Colossal indeed

Recently I have been dealing with some bad health - hence my blog being neglected of late. Strangely, being confined to my bed would mean more time to work on the Hall of Shame but not this time.

Anyway, some posts ago, I mentioned I was playing Shadow of the Colossus a second time through. I have completed a second time but this time around, I paid particular attention to the ending.
You see, there's a theory going around that the connection between Wander and Mono is questionable at least: He loved/respected her but she didn't return similar feelings. The most telling sign is when Agro reappears but Mono doesn't show any sign of recognition. Looking back at it now, it is quite clear that this theory has indeed weight with Mono's body language and her facial expressions.

This is of course one moment in a game loaded with subtleties (which is indeed something that is lacking in a lot of game today). And thus the theory becomes clear:
Wander, an underling of the priest Emon, sacrifices Mono for the greater good - but is left overcome with remorse and questioning his faith. Thinking back to the stories of his faith, he recalls a long-forgotten god Dormin and heads out. he eventually arrives at the forbidden land long abandoned by humans. There, Wanda arrives at a temple where sixteen giant statues stand. Laying the body of Mono on a plinth Wanda is then instructed by a heavenly voice, Dormin, that in order to achieve his goal, he would need to slay sixteen colossi that inhabit this land - and even then there will be a terrible cost involved. Wanda agrees and, accompanied by his horse Agro, ventures through the land.



He eventually meets the colossi one by one. Some are hostile, some attack on instinct and others don't ever fight back. With each colossi defeated, their bodies become rock and earth and their essence bursts from them to engulf Wanda, corrupting his body and transport him back to the temple. And in the temple, the statue of the defeated colossus crumbles and a white dove comes to rest next to Mono's body.
With each colossus defeated, Wanda's body deteriorates with each colossus' essence. Towards the end of Wanda's quest, Emon, and some men enter the land and, on the way to the last colossus, Agro plunges into a ravine but not before saving his master's life. With the defeat of the last colossus, Emon and his men enter the temple. They see Mono, the remnants of the statues and, finally, Wanda's body.
Recognizing him, Emon's men try to kill him but suddenly Wanda's body is taken over by Dormin. However Emon banishes the entity, leaving only Wander's body being pulled into the pool of light. And then, when Emon and his men have left the land forever, Momo wakes up, sees a horse she doesn't recognize and then an indication that Dormin will return: A baby, with horns sticking out of it's head, where Wander used to be. This arranges a line of descendants that will eventually lead to the character of Ico.

With such a dissection, I just dread to think that the anti-religious activists will have a field day with this game.

Subtle as a kick in the crotch

Now here's a question for the modern gamer: Does subtlety have a place?

The appeal of games, as I can see it, is to go into a world spawned from someone else's imagination and solve one or more crises in various forms, shoot some dudes and basically muck around. Thus gamers appear to have this willingness to go along with anything that can be handed to them.
So what happens when the gamer designer tries to challenge an audience's perceptions by throwing in subtly? What happens when our actions are being challenged and gamers need to step back and look at things in a different light?

One thing I have noticed is that games involving blowing so many dudes away are successful - as are games that involved going into an open world and just abusing the freedom an open-world offers. This offers a degree of freedom and pleasure that normal life can't offer. Thus, if any restrictions are going to placed on the player, they won't be taken lightly.
Thus it seems to me that if a player is going to placed in a position to think about their actions, it would be frowned upon. Likewise, challenges of perception are going to be missed and, in some cases, greeted with confusion (no doubt quickly followed by anger).



One of my favorite games ever is ICO on the PS2. A great puzzle based game which succeeds through its use of subtlety, ambiance, emotion, lightening effects and by showing what happens when one decides to experiment with such powerful hardware. And why not? When one wants to try something new, what’s there to stop them? Sadly however, ICO was a poor seller and, despite universal acclaim from the critics, it never reaped the numbers it deserved. It raises the question whether the strengths of ICO has any home in gaming today. Indeed, ICO may have militant fans (like myself) but it is still game one has to ‘get’ – a tall order when the action genre appears to rule the roost. It maker me wonder if some gamers are so passionate about their tastes, that they will go out of their way to condemn anything that does things differently.

Personally, I champion any game that utilizes subtly: They are contributing to the evolution of gaming through challenging perceptions and doing things that would be unthinkable. They are building universes that ultimately challenge the idea of building a world for people to mess around in. They are doing things that defy convention without any concern of making a profit.
After all, fortune favors the brave.

The Crack of Knuckles

Today, another game has been struck from my Hall of Shame: Sonic 2 with Knuckles.

Considering every Sonic game that hasn't been a Megadrive one has been pretty much rubbish, it's hard to think that once upon a time, this series had a bunch of really good ideas. And one of those ideas were the Sonic and Knuckles Dual cartridge, where, upon incorporating the Sonic 2 or Sonic 3 cartridges on top, anyone could play through those games with Knuckles.

And it certainly was an innovative idea: playing through a familiar game with a different character was appealing enough - but the real strength in the idea was that it required the player to adopt a completely different play style and adopt new tactics in dealing with particular bosses.

You now that I think of it, this is probably the first time ever in the history of gaming that such a thing came about (well as far back as I can recall anyway). And it least that's an achievement indeed in a series whose disasters have far exceeded it's strengths.

Don't doubt what he can do, Sonic the Hedgehog

I recently had the pleasure for striking another game from my Hall of Shame. This one being Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

I loved the Sonic games when I was a kid. I remember seeing them on the Megadrive and being blown away by the speed of it all, the agile abilities of the lead, the swanky graphics and the unforgettably catchy tunes.

 Playing it nearly twenty years later, I'm amazed to see they actually hold up pretty well. Like a fine wine, Sonic's Megadrive games have aged well and are still damn fun to play. Sure, Sonic's recent games have been total rubbish and the 8-bit games were just as bad (I am of course playing Sonic 2 off the PS2 Collection disc) but playing Sonic now was just as fun and pleasurable as it was when I was a young lad.

It's does seem unfortunate that Sonic has had many more failures than hits - I personally am fuming that the Gems Collections had those crummy 8-bit outings when they could've had Knuckles Chaotix or the Sonic Arcade Game. But I've always had a soft spot for the blue guy and I'm just glad that the Sonic games that did work were truly tremendous.

Kill Your Television

No matter how big TV's get, no matter how better the picture quality can get and no matter how gamer needs are incorporated into TV design, the end result will still look weird with using the Virtual Console

Put on a trenchcoat

Today I installed Deus Ex to my hard drive with the intention of playing it (not that's much else you can do with a game). Funny, it's been sitting on my shelf for a very long time and it's only now I've decided to take a look. Of course, it's not easy to take a game boasting ten year old graphics seriously but I'm still keen.

Strangely enough, when the title came up, along with that unforgettable opening theme, I immediately began singing along using the words Yahtzee came up with (see the Zero Punctuation review of Guitar Hero World Tour if you have no idea what I'm talking about). It's strange: I had not played the game before and yet I was already connected with it through the satirical videos of a grumpy web critic. It was one of those things that just happen - and I'm certain I'm not the only one who has done this.



All together now:

"...Put on a trenchcoat
and fight some conspiracies
Get experience
and level up abilities
Will you pick rifles
or computers?
Don't pick swimming, because
it's fairly useless
It's a shooter
and a role-playing game
The levels are ugly
and everyone looks the same
We're not the same Ion Storm
that made Daikatana
Our games are good
and they
stay on schedule

We made a sequel
that no-one liked
'cos we dumbed it down too much
'cos we're thick..."

Phinal Phantasy

Further work is being done to my Hall of Shame: I have recently returned to Phantasy Star 4.

 I've been playing this game from the Sega Megadrive/Genesis collection released on the PS2 but boy, has this one been a problem and a half! Twice so far I have had to restart from a certain point due to the save file dumping me into a point from which there is no escape. I can imagine this type of thing has happened to other gamers out there - sucks doesn't it?!

Other than that, I am enjoying this game very much. I've had little knowledge of Sega's once glorious/pioneering RPG series and, looking back from that angle, Phantasy Star certainly had a lot going for it. Phantasy Star 4 is indeed an entertaining game where a lot of effort has gone into it, with the music, presentation, graphics and playability. It's indeed a great game that can stand on it's on two feet when Final Fantasy seems to rule the roost.

Lets talk about sex bay-bee

If you've been following my ramblings in this blog, you will know I have a particular love for Bioware RPGs. Baldur's Gate was ace, Star Wars: KOTOR was ace and I look forward to one day sitting down and playing Dragon Age Origins all the way through. Now whilst I am unable to play Dragon Age Origins, I have an understanding of it and am able to put names to characters and so forth - not least of which is Morrigan and the romance side-quest.

Now whilst I have yet to play Dragon Age Origins, I have, though the miracle of YouTube been able to see some male charatcer get it on with Morrigan. And I'm have no idea as to what to make of it: It looks like some bad porno flick and it's attempts to be 'intimate' just look laughable (or maybe that's the point, I'm not sure). I think the nadir is the point where the character has the most hilariously bland expression on his face during the entire thing. Additionally, I find it strange that Morrigan has to put a bra ON to have sex!!!



Looking back at the scene (Good Lord, what a voyeur I am) I'm not too sure just what this sequence is meant to prove. Is it an excuse to see more Morrigan beyond her cleavage? Is it it pandering to the many virgins who find solace to video games? Is it taking the ever-popular Bioware romance sidequests to the next level (no I'm not sure what that means either)?
Maybe it's just me but I prefer the romance sidequests in Baldurs Gate 2: You never saw the characters get up to anything, it all came across in the dialogue and the voice acting. And that's the beauty of it: It was all done in a subtle manner. After guiding these two into something you emerge with a real sense of payoff: You brought them together and you leave them to it. I really think that through not showing anything, make the romance work better: By contrast, watching the romance scene in Dragon Age Origins seems rather bland - leaving me the impression of being a perv.

Now that I think of it, why do the male characters get the better options? In Baldurs Gate 2, a male character has three options (all them elves funnily enough), whilst female characters have to settle for the insufferable Anomen. Male Jedi in Star Wars: KOTOR get to woo Bastilla Shan whilst female counterparts have to settle for the irritating Carth!
Oh well, at least the presence of Alistair in Dragon Age Origins seems to readdress the balance. Yes Bioware, girl gamers do exist! (and no I'm not one of them)

We're doomed

Last night I had the satisfaction of striking a game out of my Hall of Shame: The PS1 version of Doom. I remember Doom being very popular when I was a kid but whilst I played the shareware version, I never actually sat down and played it all the way through. So what better way then a version that incorporates both Doom 1 and 2?

There's a lot of talk going round of how people want a return to the glory days of the First Person Shooter: Where it was all about having as many guns as possible and mowing down as many people as possible. Granted, this freedom may have fallen out of favour due to a) People moving to the realistic shooters b) Doom's connections to the Columbine Shootings (Okay, so shooters inspiring kids to pick up a gun is nonsense but the knowledge that two Doom fans did pick up a gun certainly an uncomfortable notion).


But you know, I would like to see such a return. Why? Because they were fun! I mean, with Doom, the idea that you are taking on the forces of Hell is audacious enough but to place you as the eventual victor? Bring it on! Better still, Doom provided a real sense of being a desperado: Facing all these dudes and having so many limited ammo. What do you do? Charge in guns blazing! Try doing that realistic shooters! In fact, while I'm at it, the appeal of Doom lies in it's unrealistic nature: the guns are absurd, you're one man army against a horde of demons and the buildings were designed by an architect who was either drunk or stoned at the time. After all, why should realism get in the way of the fun?

For these reasons I will certainly see myself returning to Doom for future mayhem - either when I have the need to blow of some steam or to get 100% kills and secrets on all levels. And for a game to still hold such staying power seventeen years after release, says a lot.

Overload"*",8,1

In an attempt to remedy to problem brought about by the Hall of Shame, I recently dusted off Okami for a bash. And unlike most games I forget about for an astonishing amount of time, I was able to pick right up where I left off straight away.

At the moment, I have imposed a restriction: No more games until I beat the one's I already have. I have spent so much money on games over the past few years, both in disc format and on the Virtual Console, so it would make no sense if I leave them to gather dust. As such I have many games left unfinished and more left non-started. So thus, no more games and no more consoles until I'm through with the one's I already have.
I have many games indeed, covering many genres, platforms and styles. I have no loyalty to any console favoring, instead, the games - naturally, when you're an adult and you have money to spend you can do that type of thing. Yet, I can, however reluctantly, see an advantage in being one-eyed: You have a priority and direction. Thus, someone like me can have as many consoles and games as they like but too much information results in a lack of focus.
I have often been puzzled by seeing people with huge games collections wondering how on earth they manage the time to play them all - and now, I am in the similar boat. I'm used to see people having a single-digit number of games for their console so now the notion of overload becomes clear.
I guess when you're younger having a big games collection would be ideal but when you;re an adult, you find most of your money goes into important things, like food, bills, clothes, petrol for the car......

In any case, for the time being, I wish to focus on one game at a time. It therefore may take a while to be rid of my Hall of Shame, but hey, the journey of a thousand miles begins with the single step.

The end of Shadow of the Colossus...

*Watching the ending cinematic of Shadow of the Colossus with my partner:*

Partner: What is that horse made of?!?!?
Me: It is made of awesome!