Playing old arcade games on the xbox 360 is enlightening. I played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Xbox Live and was amazed at the difficulty of a game that is played with the traditional two buttons and t-pad of older games. It was weird to play a game I was so familiar with without hearing the jingle of a few dollars worth of quarters in my pocket and sitting down to a smaller screen instead of standing in front of a huge console including a joystick and huge buttons.
I could not remember the game being that hard back in the arcade when I was younger. Let's just say I would have been out fifty dollars had I played the whole game through with quarters! As soon as I started playing I noticed how difficult it was to move around on the 3d-like screen so that I was lined up to attack the Foot soldiers. I remembered that you had to follow the enemies shadows rather than try to attack their body. There were always ten to fifteen enemies that attacked at once which made it hard to advance with any more than half of your life remaining, plus the pizza box health was not plentiful. The difficulty of the game increased with number of players, but that just means that the number of enemies increased.
Although it was harder to play than I had remembered, it was also over much faster. There were only five levels, and since I did not have to keep feeding a machine quarters and take my time avoiding enemies so as not to die, the game was finished in fifteen minutes. It was apparent after I had respawned a hundred times that the objective of the game was not to learn the story of why the Ninja Turtles must defeat Shredder, or to save the city from his huge Drome-thing, but to pump in as many quarters as you could. For a media with such potential to create amazing technology and even beautiful works of art, arcades sure were a rip-off, scamming kids out of their hard-earned allowances so that they could play a video game about their favorite cartoons. As much as I loved arcades, I should have saved that money or invested in something equally as geeky as comic books, which would have at least paid off.
However, since my experience in arcades was always great, I suppose I cannot say that the designs of these games were entirely bad. The socialization between multiple players is something that I miss. It is so much fun to be standing next to friends or even strangers and calling for them to help you or distributing high-fives when you beat a boss. I have written before that I find the online world of gaming, while it connects you to millions around the world, still does not have the same impact as standing around with friends for hours trying to beat Ninja Turtles. I was connected with physical beings rather than the representation of someone through their WoW avatar. Though I think that both are valid ways of socializing, I prefer an afternoon at the arcade.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Mass Effect
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/masseffect/news.html?sid=6166898&om_act=convert&om_clk=newlyadded
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/masseffect/
I am not sure how many of you have seen this, and I meant to post it earlier but was tied up with midterms. These links are articles, pictures and trailers for the new RPG Mass Effect, which is coming out for Xbox360. The graphics, game play, and even paratextuality of this game are all important as far as what we have been discussing in class as of late.
The characters and set in this game are inching closer to that idea of responsive AI and realistic situations as the player can interact with characters on a level that exceeds most regular voice acted peripheral characters in other games. As the article mentions, for instance, you can interrupt them which affects how they and others see you! Their facial expressions and even the matte and features of the skin on these characters is so realistic that it is impossible not to impacted by them. The setting in this game is also very realistic as the objects and the landscape react to the characters within them, such as being able to move or hide behind crates. This feature is not original of course, but it adds to the experience.
Considering that one can gather more information about the game through the internet and by experiencing some scene from the game itself, this game further proves as an example of the paratextuality of video games, however I do not think that it compares to the timeline of Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3. But Mass Effect does exist and does have fan base that creates a certain text for the game (before it is even available to the public) that illustrates the paratextuality of the game.
Overall, this game demonstrates the length to which developers and producers are willing and desire to go in order to create a game that is so life-like that the audience will be absorbed in the story as well as their avatar. It was interesting that they decided the player could not rename Shepherd (the main character) and that the article writer speculates that it has to do with all the voice acting. I think then that this game will engross players not as if they were in the game themselves but as masters of a universe that just happens to follow the story of one particular man. This can have just as much impact as the first person point of view that makes the player feel as if he is in the game as Mass Effect gives the player almost entire control over Shepherd that one is almost forced to play out the story and not simply run through the game shooting bad guys (which is probably why this game is an RPG instead of a first-person shooter).
On a side note I think it is interesting that the developers decided to use sci-fi story lines and aliens as characters in order to show off their talents as realistic game designers, instead of working on an all-human cast. This is good for someone like me because I prefer the sci-fi aspect of shooting games to those where the avatar must kill humans. As far as game violence goes it is less realistic and I have an easier time pulling the trigger. I am not averse to game violence, but killing other people just never struck my interest. I wonder if game developers then choose the sci-fi backdrop versus killing other people when they consider game ratings and marketing. It would show then that there is an important connection between the paratextuality of games and their development that exceeds the glowing reviews and fan fiction of gamers and actually enters a separate sphere of politics.
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/m/masseffect/
I am not sure how many of you have seen this, and I meant to post it earlier but was tied up with midterms. These links are articles, pictures and trailers for the new RPG Mass Effect, which is coming out for Xbox360. The graphics, game play, and even paratextuality of this game are all important as far as what we have been discussing in class as of late.
The characters and set in this game are inching closer to that idea of responsive AI and realistic situations as the player can interact with characters on a level that exceeds most regular voice acted peripheral characters in other games. As the article mentions, for instance, you can interrupt them which affects how they and others see you! Their facial expressions and even the matte and features of the skin on these characters is so realistic that it is impossible not to impacted by them. The setting in this game is also very realistic as the objects and the landscape react to the characters within them, such as being able to move or hide behind crates. This feature is not original of course, but it adds to the experience.
Considering that one can gather more information about the game through the internet and by experiencing some scene from the game itself, this game further proves as an example of the paratextuality of video games, however I do not think that it compares to the timeline of Resistance: Fall of Man for the PS3. But Mass Effect does exist and does have fan base that creates a certain text for the game (before it is even available to the public) that illustrates the paratextuality of the game.
Overall, this game demonstrates the length to which developers and producers are willing and desire to go in order to create a game that is so life-like that the audience will be absorbed in the story as well as their avatar. It was interesting that they decided the player could not rename Shepherd (the main character) and that the article writer speculates that it has to do with all the voice acting. I think then that this game will engross players not as if they were in the game themselves but as masters of a universe that just happens to follow the story of one particular man. This can have just as much impact as the first person point of view that makes the player feel as if he is in the game as Mass Effect gives the player almost entire control over Shepherd that one is almost forced to play out the story and not simply run through the game shooting bad guys (which is probably why this game is an RPG instead of a first-person shooter).
On a side note I think it is interesting that the developers decided to use sci-fi story lines and aliens as characters in order to show off their talents as realistic game designers, instead of working on an all-human cast. This is good for someone like me because I prefer the sci-fi aspect of shooting games to those where the avatar must kill humans. As far as game violence goes it is less realistic and I have an easier time pulling the trigger. I am not averse to game violence, but killing other people just never struck my interest. I wonder if game developers then choose the sci-fi backdrop versus killing other people when they consider game ratings and marketing. It would show then that there is an important connection between the paratextuality of games and their development that exceeds the glowing reviews and fan fiction of gamers and actually enters a separate sphere of politics.
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