RE4R

El Residente Malvado 4!

If you were to ask me what my favorite genre is I'd probably say survival horror, but recently I've been feeling less confident about that.  Signalis, Callisto Protocol and to a lesser extent even the Dead Space remake all failed to garner my interest.  Thankfully, the remake of Resident Evil 4 has reinvigorated my fondness for these kinds of games and reminded me of why I like them.

Specifically, the thing that always draws me into the survival horror subgenre is the need to harbor resources while still trying to complete objectives.  In the RE4 remake, that aspect of game design is in full effect.  Even the most basic weapon at the player's disposal, the knife, has a finite amount of times it can be used before it breaks.  Everything requires resources whether it be ammo for guns, herbs for health, or pesetas for repairs and upgrades.  Carefully stockpiling those items for when they are needed most is very much front-and-center here.  Having stated that, the gameplay isn't all that different from the original.  

Some noteworthy changes have been made to level layouts and, by extension, encounters.  In particular, there are some fun side missions that the player can engage in at their discretion.  Enemy types are largely unchanged.  Boss encounters, on the other hand, have been improved significantly.  A few things have been cut, such as the gondola ride, one minor out-of-left-field mini-boss battle, and the QTEs.  Overall, the changes represent welcome improvements over the original, but where the remake really shines is in terms of story.

While seen here as a mod for the RE2 remake, I kind of like Ada's tactical outfit
 more than the iconic red dresses she is known for wearing

Pretty much all the characters in the RE4 remake are fleshed out in greater detail by giving them more of and arc or backstory.  In particular, Luis and Krauser are much better in this new interpretation of the "Las Plagas" incident.  Sadly, one character is only marginally better.  While it's certainly a good call to have an Asian voice actress playing the role of Ada Wong this time around, the performance just feels off to me. Maybe I'm wrong here, but I always saw Ada as one of those classic "femme fatale" characters from pulp action stories and spy thrillers.  The problem is that archetype feels kind of antiquated now days.  I'm just guessing here, but the writers on the RE4 remake might not have known what to do with her in terms of updating the character which could have been the reason why we ended up with a somewhat lackluster performance.

How the heck did that wrench ended up in there?

Generally speaking, the moment-to-moment gameplay is extremely polished thanks to some well refined mechanics.  Which difficulty setting to choose when first starting the game though is a bit harder to pin down.  Just to illustrate my point, the first boss battle of the game ("Del Lago") is actually the most fun to fight on hardcore mode, but overall the balancing for the RE4 remake is kind of weird. Standard mode is pretty brutal unless your bringing upgraded gear from a previous playthrough.  Even then, I think some enemy types are a bit too hyperactive at times. It's pretty dang hard to line up the precise thermal scope shots required to take down "Regeneradores" on anything other than the easiest difficulty setting because they're so squirmy...at least if you are using a controller (and I say that as someone who got "S" ranks on all the shooting range challenges). Enemies, in general, are so aggressive and bullet resistant on Hardcore and up it's actually a better strategy to not use the environment much.  Just take a quick potshot at one foe before making a hasty retreat.  Then let the lot of them pile into a prearranged killing zone wherein you can chew your pursuers up all at once using shotgun blasts, piercing firearm shots and a liberal amount of explosives.  Hence, one could say easier settings allow the player to utilize the combat arenas in fun ways while harder settings force the player to rely on duller, but safer strategies.  Additionally, once you get the rocket launcher nimble but weak enemies (like infected dogs and oversized bugs) become the hardest to deal with in the game.  Meanwhile, big monsters and bosses are a complete cakewalk.  Granted, a lot of what I just pointed out might be intentionally designed that way for reasons I fail to fully understand.

I think a good way to wrap up this mini-review is with the question "what's next?"  I'm not talking about DLC for the remake of RE4, but rather which game the team is going to tackle next.  Resident Evil 5 would be the natural progression while Resident Evil: Code Veronica is the next biggest old game in the franchise that would benefit the most from the remake treatment.  The thing is though both of those games were conceptually not very good and as such might not be worth the effort.  Personally, I prefer the third-person perspective Resident Evil games over the first-person ones, so I hope that Capcom keeps making new games along the lines of the RE2, RE3 and RE4 remakes.  Maybe it's time for an original story?  Who knows...only time will tell.    

Confidently Cheesy

Bookended by the spiritual prequel Until Dawn and its spiritual sequel The Quarry, The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games that feel inspired by Telltale's various sojourns into the adventure genre.  They are all games heavily based around quick time events and decision trees with some light third-person exploration sprinkled in.  The appeal of them, I think, is the ability to manipulate what are essentially fairly by-the-numbers horror film scripts.  In particular, the player can influence dialogue and actions which, in turn, determine who lives and who dies.

As of the date in which this was written, there have been four (out of an planed 8+) entries in the series.  They are, thus far, a mix of ghost, witch, vampire and slasher stories that rely on stock character archetypes and interpersonal drama to propel the plot forward.  To say these games are corny would be a mild understatement, but it is very clear that Supermassive Games (the developers behind The Dark Pictures Anthology) know what they are doing.  Having said that, there is still room for improvement.

The performances by the cast are generally quite solid, but something about the motion capture seems a bit off.  It's especially noticeable when it comes to facial expressions in some of the more subtly acted scenes.  Another area in need of attention is the button prompts.  As one Rob Zacny of Waypoint Vice pointed out, it has been four games at this point and still there are times when the desired input is unclear.  Of course, these issues pale in comparison to the importance of the stories themselves.

Tastes will vary from one individual to the next, but I personally feel House of Ashes is the most enjoyable of the bunch so far.  Its action-heavy approach works well within the framework of a video game.  In all the series entries, I have to say that the camerawork and lighting is pitch perfect...although it can be kind of weird seeing the same actors playing different roles in one game to the next.  It's also a bit strange in that it wouldn't be all that hard to hide this fact by making some changes to their in-game character models.  Maybe the dev team simply doesn't have enough resources to make said adjustments though...

Still, the fundamental appeal remains.  Depending on player choice any or all the main characters in a given story can survive or perish; encouraging replays and experimentation in equal measure.  At the very least, it makes for good Youtube/Twitch viewing fodder.  Hopefully, Supermassive Games continues the series to its intended conclusion so we can see where the enigmatic narrator and his metatextual observations lead.     

The Reel Deal

There are plenty of movie adaptations of video game properties.  I find most aren't very enjoyable to watch, but I do have a soft spot for live-action parodies that mimic the games they are based on down to the minute and quirky details.  Over the years I've posted links to fan-made videos of everything from Streets of Rage to Final Fantasy VII, and even Prince of Persia.  This time though, I have an especially well made example of this weird little amateur film sub-genre.  It's primarily Resident Evil (or Biohazard as it is known as in Japan), but there are elements of GTA, MGS and the Yakuza franchises mixed in.  If you ask me, I think there's a little bit of Forbidden Siren mixed in as well.  Regardless, I should also mention this six part mini-series is entirely in Japanese so for those who don't know the language please make use of the English subtitles.  

RE3 Remake

Contrary to internet speculation
Jill's face was not derived from Resident Evil movie actress Milla Jovovich
but rather Russian model Sasha Zotova

It's funny how much the Resident Evil 3 remake resembles the Resident Evil 2 remake; the same engine using some of the same locations and character models, but the resemblance goes even deeper.  Just like my criticism of the Resident Evil 2 remake, the game improves on the original PSX version in virtually every way...and yet there are missed opportunities both in terms of it being a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and a sequel to the Resident Evil 2 remake.

It's a commonly held belief that the Resident Evil 3 remake was only in development for about a year.  That's not actually true, but neither is it entirely incorrect.  According to Capcom the game was under development for about three years.  However, a lot of that time was spent in pre-production since much of the work needed to wait until the tools and personnel became available after the Resident Evil 2 remake was more-or-less finished.  So, what we have is a sequel that was quickly put to market in order to capitalize on the success of its predecessor.  In other words, the 2019 - 2020 situation mirrors 1998 - 1999 release circumstances extremely closely.

Gameplay-wise the dodge mechanic is a welcome addition that enhances boss battles considerably.  I like the little callbacks and tie-ins to other entries in the Resident Evil series, as well as continued references to James Cameron's "Aliens" film with lines like "Stay frosty!" and a coffee shop named "Sigorney"...not to mention the voices of Nathaniel Bard and Mikhail Victor being performed by William Hope (A.K.A. Lieutenant Gorman).  The sound effect and music are great.  There's also a fun smattering of incidental dialogue for players who take their time examining the scenery.  Overall, the game feels like a distilled version of it's predecessor which ties back into what I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I wonder if that mask filters out COVID-19?

A lot of the complaints leveled against the Resident Evil 3 remake don't jive with me.  I don't think the inclusion of QTEs from the original would have enhanced gameplay all that much, nor do I particularly miss the water treatment plant or clock tower areas.  Jill's outfit is a bit bland (with the new Laura Croft standard issue jeans and tank-top), but her original tube-top, skirt and sweater always came across as way too impractical.  Personally, I still prefer her S.T.A.R.S. uniform (aside from those weird little shoulder pads).  All the supporting characters are improved over the original versions, especially Carlos.  I've heard some complaints that he lacks a distinct personality, but to me he makes a good foil for Jill...maybe it's just his mop of hair, but Carlos strikes me as the kind of guy who spends all his free time surfing at the beach or lifting in the gym.  His reactive (rather than active) personality contrasts nicely with Jill's analytical/aspiring mindset (particularly when his back is to the wall, push comes to shove and the chips are down).

Having exceeded my idiomatic expression limit for the day, I will wrap this up by bringing up a few issues: the lip sinking is a bit off, the camera sometimes gets stuck in zoom mode, and the Nemesis encounters would have benefited from being less scripted in nature.  The horror elements are also downplayed here in favor of a more action-driven experience.  I expect that we will see a resurgence of horror themes in the upcoming Resident Evil 8 though.  As for more remakes, it sounds like Capcom is working on a Resident Evil 4 remake.  Personally, I think Code Veronica would benefit more from an overhaul although the game I'd like to see Capcom do most of all would be the original Dino Crisis complete with scientifically accurate dinosaurs.  Can you imagine using haptic feedback to simulate a T-Rex getting closer and closer?...yeah, and some people think Mr. X is scary.  Sadly, I doubt it will happen because there's probably less money to be made down that road.  Oh well...

Needs More

Having watched some gameplay footage for the upcoming Middle-earth: Shadow of War, I've been pondering over the large number of video game developers who push their concepts out half-baked and, due to poor profit margins, never get the chance to improve on their ideas with a sequel.  I'm not just talking about buggy launch titles or the whole early access scene.  What I really mean is games that straight up need more to them.  Let me see if I can explain a bit further by picking out a few examples from this console generation.

Event[0], if you're not familiar with it, is a first-person adventure game in which you spend the majority of your time interacting with a computer A.I. via text inputs.  The two of you are stranded on a starship drifting aimlessly around Europa.  Over the course of the game it becomes apparent that the crew are all dead or gone, but, as a climatic ending twist, it turns out that one member of the crew uploaded their consciousness into the computer system and is constantly vying with the A.I. for control of the ship.  Throughout the game this dueling of personalities doesn't come to light except in the form of odd little glitches in the A.I.'s behavior.  Too me, it feels like a lost opportunity to inject some real tension into the game.  The player could be put on the spot as they try to unravel the mystery of what happened by forcing them to work with, and compromise between these two competing entities (a "friend triangle" if you will).  There could have been all kinds of tension, deception and outright lies going on, as well as a hefty dose of HAL9000 style paranoia.  Alas, what we ended up with was basically Dr. Sbaitso with better graphics and bit more story.

Another example is the Order 1886.  Critics have rightfully panned this game for it's relatively short playtime, bland cover-based shooting, and bog-standard (not to mention highly anachronistic) weaponry.  Where they really dropped the ball though is in the story department.  The setting allowed for an a lot of interesting possibilities, or at the very least some tongue-in-cheek humor.  Instead, we have a jumbled mess of inconsistencies, nonsense, and plot holes conveyed with the utmost severity - nowhere does anyone smile, or even try to crack a joke.  Ostensibly, the titular Order exists to fight the threat of werewolves (and possibly vampires), but aside from two quicktime event boss battles (the second of which is pretty much an exact repeat of the first) we shoot it out against a bunch of ordinary people packing guns.  Maybe if the game had more adventure elements, or some puzzles, it would have elevated itself above a glorified Gears of War copycat tech demo.

Last up is a double shot, or rather two games which individually are not good, but combined together might have been something special.  Specifically, I'm talking about No Man's Sky and Mass Effect: Andromeda.  The former has a severe deficit of story and player motivation, while the latter boasts it has a whole new galaxy to explore, but only allows the player to land on an handful of worlds.  If these two teams had been folded into one project they might have complemented each other.  The No Man's Sky team would have brought the breadth, while the Mass Effect team would have provided the depth.  As is, both lack what the other has...well, aside from a capable animation team..both were kind of lacking in that particular department...then again so is the Farm Simulator series...

A good perspective to take during the pre-production phase for any video game dev team would be from a place of interactivity.  If the answer to the question, "what do you do?" is ultimately "not much," then I think it would be wise to reconsider the approach.  After all if there isn't a lot of meaningful input from the player then why not just turn the game into a novel or movie instead?

Overpriced and Underbaked

As wide as the sea, as deep as a puddle.

It seems like every year there are some new trends in the industry.  Giant Bomb usually dedicates a "please stop!" segment to the worst of them in their end-of-the-year deliberations.  Whether it be QTEs, Fee-to-Pay, or Bullshots, reviled industry practices have become an annual thing.  I'm not sure what the guys over at Giant Bomb will nominate for the category this year, but if I where to choose something it would be the one-two punch of overpriced and underbaked.

It started in earnest this year with titles like Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, XCOM 2, and Firewatch, continued to build with Slain and House of the Dying Sun, before culminating in No Man's Sky.  Before I get into that game in particular though lets go back to the first half of that two part problem I just mentioned.  There definitely appears to be a recent pricing strategy going on that basically boils down to figuring out how much people are willing to pay for a particular game at launch and then adding an additional 30 percent to the price tag.  I want to say this is merely video game publishers padding things out for the inevitable deep-cut discounts, but truth be told traditional Steam and GoG sales have been duds as of late.  The exceptions being DOOM 4 and the recent Survival Humble Bundle.  Other than that though it's mostly been a paltry 20 percent off poorly reviewed flotsam.

Slippy?  Is that you?

Now, normally I don't put much stock in review scores, especially with the constant tug-o-war that plagues aggregated websites.  For some reason there's a subset of people out there that really want to make games look better or worse than they actually are.  I don't get the motivation for doing that.  On the other hand, I do sympathize when the comment section is filled with numerous players having technical issues.  Particularly when they're stuff like frame rate dips, crashes to desktop, hardlocks, glitches, bugs, and generally poor performance.  Of course there are the inevitable apologists and that one guy who insists the game runs fine for him, but these sorts of issues really boil down to a simple case of the game needing more fine tuning and polish.  Eventually these kind of things usually do get sorted out, take XCOM 2 for example.  Three months after it's release it finally ran the way you'd expect.  Similarly the AI in Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak ceased to be brain dead after a couple of post-launch patches.  Another great example is Slain, which had garbage controls that took so much time and effort to fix that the developer re-branded it Slain: Back from Hell, to signify the overhaul.  Sadly, this isn't always the case.  House of the Dying Sun still doesn't have any of the sandbox rouge-like elements that were hinted at during it's pre-early access development.  Worse still Batman: Arkham Knight looks like it will never really receive the attention it needs to be played on most PCs.

The golden poo of this trend has to be No Man's Sky, a full-priced title that, when played, comes across as an early access indie product hamstrung by numerous technical issues.  Put simply it's a game that should have come out around Christmas for about one-third the asking price.  Sure a lot of people would have been disappointed anyway, but at least then the fault would lie squarely on Sean Murray (a.k.a. Peter Molyneux 2.0) and not on Sony (who should have known better).

Iron from Ice

Telltale has their fingers in a lot of pies not the least of which is George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire."  I've read all the books released to date, but the HBO mini-series only held my interest up to the third season.  It's my understanding that Telltale decided to base their game more on the TV series than novels.  Not that it really matters though because the characters from the main storyline only make cameos in Telltale's game.  So instead of the adventures of Daenerys, Tyrion and John Snow the narrative focus is on the trials and tribulations of House Forester.  I have no beef with this and found the characters introduced by Telltale to be interesting for the most part.  True to the source material they start dropping like flies from the get-go.  Decapitations, dismemberment and one scene that's particularly heart wrenching (in the most literal sense) are just some of the messy ends that can occur.  Oddly, nudity is absent for the most part.  Perhaps it's not Telltale's style...

Certainly there's very little the player can do to change House Forester's fate.  The most in-game decisions change is a few lines of dialogue here and there until the final chapter where, based on a chose made at the end of the previous chapter, the story can deviate in one of several different branching paths.  Even then there's a great deal done to ensure the final outcome is basically the same.  Needless to say, if you take a fatalistic outlook then you can probably derive more enjoyment from Telltale games than those who want to be masters of their own destiny.

Regardless, I get why Telltale chooses to embrace this narrow design philosophy, it saves them a lot in terms of development resources.  That said, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for their products if it meant empowering the player in meaningful ways.  Only seeing fifty percent of a game's content might sound like a waste from the standpoint of a developer, but as a player it offers a major insensitive to try multiple playthroughs.  As is, it doesn't really matter if you roleplay House Forester as a proud family filled with righteous indignation or a bunch of backhanded schemers more likely to respond with cryptic silences than words when called out on their lies.  Either way the plot inexorably hits on all the same key points on its way to the inevitable conclusion.  Something really needs to change.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the Telltale formula grafted onto an SRPG or RTS.  What they got going could enhance the fundamental gameplay of other genres in a revitalizing kind of way.  As it stands though Telltale games are basically visual novels with some QTEs sprinkled in.  I'm not saying that's necessarily bad, but I do think their games have the potential to be truly special.  They just have to take House Forester's motto to heart.

Of Biographies and Video Games

Two years ago to the day a movie came out in theaters called American Sniper.  I have never watched it, but I have read the autobiographical book it was based on.  Honestly, I don't see what the big deal is.  The author, Chris Kyle, did some things the were good, some things that were bad, and some thing that were downright stupid(ly hilarious).  People who call him "hero" or "coward" either didn't actually read the book or are cherry-picking it for bits that support the way they already think. It's one man's life story told in economy-of-language style that is indicative to those who have served in the armed forces, concise descriptions of events with little-to-no extraneous detail.  Personally, I found it a refreshing change of pace after just finishing several books heavily steeped in academia...but hey...to each his own.  I don't want to turn this into a left-vs-right debate mostly because there's already plenty of those going on in the video game industry right now as is.  Instead I want to talk about autobiographies.

Normally they're told in a book or movie format.  The former makes a lot of sense, but the latter feels a bit constrained to me.  Trying to cram a person's life into two hours of video footage fells kind of constraining, especially if a lot of interesting stuff happened to said person.  A video game, on the other hand, has a lot more time to work within.  The problem is video games are by their nature interactive experiences.  Trying to impose rigid linearity doesn't go over very well unless you happen to be one of those rare few who really like QTEs...

I once heard a quote from the screenplay writer of Braveheart that went something like, "Don't let facts get in the way of the truth."  Sounds like a dumb thing to say, I know, but there is a tiny kernel of wisdom in there.  It's easy to get so hung up on minutia that we miss the big picture.  With that in mind, it becomes a lot easier to make a biographical video game.  Developers don't have to agonize over exact dates, names and numbers so long as they capture the spirit of events.  In truth, some autobiographical memoirs such as those dictated by Napoleon Bonaparte and Otto von Bismark don't exactly jive with historical facts so there's that point to consider as well.  Before moving on I'd like to state for the record that my first pick for a biography-themed video game would be Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, or if it had to be an American, George Washinton.  For the sake of continuity though I'm going to use Chris Kyle for my hypothetical example.

Your basic gameplay is going be somewhere between Sniper Elite and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (possibly with a bit of Papers Please sprinkled in).  The player will also have to avoid a number of different fail states in order to progress.  The most obvious one is becoming a casualty in places like Fallujah, Ramadi and Sadr City while on deployment.  On top of that they have to consider the ROEs (Rules of Engagement).  Shoot an innocent, or fail to fill out the paperwork properly after killing someone and it could lead to a court martial for war crimes.  Aside from those big two, there's the life of a Navy SEAL which ranges from BUD/S and hazing rituals to bar fights and trouble with the police.  On top of that the player has to keep their family life from becoming dysfunctional (via dialogue trees) and find ways to keep PTSD from driving them insane.

Sounds rough, I know, but such was the life of America's most prolific military sniper.  Walk a mile in his shoes, or in this case play a video game about him for a couple of hours, and you'll get a better understanding of the life he lived.  Would it be a 100 percent authentic experience?  Of course not.  In fact it might drift into "what if..." territory.  Since movies and TV don't shy away from using artistic licenses though I don't see why video games have to avoid them.  An "inspired by true events" label somewhere in the opening segment is all that's necessary, IMO.  

Reciprocal Influence

Motion pictures have been influencing video games for decades.  Look no further than the concept of a cut scene for an obvious example of cinematic techniques. To create the look and feel of digital environments, visual styles in film have also been borrowed by video game developers extensively, especially the works of directors like Ridley Scott and James Cameron.  In some cases the visual aspects are pretty much one-to-one, but more often than not games are a mishmash of influences such as in the case of Splatterhouse (an amalgamation of practically every slasher flick ever made).  Perhaps a more interesting question to ask though is, how have video games influenced movies?

Obviously adaptations of Silent Hill and Mortal Kombat spring to mind, but those aside, it's not so common to find a film that is clearly drawing from video games.  Even when one is made it can be tricky to detect the influence.  Take for example the art house movie "Jerry".  By the director's own admission a lot of the cinematography was inspired by third person video games.  This little insight explains why a lot of the shots in the film are over-the-shoulder chase views and even camera angles pointed at the sides or front of character's faces are kept in close enough that it could be achieved on a console video game controller by rotating the 3D perspective with the left analogue stick.   There are also very few cuts in the film which in turn leads to shots that tend to go on, and on...and on.  The longest is over a full seven minutes in length!  It makes sense though when you consider in video games getting from point A to point B involves watching the whole journey (unless some kind of fast travel system is in effect).

Camera placement aside, "Children of Men" stands out as a film made whole cloth from the aesthetics sensibilities of Half-Life 2.  Granted Gordon Freeman isn't in the film, nor are there any headcrabs, but the oppressive, rundown dystopian future of the movie matches extremely well with City 17.  A number of dynamic single-take shots are done throughout the film which help immerse the viewer in much the same way video games do.

Sometimes the influence of video games on film can take on a very roundabout form.  "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" started off as a comic about a Canadian youth sub-culture built around indie rock and the Sega/Nintendo era.  The property was eventually adapted to a retro beat'em up game and a live action motion picture.  The latter of which presents a rather hilarious  big screen take on gaming culture.  "Edge of Tomorrow" is another example of this phenomenon.  Originally a Japanese sci-fi novel entitled "All You Need is Kill", the premise involves a soldier who is repeatedly KIA only to wake up each time on the eve of the same battle.  The film changes a lot of the details.  For example, the location is moved from Tokyo to London and the protagonist is rewritten as an American conscript rather than a Japanese volunteer.  However, the basic time-loop premise remains relatively unchanged and the author freely l;admits in the back of the book that he got the idea from playing difficult video games during his childhood.

Perhaps the most bewildering example of all though has to be Sword Art Online.  Originally a web novel, the story takes some cues from "Tron" in that the plot involves people becoming trapped in a video game where the stakes are life and death in the real world.  Unlike the vector graphics of "Tron" though Sword Art Online is a virtual reality MMO.  The IP was so successful it spawned a series of print novels and was adapted to a prime time anime TV mini-series in Japan.  True to its video game roots, certain HUD elements such as character stats and HP bars are used for dramatic effect or storytelling purposes.  Even more mind boggling is the fact that actual video games have been published under the Sword Art Online license, thus making this Japanese oddity a case of franchise fiction becoming reality.

With the increased reliance on digital effect such as motion capture and 3-D model rendering it's easy to see how video games and motion pictures are gradually becoming one in the same.  The barrel ridding sequence in "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" feels like it was ripped straight out of a video game QTE.  Then again playing certain games, such as Metal Gear Solid, feels a lot like watching a movie.  Of course the one big difference between the two is film watching is a passive experience while playing a video game is an interactive one, assuming you're not just watching a someone else play on Youtube or Twitch.  Regardless, I think if these two forms of media feed off of each other excessively there is a real danger of both becoming a kind of cannibalistic ourobors.  I'd argue a major reason why the Resident Evil movie adaptations are not good is because the games they were drawing on were in turn influenced by old George A. Romero zombie flicks.  Hang on...maybe that's why there are so many zombies in media these days...soylent green is people!

Yearly Video Game Awards

Despite the huge number of games delayed until 2015, I managed to scrape together a list of award winning titles for this year.  As always the category descriptions can be found here.  Now, let the show begin!

Avant-garde Award:

Major tonal shifts and unique art style aside, this side scroller's biggest innovation is the fact that it's a video game about war in which you don't actually shoot anyone.  Sure, you drive a tank, direct some artillery and incapacitate a few guards by clonking them on the noggin, but you never pick up a gun.  Even the evil baron (who you defeat in a fistfight) is simply shamed and made irrelevant rather than outright killed.  

Backlash Award:

As the first big new open world IP of the next console generation expectations were running high for this one...and boy did it disappoint.  Not only were the graphics downgraded from what was shown at preview events, but the story was shallow and suffered form a severe case of ludonarrative dissonance.  The protagonist also turned out to be thoroughly unlikable jerk with no fashion sense.  Batman with a smart phone?  More like The Joker with a gun.  Couple that with bland bug-ridden gameplay and this Ubisoft product rightfully drew a lot of people's ire.  Perhaps the worst aspect was the sloppy PC port which suffered from poor optimization to such a degree that real life hackers were able to make noticeable improvements to the visuals just by altering a little bit of code.

Brutality Award:

There's something to be said for an already difficult game that's willing to wipe out half-an-hour's worth of progress simply because of bad luck.  The winner here is just such a game.  No matter what you do there's a scene midway through the second chapter wherein everything comes down a Russian Roulette style pull of the trigger.  Because the revolver has a single round in it's seven chambers this means there's always at least a 14.3% chance you'll have to start over at the beginning of the chapter...ouch!


Canvas Award:

While there have been more flamboyant looking games to come out in 2014, this Norse themed tale of hardship and survival stands out to me because of its more restrained visual style.  Oftentimes a scene is framed in black and white with subtle shades of blue or green, but dominating it all is a splash of vibrance somewhere onscreen.  The titular banner itself is a slash of red symbolizing a scrap of vitality and hope in a gloomy dying world.  Character portraits too have little touches like a small ornate ring on the finger of a gnarled hand, or a bright pair of eyes set deeply in a weathered solemn looking face.  It's one of those rare cases where the use of color works perfectly with the music, gameplay, story and overall themes.

Ecology Award:

Rail shooters are a hard sell in this day and age partly because the main appeal of one, i.e. holding a light gun, is not supported by most platforms.  Despite that Polish developer Teyon was determined to copy the staples of the genre.  The voice acting is ripped straight from DVD copies of the movies.  Cutscenes and gameplay feel like they're recycled low resolution 3-D renderings of exactly what took place in the films (except for Sylvester Stallone's hair which seems to have a life of its own).  Because there's only so much you can get out a couple of two hour action flicks, be prepared to see the same enemy models, hear the same lines of dialogue, and play the same sort of shooting (along with QTE) sequences over and over AND OVER again.

"Engrish" Award:

Normally this award goes to some poorly translated game from overseas.  This year though I have decided to give it to a game developed by industry veteran Bungie Studios, a company which (I might add) consists mostly of native English speakers.  While the grammar here is technically correct, the serious yet completely deadpan delivery of such an astronomically outrageous statement, mixed with the fact that the line is spoken by a famous and talented actor, is what really makes it hands down the winner in this category.

Esoteric Award:

Two playable factions, seventeen individual nations and 1,450 different units make this one of the most complex RTS games ever made.  Land, sea and air combat are all in full effect here.  The fog of war also plays a major role and can be affected by everything from simple smoke screens to the latest in electronics warfare.  Because of all these factors, knowing the subtle differences between the multitude of units on the battlefield can make the difference between victory and defeat.

Lemon Award:

It's one thing to label a game "early access" and release it in a buggy incomplete state.  It's another thing entirely to charge $20 for a unpolished full release title that has glitchy enemies, poor collision detection, unskippable plot info dumps, whacked-out crosshairs, shoddy AI, and text that scrolls the wrong direction.  Even simply jumping causes the view to clip through walls.  Lack of VR support at launch aside, this game needed a lot more quality assurance testing before it went to market.

Testosterone Award:

When a passenger airplane goes down in a remote forested coastline, the players of this game find themselves forced into a survival situation.  As if natural environmental hazards weren't bad enough, players also have to fend off groups of naked sallow-skinned cannibals with improvised traps and weapons (like a hatchet or flare gun).  Alternatively, the player can try to ward away danger by dismembering the bodies of slain foes and make them into gruesome effigies...which can then be lit on fire!


Underdog Award:

An episodic title and spiritual successor of sorts to Deadly Premonition, this quirky detective story features a unique sense of humor and geniunly meaningful Kinect support.  Sadly, it's also an Xbox One exclusive.  Hence, many fans of the game director's previous work are unable to enjoy his latest creation (having gone with PS4 instead).  It doesn't help that Microsoft has done absolutely nothing to promote the game.  Hopefully it will at least be ported over to the PC, if not other consoles, at some point.

So ends another year in the history of video games.  What will next year bring?  A lot actually, but I'm going to save topic for next time.

Phase Paradox

Japan has its share of weird video games ranging from silly simulations such as Ka (Mr. Mosquito) to the seemingly ordinary with surprise control schemes like Operator's Side (Lifeline).  Usually the fate of these unique titles is a short parade around the internet full of ridicule and laughter.  More often than not it's followed by by a general sharking of heads and comments along the lines of "Those crazy Japanese developers..."

It's a sentiment that I can understand, but I also think that some of these strange games slip under the radar and are missed entirely.  So, on that note allow me to share one such title.  Be warned though it's not a good game by any stretch of the imagination.  That said, you might find it interesting nonetheless.

Phase Paradox is an early PS2 release and a sequel to the early PSX multi-angle bullet hell shooter Philosoma.  Incidentally, if you double the "l" and replace the "i" in the game's title with a "y" it's the correct scientific term for a subspecies of lobster larva....what?...just say'in.  Spelling and and word choice aside, players of Phase Paradox probably wouldn't make the connection between these two games partly because of the change in title, but also because of the complete change of genre.  How you make the transition from this (see video):

...to a quasi-adventure horror game is beyond me, but that's exactly what the developers did here. Events in Phase Paradox take place aboard the spaceship Gallant. Shortly after completing a sortie with her complement of Strega-class fighters, the nearby planet 220 (referred to in dialogue as "two-two-oh") explodes in the opening cutscene.  The blast inflicts extensive damage to the Gallant and embeds a large object in the hanger bay. The story then revolves around three playable characters; a damage control officer, a bio-lab scientist, and a black woman who is a specialist of some sort. There's also a large supporting cast which drop in and out of the story quite a bit.

Gameplay consists of classic survival horror style exploration via fixed third person camera angles. Breaking up these segments are cinematics sometimes punctuated by a binary yes/no choice mechanic. It's all very linear though and every action sequence is done via proto-quicktime events.  For that reason and the railroad plot progression, it's in a difficult genre to classify.  The closest I can get is to call Phase Paradox a horror themed adventure title, minus the emphasis on item gathering and puzzle solving.

The visuals of the game are a high tech mishmash of stuff that looks straight out of films like "Blade Runner" or "Evengelion". For some reason there is also a two story old school video arcade in one section of the ship. Despite the de-emphasis on combat, a number of personal side arms make appearances in Phase Paradox ranging from sleek lasers (which make a muffled zapping sound when discharged) to good old fashion slug throwers. Voice acting and the menu system are entirely in English while subtitles and in-game text are in Japanese. Music is practically nonexistent outside the five minute long credits scrawl. Sound effects are also used sparingly which gives the game a weird vibe. The ending is split between three different viewpoints depending on who you choose to follow during the final chapter. While the events are the same regardless, each ending feels altered because of the differences in perspective. Motion capture and dialogue delivery seem almost deliberately bad all around. So much so it's as if the developers deliberately wanted to capture the look and feel of a low-budget direct-to-video production. It's a truly surreal experience that very few know exists (outside of a handful of rabid Japanese game connoisseurs).

I want to recommend Phase Paradox simply for the novelty factor (and especially to people who are fans of Echo Night: Beyond, Deadly Premonition or even just cheesy sci-fi).  Of course, how much enjoyment you get out of your time spent with it depends on the individual.  I'm sure some gamers will take one look at the dated graphics and dismiss it as crap that is best left buried and forgotten.  But for me, at least, it was an interesting venture into "what the heck is this...?" territory.  

Next Gen Can'O'Worms

Thanks to the impressive power of next generation consoles, video games are looking more realistic than ever before.  Unfortunately, the problem with all these 1080p high res textures and motion capture performances is they invite audiences to make comparisons to the real world a lot more than some stylized 8-bit pixelated indie title.

Regrettably, this leads to a lot of triple AAA games not holding up well under scrutiny.  Granted, what we have seen thus far is stuff still in development, but much like The Spoony One and his long running obsession with Final Fantasy flaws, I too have noticed far too many nagging inconsistencies for the MST3K Mantra to work (regardless of how many times I chant it).

Despite video games boasting fancy physics engines for at least a decade now, it feels like game designers have deliberately been ignoring Issac Newton's three fundamental laws of motion.  Yeah, yeah, I know...rule-of-cool, right?  Titanfall just wouldn't be as awesome if those huge bipedal war machines compressed the ground underfoot, cracked pavement with each step and smashed through buildings like you'd expect them to...wait  a second!  That would be way more impressive than what was actually shown.  Red Faction: Guerrilla already had this kind of thing locked down last gen, and if you want to get technical Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2 nailed the essence of the square-cube law long before that.  Sorry Respawn Entertainment, it doesn't matter if you're on another planet because gravity is still going to cause objects to weight proportional to their respective mass.

Moving on, Destiny boasts breathtaking vistas, but doesn't seem to have much in the way of fluid dynamics aside from some faintly animated splashing textures when a character runs through a stream.  Speaking of disrupting liquids, what is the deal with Ryse: Son of Rome?  We got gory dismemberment and flashy finishing QTEs, but straight up whacking barbarians with your gladius doesn't leave so much as a red mark.  Silent Hill: Homecoming did accurate damage modeling back in 2008, yet five years later (and with more than 30 times the RAM) Crytek can't?

As you've probably gathered by now, there's still quite a bit that can be found in older titles that is sorely lacking in next gen experiences.  Don't get me wrong, The Division having realistic bullet holes in car windows is neat and all, but how about including features we had in games long ago such as Prince of Persia way back in 1989?

They Should Have Been Games

Heavy Rain, Metal Gear Solid, the later entries in the Final Fantasy series...what do these games have in common?  They all feel like the product of a frustrated wannabe filmmaker.  Perhaps these particular stories would have been better off had they used movies as their medium.  Dragon's Lair, especially to me, always felt like it would have made an awesome animated film rather than a clunky QTE driven collection of FMVs.  So, while these phenomenon of the video game industry exist, there's also several examples in the world of cinema that would have probably found a more receptive audience had they chosen to be video games instead of motion pictures.   

Flash Gordon was originally a pulp sci-fi comic which debut in the 1930s as a direct competitor to the similarly themed franchise Buck Rodgers. In 1982 a live action film came out. Then a game was released in 1987, but it pretty much ignored the style of the film. This was most likely due to the fact that the movie bombed at the box office. For better or worse the film has since become a cult classic with its distinctive look as well as quirky tech; such as atomic rockets, lightning fields, and ray guns that go "pew-pew." So, why should this have been a game? Well to start with the blond-haired, square-jawed protagonist is the star quarterback of the New York Jets (Yale Polo player originally). This makes him perfect marketing material. A less snarky reason comes from the world of Flash Gordon (a.k.a. planet Mongo). It's basically a sci-fi version of Hyrule. For starters we have hawk-men, lion-men, and shark-men which correspond well with Deku, Gorons and Zora. Then there is Ming the Merciless in lieu of Gannon, King of Evil. Flash has a love interest in need of rescue, just like Link. Even the respective princesses, Midna and Aura, thematically overlap each other quite a bit. Hammy acting plus black and white morality may seem cliche in cinema, but in video games it's par for the course. Also the soundtrack courtesy of Queen rocks.  

Total Recall (the remake) would have made an excellent FPS had it been picked up by Monolith Productions. Instead though that company has been delegated to making League of Legends with a Lord of the Rings graphics set. A pity since the film felt like a lot of loosely stitched together action set pieces. It would have been great to play, but felt a bit awkward to watch. Also, is it me or do the robot enemies look an awful lot like the ones featured prominently in Binary Domain?

Prometheus was a disjointed disappointment on the big screen, but what if it had been a classic point-and-click adventure game? Lucas Art's The Dig with the horror elements cranked up is what I'm thinking. Or maybe Darkseed set in space...Gemini Rue and Primordia by Wadjet Games are some good recent examples of how to make a fun sci-fi title that's light on the combat. Plus, there is the matter of video games not being required to adhere to a two hour or so format. Imagine having more time for exploration, character development and (god-engineers forbid) answers to some of the questions that the film asks. At the very least the stupid behavior of the science team would make a lot more sense if it were the result of a mischievous player's input. I don't know how anyone else played Space Quest back in the day, but I highly doubt that I'm the only one that wanted to see what happened when Roger Wilco touched stuff.

Well...that's all I got for now.  But before I go let me ask one question.  Why are all these guys looking to the right?  Seriously...all three pictures I posted are from DVD box art and in all three cases the faces displayed prominently in the center foreground are looking toward something off camera to their starboard.  Weird.

Part FPS, part space flight-sim, this could have been an interesting hybrid game rather than a forgettable TV series

2012 Year in Games

Another year has come and gone, so that means it's time for this blog's annual game of the year awards.  True to tradition the categories aren't your standard best by genre or platform.  Rather, I'm continuing to use the same unique list I created here.  You can also see last year's award winners here.  Now on with the proceedings!

Avantgarde Award Winner:
Proof that design and gameplay trump graphics and marketing, this little indie gem represents far more than an evolutionary step of the roguelike genre.  If anything, this title serves as concrete proof that Kickstarter projects can be a valid and economically feasible method of game development.  Light speed ahead to every developer who is following in this games footsteps.


Backlash Award Winner:

Where to begin?  The Retake Mass Effect Movement?  EA being rated worst company in America?  Red, blue and green cupcakes?  Needless to say Bioware has always had a mildly toxic fan base even before tings boiled over.  The final sequence was patched eventually, but it still took a ton of flack for not allowing players to circumvent the Des Ex Machina at the end.    



Brutality Award Winner:
This top down shooter plays like a psychedelically fulled fever dream, complete with sudden explosive acts of violence and mayhem. It only takes a split second to kill or be killed in this game. Personally, I recommend taking a deep breath and enjoying the tunes because your going to need some serious determination to finish this one.


Canvas Award Winner:
While it doesn't quite have the rainbow pallet this award originally supposed to highlight, the use of color to covey moods and emotions goes well beyond the the craft found in most triple-A titles. Kudos to That Game Company for making something in which every second of every image onscreen is worthy of a picture frame.  Truly, if any game could be called a work of art it would be this one.


Ecology Award Winner:
When you consider this first entry in this series was basically Rogue with a major graphics upgrade, it's hard to justify two more sequels with only minor improvements to the fundamental gameplay.  For what it's worth Blizzard polished this one to a fine sheen, but unlike the first category winner, there is little here that doesn't scream "been there, done that."



"Engrish" Award Winner:
This series has had a long history of questionable use of the English language.  However, Capcom has upped their game by going from poorly delivered, cheesy one liners to creative word spelling on their box covers.  Didn't anyone think to use a spell checker before they began printing labels by the thousands?  Also, is it just me or does "Revelaitons" sound like a type of B.O.W.?



Esoteric Award Winner:
This rather bizarre semi-3D side scrolling platformer takes a turn for the mind bending after the first playthrough   Puzzles requiring an understanding of Morse code to solve are just the tip of the iceberg.  The outspoken developer of this low budget title spent nearly five years working on the game.  It is an intense labor of love that virtually no one could hope to unravel without the help of the internet.


Lemon Award Winner:
Konami has been in a long downward slide for awhile now, but they really dropped the ball on this one.  You know their handling of the Silent Hill franchise has reached new lows when they are retroactively screwing up the better games in the series with shoddy bug ridden remakes.  Tangentially, since when does the second and third titles in a series constitute a collection?  If anything it was the PS1 original that need the graphical update.


Testosterone Award Winner:
I think the image alone explains why this game won this particular award category.  But for the sake of consistency I'll say this; Successfully finishing the quick time events from even just the first chapter will make you feel like you just got back from a roid rage induced weight lifting binge at your local gym.  Yes, that includes sweat and sore muscles.   


Underdog Award Winner:
World War 2 themed shooters suffered from such a deluge last console generation that even now many gamers are reluctant to return to the time period.  It's a pity in this case because I believe feelings of over saturation have caused this unique experience to end up largely ignored.  Timing, traps and trick shots are the tools of the trade.  I should also mention that this game requires zen-like patience as well as lightning reflexes.

Well, that's my picks for 2012.  If you don't agree with them no need to get upset.  The true purpose of this ceremony is to touch on games that might have been lost in the shuffle.  Hope you enjoyed reminiscing with me.  Until next year!