I Think I've Found My Limit For Video Game Violence

SPOILER ALERT - if you haven't played Call Of Duty: Black Ops yet, you might not want to read this - despite the following, I do recommend the game - it is a highly polished, exciting experience... with one exception.

In COD: BO you play a black ops agent who participates in many "wetwork" missions over the years starting in 1960's Communist Cuba and going through Viet Nam and beyond (I haven't finished the game at this time of writing)

At the start of the game, the player is offered an opportunity to skip "graphically violent" sequences. In the previous COD game (Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2) this sequence had the player cast as a (ANOTHER SPOILER) undercover agent who participates in a terrorist attack on an airport. The player is given the option to gun down innocent civilians who flee in terror and beg for their lives.

Or the player could also choose to not gun down the innocents and just follow along with the terrorists as they did their dirty work. Either way, the story still progressed, but the player could choose to opt out of the violence - kind of the gaming equivalent of being a "conscientious objector."

COD:BO does has the same start of game prompt, but this time the violent act was so odious I was actually stunned by it. In it, the player is told to smash a glass window. Which I did. Then the character puts a pieces of broken glass into the mouth of an interrogation victim and is prompted to punch the victim in the mouth.

...

Now, I understand the place of violence in games. I've found myself defending the use of violence in games on several occasions. To confess, I had no problem gunning down the victims in COD:MW2. But this torture sequence felt so gratuitous, so wrong, that I couldn't bring myself to press the button.

After a few seconds, the game went ahead and punched the victim for me (not once but twice) so the story could continue, but it left me feeling really bad.

Bad about being given the option to do such a heinous act (no more heinous than gunning down hundreds of enemy soldiers I suppose but in a shooter, that's part of the territory), bad about my character who I had perceived as a "good guy" up until this point and bad for the state of gaming in general. That this is what it takes to get attention in games these days. As much as I respect the Treyarch design team's work, this sequence just felt like it went too far and left a bad taste in my mouth. (no pun intended)

Like I said before, COD:BO is a great game. It is definitely worth your play time. It's well designed, very exciting, very cinematic. The controls are great and the camera is great. It's an admirable effort, especially considering what the company went through earlier this year.

But it didn't need a torture scene to be a great game. And it's sad the team didn't realize that.

Warstorm!!

Back in the late 90's I became addicted to crack. Not actual crack that you smoke, but crack that some men call "Magic the Gathering."

If you don't know what Magic is, I'll wait while you Wiki it.

Ah, you are back. Good. I started playing Magic around the year it came out. I was a pretty early adopter. I didn't have a Lotus or a Mox, but pretty much everything else. The problem was, I have a little problem. Call it a personality disorder or an addiction. I had too much disposable income and not enough sense. I bought booster packs all the time. You see, games that have additional buyable content - Heroclix, Warhammer 40K, any CCG - they are all made to suck money out of my pocket. I had so many cards that a friend and I (another game designer - co-incidence?) used to play what we called "Iron Man" Magic - whenever a card was destroyed, we ripped it up. WE HAD THAT MANY CARDS.Then I had no one to play against. (even the Iron Man guy) Then I moved. Then I had no friends that played Magic. Then I had lots of boxes of Magic cards sitting around my house for over 10 years. Then I grew resentful of those boxes. Then I gave those cards away to a kid I knew who was interested in Magic. No more Magic for me. (By that time I was into Warhammer 40K)

So no Magic for me for about 12 years. I was cured.

Then came Warstorm. It looks like Magic, there are cards with elves and fighters and demons and orcs and they line up real nice and they even fight the game for you. And oh look, you can buy packs of cards or individual cards or decks just like Magic. And you can use "fake" in-game money or you can USE REAL MONEY to buy more cards. And you don't have to worry about storing them - because they aren't real! And I know have friends all over the internet to play against - and they don't even have to be on-line for me to play against them.

The end (or the beginning) to this story is that I am re-addicted to crack. It is virtual crack, but crack none the less.

Who wants to play?

Sadly, no Barbara Crampton... but...

I am constantly amazed at the little gems that are stashed all over the interwebs. I found one tonight called "Deanimator" based on Lovecraft story "The Strange Case of Herbert West" (aka the "hero" in the movie Reanimator)

Skinny little Herbert has nothing between him and a horde of undead but his trusty six-shooter - which seems like it always need reloading. It also features some very nice animation. Pro-Tip: Use your mouse cursor to select the zombies rather than just "aiming" and shooting at the zombies.

It's very simple, very moody and very effective.

BLURST!

Thanks to the fine folks at Kotaku, I have discovered a new game site. http://www.blurst.com/ has several fine looking games with themes that only games on the interwebs can provide.



Minotaur China Shop (from Flashbang studios) might be the first "Man vs. himself" game I've ever played. You play a huge Minotaur who owns a china shop, helping other anthropamorphized customers buy the mug or grecian urn of their dreams. However, you move around like... well, like a bull in a china shop. Each time you accidently blunder into a cabinet and break something, you get more incensed with rage. You can either give into the rage, destroy the place and collect the insurance, or calm yourself with deep breathes and continue with your day. Something I think many of us can relate to.

An absolutely fantastic concept that reaffirms my idea that you can make anything into gameplay. Well done, Flashbang!

Even 7 years later, Maximo gets great reviews!

Dave Siller, a great designer and one of my favorite bosses, pointed this out to me - a review of Maximo: Ghost to Glory for the PS2 in the latest issue of Edge. As you may know, Edge is a UK video game magazine with a reputation for being a tough game rater.

Imagine my surprise when they published a glowing review of the game seven years later! Imagine my surprise when I saw my Maximo 3 designs published in the article! (I wonder which blog-o-site they got those from? :P Next time, howabout a credit guys?!)

It's nice to see this game get some love - if you haven't played it, I highly recommend it. It still holds up even after all of this time.

Burn the Rope!

I played "You Have To Burn The Rope" when it first came out, but a pal of mine recently reminded me of it. It's an action platformer with all the elements you need - a hero, jumping, object collection (fire), a puzzle, a boss and a big explosion at the end. Oh, and it takes about 2 minutes to play. But the best part of "You Have To Burn The Rope" is the ending credits song - which lasts about 4 minutes - twice as long as the game! Funny, brilliant stuff.


"You Have To Burn The Rope" reminded me of another game that I love - "Skullmonkeys" for the PS1. Besides the awesome clay animation, Skullmonkeys had the best soundtrack I've ever heard in a game - particularly the infamous bonus level song. If you haven't played the game, I recommend it, but beware, you will be throwing your controller as it is BALLS-HARD.

But that's the way we rolled back in those days.

I see STARS!

Sent to me by my old partner in crime Mark Rogers (no relation!) is the throughly addictive Hoshi Saga.

It's kind of like Wario-Ware but far more stylized and far more clever and some times downright impossible to fathom. There are three sets of 30 puzzles and there's at least one in each set that I have no friggin idea how to solve.

Great fun though and a great exercise in variations on a theme... find the star!

Current Top Ten LBP levels

So I had written up a really detailed love letter to Little Big Planet - how much I really love playing the game, how great it looks, all the neat things it makes me research when making levels (Shadow Puppets, Turning devices, etc) - I put together images and lots of text... and then the blog tool crashed out.

So what I have instead is a Top Ten (OK, more than 10) list of really really cool LBP levels instead:

10. Star Wars PSN: shinta123 / Sack to the Future series (part 1, 2 and 3) PSN: Hymanator/Ghostbusters PSN:Stryden - These levels do what LBP does best - allows creators to make levels/homages to their favorite movies in the LBP/Sweded style. It's always fun to see what gets highlighted and left out. The Sack to the Future levels also features some very clever asset switching - some of which I'm still scratching my head over.

9. Burning with Dinosaurs PSN:Blue-Alloy/Fly me to the moon... PSN:thespaff - Two levels that show of the charm of the LBP graphics - allowing creators to make beautiful themed levels that feel like they've leapt off the wall of a kindergarten class.

8. Duck Hunt from the NEW - NEW GAMEPLAY PSN:shiftshift/Libidius.jp PSN: RRR30000 - Two levels that really show off the flexability of the LBP engine - both shooters in this case and both based on classic game - Duck Hunt and Gradius.

7. Little Dead Space PSN:DarknessBear - fantastic use of light and sound. A little light on gameplay but really rich on atmosphere.

6. Tick Tock Clock 2.0.1 (Episode 1) PSN:TOBSn08 - An extremely complex and playable level, Tick Tock Clock also looks very nice.

5. Jack McSetback & the Spikey Stone of Doom PSN: Wyth - The best of the "temple" levels I've seen - the gameplay is very solid and there are some nice touches, especially the use of realistic physics to trigger the temple's traps.

4. Sackhouette - Forest King's Request - PSN:Luckett_X - Luckett has mastered the "Patapon" silouette style and I'll be damned if I know how he does it. He has several in the series and be warned, they are all hard as nails. But really pretty to look at.

3. 300 Spartans - PSN:branditimus (also Escape the Burning Building) branditimus' levels are very straight forward, almost traditional, but he comes up with very clever ideas and visuals that make you forget that you're playing LBP. I'm looking forward to seeing what he does next.

2. World of Colour - PSN:geosautus - (also Mad Mansion) - geosautus really understands not only what it takes to make a good playable level, but also does some neat trickery with reward systems. He is one of the LBP communities' most solid creators.

1. The Comic Book Adventures of Super Sackboy! - PSN:MightyBedbug - OK, this one is mine, but it's my blog! If you liked "Comic Zone" and fighting giant robots, then you'll like this. Make sure to heart me! Also keep your eyes open for my next one coming soon: The History of Batman part 1 1939 - 1949.

Growcube

If you haven't already, you should play Growcube - a highly addictive puzzle game. Using no dialogue whatsoever, the game is extremely clear (and yet not, as that is the nature of the game) and it is completely adorable. The creator also made the excellent Grow RPG for those of you who like a little Dn'D with your puzzles.

GTA 4 - best game ever? Hardly.

So like every one else in the gaming world I picked up a copy of Rockstar's newest: Grand Theft Auto IV. I enjoyed the third but never had the time to play Vice City or San Andreas but I had high hopes. I fired up the XBOX 360 version (gotta love those achievements) and started playing.

Even though I'm not a hugh fan of crime dramas, I still liked how I was drawn into the world and its characters. After the first hour of play, I felt like it was more Grand Theft Buying Clothes and Grand Theft Driving Really Slow. Which I was totally fine with as I was getting comfortable with the controls and started to explore around a little further than the ghetto I started off in.

I started to get a bit bothered by the constant "nagging" of my cousin and actually felt bad when I went on a date rather than answered his cries for help (I chalk that up as to me accidently hitting the wrong button on the phone and not knowing how to backtrack to call him back and get directions.)

So, the second time he called, I rushed to save him from the two loan sharks that were pummelling him on a basketball court. While I found the combat a bit sluggish, I was still able to beat them down. And then we rushed to the car to chase after another guy.

Here's where the game went completely in the shitter for me. Because I had been following the story, there had been no previous opportunity for me to drive like a madman. I actually drove pretty slowly when I had my date in the car or when I had to go to my cousin's. Because I was slowly working my way into the game, I didn't feel like I had the chance to put the pedal to the metal and learn how to drive fast. I'm no strange to driving like an idiot - I've played Crackdown, Burnout Paradise and a few other open world games that feature driving - but in GTA IV the combination of a car that handled like shit, a street full of obstacles and traffic AND a time limit that was made even worse by my cousing yelling in my ear every ten seconds was a convergence of factors that made me end of wrecking my car or losing the thug I was chasing. What was worse was each time I lost, I had to go back and re-fight those two loan sharks and the more I learned about fighting and timing blocks, the more sluggish the fighting felt. After seven times I threw down the controller (something I NEVER do) and had to go play some Team Fortress 2 to cool down.

What pisses me off so much is that a game that has been almost universally praised for how perfect it is doesn't have features like pretty common features like dynamic difficulty, alternate pathing that if you know a better route, you can cut the driver off at the pass or even a checkpoint that doesn't require you to fight the two goons over and over again. I'm sorry that's just sloppy design and not worth of a "perfect" score.

I'll give GTA IV another try, but I've already felt like I've seen the emperor's new clothes and it'll never be "perfect" in my mind.

Passage

I'm probably late to this party, but I recently discovered Jason Rohner's "game" Passage and I must say that it's a brilliant piece of work.

A metaphor for adult life, the player walks a 16-bit character (which reminded me of the Activision's Pitfall Harry) on a "life journey" - the first session I played, I walked straight ahead - got a wife (more on that in a second) and scored moderately high points-wise but encountered no treasure (which increases points) and no obstructions either. As I walked along, the area ahead of me (the future) was hazy and as the character aged, the future became clear but the past grew hazy. (It reminded me of a trip I had once when on 'shrooms, but that's a story for another time.) If you "go off the straight and narrow" you encounter treasure chests which can be full or (more often) contain nothing at all.

There are also obstacles which can be circumnavigated alone, but if you have a wife following you, there are many paths you cannot take - as a married man, I can tell you this was the most poignant aspect of the design - a mechanic never really done in games outside of Ico - and one that really brought home the whole theme of the game for me. I would love to see this design idea (caring for someone else) brought to more games - I'm beginning to feel that the era of the solitary hero against the world in games is almost dead.

I highly suggest everyone to experience Passage for yourself here.