"Your music's bad and you should feel bad!"

[nano_moose]

After three weeks without internet in my apartment, I have learned an important lesson.

It is - and you must listen closely - it is that you must, whenever possible, read the instructions.

I could have really used that twenty-five dollars.

Sigh.

In any case, you may have noticed the tag, which refers to the fact that I finally picked up Mirror's Edge and - well, it wasn't everything I was hoping it would be. No spoilers after the cut, but there is a great deal of pretentious niche-gamer rage.

Goddamnit, DICE, you make all these promises, you get my hopes up, I invest my unwavering faith in your commitment to making a new and exciting IP, and you pull this shit. It's worse than if you'd just been making Gears of War 2 because, well, I expect to hate that game on general principles and so it's not a shock when I do. This is almost Warrior Within all over again, with the added sting that there are so many things that are right, but you failed in ultimately the most vital areas and it brings the whole game down.

An important edict for any game based around fluid movement, everyone: it must be forgiving and intuitive. This is not a negotiable feature. This is the key to why Sands of Time was so great (and sadly one of the problems with the sequel; Warrior Within almost entirely swapped it out for non-linearity and the price, in my opinion, was too high, but never mind). Even if the character is constrained by linear environments, it must feel as though they are not. The player must feel utterly in control of the character's movement, which must itself be graceful, flow unbroken unless they get the timing completely wrong. And in SoT, the time-rewind even made that part almost fun. I am not suggesting anyone wholly rip the mechanics out and place them in a new environment, changing nothing, but there are lessons to be learned there.

Mirror's Edge was its best when I knew precisely where to go, precisely how to get there, and could simply do so, in a single attempt. When I could hear the rhythmic pounding of Faith's feet in my heartbeat, vision edged by motion blur; when it was though I myself was dancing on a red tightrope between the blazing white/colour of the world below and the absolute, glorious blue sky.

The rest of the time was divided between repeated and failed attempts to conform to impossible timing constraints and combat mechanics, both in horrifically closed-in environments. I refuse to believe it was playtested enough. No normal human would have accepted anything so uninituive and unforgiving.

The thing that infuriates me most about all this is that people are going on and on (and on and on) about how great Dead Space is, but that might not be for the reason you think. It's a fine game, but no more; it does very little new, takes no risks, and its setting and story has little thought invested in it but whatever it takes to rip off Alien and System Shock while removing what made those the classics they are. And yet, while generic, it really does deserve higher scores than Mirror's Edge, an original and truly fascinating premise, because Dead Space is almost ridiculously well-presented and consistent while Mirror's Edge is tragically schizophrenic and the gameplay and atmosphere suffers. I hate that. I hate that it makes me think that. I hate it. This is an honest attempt at innovation and its failure is probably going to be blamed on that, rather than the developer incompetence truly responsible.

Why are the games I look forward to so frequently fouled up in execution? Even Bioshock wasn't as amazing as it could have been and it was made by some remnants of LGS. Why is Valve the only company capable of making good on their promises?*

I'm going to go play Sands of Time again to mitigate the rage.

Goddamnit.

...At least Fallout 3 is awesome. Pretty much exactly what I'd hope a 3D Falloutverse would look like and full of care, detail and love. I might talk about that later; it'll be nice to not be complaining about something.

*Oh god. After this, the new Prince of Persia game had better cure fucking cancer or I just can't take it any more.

Comments

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

See, posts like these make me wish I were on your level of gaming knowledge, so I could actually, er, converse. And maybe say something to make you feel better.

Disappointments suck, and you're right about how the innovation will get blamed, and the whole thing, the whole way the gaming industry is geared towards... well, non-gamers, and people who want to play the same damn game and blow up the same damn heads over and over again, it makes me frustrated. Because this medium can be so much more than that.

Totally talking out of my ass?

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

Kinda like the comic industry, but in reverse. Where it's geared toward people who have followed comics their entire lives and know ever tiny facet and don't really care that none of the comics have anything resembling a good story or good character development or good artists. Or uses the medium to its fullest extent.

[nano_moose]

Um, okay, to break it down, have you noticed how in Sands of Time you don't have to get your jumps completely right? If you fall a little short or go a little overboard, the Prince has a grab animation that means he'll latch on to the edge anyway. You have to be miles off to actually fall and go splat. In addition, you never come across a gap that you can't leap in one or two goes unless you are absolutely not meant to go that way. So you'll jump from point to point, pulling off these fantastic acrobatic feats, and the game balances well between allowing player input and automatic animations. That translates to you-the-player feeling dexterous as the ingame Prince, which is why the game is so much fun - it's wish-fulfilment. (This also might account for why the combat sections are less fun - the Prince is obviously not really cut out for stabby-stabby, so the combat sections are less intuitive, and for that reason, less fun. You don't feel in control of them, you see?)

Now, Mirror's Edge. There are moments when I knew that I had to jump a certain gap or grab a certain pole, but the incredibly restrictive and unforgiving edge physics meant I leap (or wallrun), come so close, but fall. And go splat. And then I'd do it again, and again, each time coming so close, but failing...and I felt like the game was scorning me for not doing it absolutely perfectly, which is not the way to make the player feel powerful and graceful. (Or at least not the way to endear me toward anything, especially since I have less patience for that these days.) The combat is even worse, mostly because you're forced into it, rather than following what is supposed to be the game's theme and running the hell away.

It's perhaps even more disappointing because god, the environments are gorgeous. The aesthetic is incredibly original and beautiful, lightyears from the grey and brown bloomfests other games are peddling. It makes me want to keyboardmash in rage and sadness.

the gaming industry is geared towards... well, non-gamers

I'm actually not so sure about that. From what I can tell, it's the fact that games are so hugely expensive and time-consuming to develop these days means it's way too risky to do anything unexpected. So in a sense, games are geared for one particular group of gamers because they don't know how to appeal to anyone else, and the medium is still thought of as a commercial/entertainment one, rather than an artistic one. Hmmm.

But I definitely agree about the latter part. Devs, publishers, designers: you don't need to keep making games for people who like wearing powered mech suits and blowing up monsters with big guns for the affection of their given busty digital girl. Those guys are amply catered for. I promise.

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

Having the flexibility/forgivingness in Prince of Persia is so, so nice, but I gotta say, right now I am not feeling it so much because I just finished leaping from falling stalagmite to falling stalagmite and the angles kept being weird and he'd go leaping off into the middle of nowhere. THAT IS NOT WHERE I POINTED YOU, PRINCE. SERIOUSLY. I think I died, like, three times.

I thought I had more to say to this, but apparently not. Meh.

...I do vaguely really want a Prince of Persia icon, though. Possibly with running and a pretty background. Things I need to check into when I have more time!

[nano_moose]

Hee! Your frustration amuses me. I feed upon your despair. Actually that's a bit surprising, but probably just because I've bulled my way through Jak II, and everything feels forgiving after that. (Oh god that game could drive you mad. It's like a return to the hair-tearingly, screamingly difficult platformer games of yore.)

Oooh! I should probably get a Sands of Time icon too. I mean, if you're an unashamed huge slobbering fangirl of a thing, you might as well advertise, right?

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

Internet! Yaaaay! I was vaguely wondering about the radio silence, but attributed it to the fact that a) you were probably busy with school and b) I haven't replied to anything you've said in forever and therefore would not magically get new comments in my inbox. Sadface.

...also, shameface, because I haven't replied to anything in forever. Blah. (I will attribute that to school and finals eating me! Seriously, I went in to school to work today and yesterday. My weekend, who has stolen it. WAS IT YOU, TEACHER WHO GAVE US THREE HUGE PROJECTS TO FINISH IN ONE WEEK? AND A TEST A WEEK AND A HALF BEFORE? YEAH. YEAH I THINK IT WAS YOU.)

I find your posts about gaming really interesting because when I play a game, my liking and disliking it is usually just a general thing. If you press me, I could probably complain about how it took me forever to do things, or how the characters didn't have depth, or WHAT THE HELL I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO NOW D: D: D:, but I couldn't pick it apart like you do. And so it's really cool to hear about this and go, "Oh! Oh yeah! So that's what was wrong with X."

That whole "forgiving and intuitive" movement thing is why I like games like Sly Cooper and Prince of Persia. I feel like I am totally awesome, hopping from tiny point to tiny point. It's why my dad is so impressed whenever he watches me play it, because he thinks I'm just awesome at knowing how far to jump.

So yes! Good point! And I am glad to know that I should definitely not buy Mirror's Edge.

And! I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on Fallout 3! Not that I have played it yet. ...I kinda want to, but, uh, knowing how many other games I still have on my list? Not sure when it's going to happen, if ever. But I've heard really awesome things about it, so.

(Random note: I was at a big family lunch this afternoon and my cousin, playing with one of the little kids, kept talking about the "sands of time" and I kept wondering if she had played PoP. Which I really doubt, because I am pretty certain the only video game she's ever played is DDR.)

butting in

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

WE DO HAVE FALLOUTS 1 and 2, so we totally need to sit down and play those sometime. (But not until I get a mouse for this computer.)

I am very proud of you for working on your insects this weekend! ALMOST DONE!

lolol you said butt also your icon

[squeemu.livejournal.com]

Really? I knew we had one, but I didn't know we had both! And yeah, I would like to play those! BUT ONLY IF YOU PROMISE TO SOMEDAY WATCH ME PLAY/YOU PLAY THIEF. (Christmas time, here we come!)

:D Yaaaaaaaaaay! ♥

Man, I wish you weren't going back to Canada for Christmas if only so we could play video games together. There are so many I shouldn't play without you around.

[nano_moose]

OMG OMG PLAY FALLOUT PLAY FALLOUT! Uh, but you should probably keep a FAQ handy if you do. One of its main problems is a tendency to assume the player is psychic (but then, JRPGs tend to assume the player is clairvoyant and also apparently obsessive compulsive, so maybe it's not so bad.* I still recommend you take the 'Gifted' trait, ignore all throwing weapons and explore the heck out of Necropolis as soon as reasonably possible, though).

I think the intro for the first game is now one of my favourite intros ever, so at least load it up and check that out. War...war never changes...

*Damn, I just keep dissing JRPGs today and I don't even know why. Well, I do know why, I just don't know I'm suddenly unable to keep it under control.

PS PLAY THIEF, BACO!

[thebaconfat.livejournal.com]

Oh man, thank you for the tips! I really need to play it when I have a good window of time in which I can be properly obsessive about playing the game and exploring things thoroughly. And when I have a mouse for my laptop.

I have seen the intro and it is so, so cool. And thanks to my brother I got to see the intro for Fallout 3 just the other day! I WANT TO PLAY IT.

[nano_moose]

I was mostly busy with school! And moving back and forth between my parents' house and my Brisbane flat didn't leave me a whole lot of time either, sadface. But! I passed MED103! AND I got a Distinction for my final project! That is about eight different kinds of glee for a lot of complicated reasons, but in short, hooray for confidence.

Ah, that's right, you guys get a shorter Christmas holiday than us, don't you? Man, I hope it wasn't too horrible for you. Maybe I should go up there and threaten the teacher for failing to properly space out the assessments. (Er. Was that a little too crazy? I can never tell.)

I SUSPECT THAT IS WHY YOU'RE TAKING FOREVER TO ANSWER THE MEME, SQUEEM, but I suppose I can't talk because I failing to reply to emails and vanishing mysteriously for weeks and posting incessantly about games that nobody else ever talks about in LJ land, like FPSes. Man, why is that JRPGs get all this fangirling and Western games get the shaft? I mean sometimes you'll get something like Portal taking over the internet briefly, but then everybody goes back to talking about, I don't know, Final Fantasy or something. I want meta about System Shock! Ridiculous bishi drawings of The Nameless One! Bizarre crossovers in the Thief universe! Is that so much to ask? (On the other hand, I happily fail to see anyone talking about how Viktoria is such a Mary Sue and how Garrett is secretly a paragon of virtue who cries glittering tears of regret for his crimes, so perhaps it's for the best.)

...That paragraph got away from me. Er.
You can blame school for fixing it so that I talk about this stuff with lots of polysyllabic words and am no longer capable of liking anything liked by anyone else except a select bunch of snooty game journalists. Man, I used to be just fine with JRPGs and their grindtastic adventures and overlong cutscenes.

Yes yes! That's the key to a lot of really great games, in my view; putting you in the moment and the character's shoes, giving you the experience – not necessarily the reality, just the experience – of doing an amazing thing. Sands of Time has the joy of acrobatics and agility, Thief has (to quote an article I read ages ago) the fun of getting away with it, and Shadow of the Colossus is being a tiny thing defeating a huge thing. Blah blah blah, the short version is: awesome, that your dad thought that. It is exactly the point I was trying to make.

...I kind of want to tell you to buy it anyway, just so DICE make a sequel and fix the problems, because I think it was a brilliant idea they didn't execute properly and worthy of at least some props. But the latter stages of the game just are not fun – worse, they're infuriating. Maybe I'll get a rich friend to buy up a bunch of copies or something. Although I'd have to get a rich friend.

My thoughts about Fallout 3 are pretty much entirely incoherent praise (tempered by the fact that I've started encountering the infamous Bethesda bugs). But it's obvious just how much of a damn the guys who made the game gave for the Fallout 'verse. One of my favourite things about the series is the tone, which is halfway between humour so black light cannot escape it and real poignancy, and they nailed it in F3. As well as the weird situations and use of player choice. It's good stuff.

(Pffff, lame. You'll have to make her play it somehow. I've been watching A Clockwork Orange for tips.*)

*This is a lie. I don't need tips haven't been watching A Clockwork Orange.