tutorial. Of course there is a real how-to hidden under the escape button, but it’s just a single image that is as deceptively simple as the game itself.
The story is remarkably poignant, the slivers of it you discover have meaning and the background is more well-thought out than many a science-fiction novel. The graphics look like moving watercolors and cannot be captured in screenshots. The music is the opposite of what you’d expect of an old-style 2D platformer, and absolutely wonderful for it.
Gameplay is of the old adagio “easy to learn, hard to play”. It has seldom been truer than with this game, and I’m glad my house has double glazing as I’ve been cursing at the top of my voice several times already. Yet I cannot stop trying to solve the devilish puzzles (my brain HURTS), or try and understand the subtle gameplay nuances found in each world.
“Braid” is an astounding success and comes much recommended.
And on the other side of the spectrum of “jumping games”, I’m currently re-playing “Mirror’s Edge” and strangely enjoying it far more than the first time, and I can’t wait for “Assassin’s Creed 2” as the first one was one of the most beautiful-looking games I’ve ever played.
Heh… as a frustrated writer I absolutely hated Braid. I admire a lot of the work that went into it but I thought what I saw of the story was wildly over-rated and I loathed, loathed, loathed the decision not to give the player any kind of ending at all unless they hoover up every single collectible in the game. Good, just nowhere near the word of God people were claiming.
Truth be told I haven’t finished it yet, I’m not really that far into its story. Some of the puzzles in “Braid” are unbelievably difficult, either in concept (what should I do?) or in execution (retry, retry, retry, RETRY, RETRY, OH FOR F**K’S SAKE!!!). It’s a good thing you can endlessly rewind or the game would be instantly unplayable.
But so far I actually like the poetic language, which might have been hopelessly over-the-top in a novel but seems funny and daring in a videogame…
I have to admit the best examples of writing in videogames are frequently either dragged down by dated technology (your average consumer is never going to bother looking up Planescape: Torment, and I can’t entirely blame them) or more based around imagery, direction, symbolism et al which is still ‘writing’, technically, but doesn’t seem like it to the casual player (ICO, Shadow of the Colossus).
It’s a pet peeve of mine, as you may have guessed - I wrote my dissertation on the subject though I found it’s really, really hard to write an effective piece when you’re pretty much dead set on an aggressively contrary viewpoint (writing in videogames is largely awful and virtually no-one in the industry who holds forth on the topic knows what the hell they’re talking about). I got the grade for the postscript explaining in detail how the dissertation was a failure, not for the piece itself.
Anyway, ‘nuff rambling. I did like Braid, I just think most of what it does has been done better elsewhere. Not enough to make me want to keep my 360, that’s for sure.
Cool, thanks!
I’d send you mine but it’s reeeeeaally boring, about ITIL and similar quality-assurance methods derived during the Eighties but which are still being used twenty years later despite the rapidly changing ITC-environment…
Funny you mention “Ico” and “Shadow o/t Colossus” in one sentence since they’re both made by the same team. I can’t wait for their newest effort, since I consider their works to be pieces of art rather than games.
A bit like “Braid”, actually…
Steam finally discounted “Mass Effect” so I bought it. I’m having a hard time “getting” the game though. I just started and am in the first mission. I like the updated version of the old choose-and-talk interface but when you suddenly get thrown into squad control, weapons management and skillpoints at the same time I sort of lost my way. Stuff happens, I survive it, but I have no clue whether or not I’m doing fine or if my current choices have set me on a path I’m going to like. So I’m luke-warm at the moment.
This being a Bioware game I expect this will change once the world gets more open ended and I can start enjoying myself, but right now I’m being rail-roaded through what seems to be an old Unreal Tournament level…
I really didn’t care for it as much as some, but then I think Bioware are hugely over-rated. They deserve a lot of their acclaim, but they do still trade in contrived kiss-the-puppy-kick-the-puppy scenarios even now, and they conspicuously leave out a lot of roleplaying options it feels as if anyone with half a brain would jump at given the chance. I liked Mass Effect, but it never really came alive until the final level, and the writing was mostly dry at best, dull at worst.
Plus Liara was such an awful, awful character. Christ, the artbook pretty much admits she’s only in there to provide the ‘Oh, Captain! Teach me of this thing you humans call… love’ option.
Replaying Neverwinter Nights a second time atm. I barely managed to play Half Life 2 on my laptop, so I’m somewhat limited in what I play.
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will have to be acquired for my PS2 though.
Also: World of Goo is awesome if you happen to like puzzle games.
That is all.
Dammit Brad, those are good games all, and any preference will surely only have to be based on personal taste.
I’d say “Mass Effect 2” since I’m almost finished with “Mass Effect 1”.
I grew to liking that game a lot after I discovered that teammates are basically gun-turrets which can be endlessly revived…
though I found it’s really, really hard to write an effective piece when you’re pretty much dead set on an aggressively contrary viewpoint (writing in videogames is largely awful and virtually no-one in the industry who holds forth on the topic knows what the hell they’re talking about). I got the grade for the postscript explaining in detail how the dissertation was a failure, not for the piece itself. 
