Video Game Sandwich

Welcome, welcome to the 6th installment of Blog Banter, the monthly blogging extravaganza headed by bs angel! Blog Banter involves our cozy community of enthusiastic gaming bloggers, a common topic, and a week to post articles pertaining to said topic. The results are quite entertaining and can range from deep insight to ROFLMAO. Any questions about Blog Banter should be directed here. Check out other Blog Banter articles at the bottom of this post!

Call me a purist, but I’ve always believed that the digital media age brings with it as many curses as it does blessings. It’s no uncanny coincidence that we as people are heading steadily into an age where we have things handed to us; things are innovative when they can be delivered right into our laps with little or no effort on our part. We are now integrated into a generation who can have our groceries delivered, our albums downloaded, and our movie and game rentals posted to our doors; there is no longer an excuse to leave home. It’s as if society would be just as happy for the world to be indoors than out, and with this push towards a digital age that makes all too much sense. Of course there would be an encouragement to stay inside, enjoying all of the fine electronics the numerous business’s sell us. The longer we stay inside, the more dependent we become on them. It’s a vicious consumer mind-fuck that is leading us into a colossal, psychological session of chasing our own tails.  And it’s all for the sake of having things faster, quicker, and with less effort, and what does that say about us when we would consider these factors evolutionary?

An even bigger argument, other than its reflection of us, is it’s effect on the future. As we head into an age where things don’t actually, physically exist; they’re retained on computers, on web servers, on XBOX 360’s and Playstation 3’s, we lose touch with artifacts of our era. I am one of those consumers who loves to touch and feel what I’ve purchased. I will admire the box art, finger through the instruction manual, and enjoy the sense of physically owning the product I’ve purchased. I even love the idea of setting aside an hour or two to actually leave my house (strange idea that, right?), and go to my local video game store. But with a move towards digital media we will lose these priviliges. Eventually video game stores will be phased out, unable to compete with the renewed and instant gratification of an online vendor who has no “stock levels” to study closely. This internet shopkeeper merely has one copy of the file which he replicates for every consumer to thrown down some bills, his/her stock levels are infinite.

It sounds more like a diatribe than an analysis, this article. But there’s no way to take an objective viewpoint, as the benefits of the digital media age are also its downfalls; you’re either someone who laments the idea or disagrees with it. I, personally, think that there’s a subtle harmony involved with the interplay of digital media and physical media. If there is some way that both can exist, then I would be happier, but I know that eventually, like album sales, the purchase of physical gaming media will die a slow, unfortunate death. And with the tentative nature of storage media, unlike a physical games disc, older digital media will have to be deleted/removed to make way for the newer stuff, and thus more artifacts of a bygone gaming era will gradually disappear too.

Check out these other Blog Banter articles! Living Epic, Silvercublogger, Mahogany Finish, Video Game Sandwich, thoughts and rants, weblog.probablynot.com, XboxOZ360, Zath!, Delayed Responsibility, Gamer Unit, Hawty McBloggy, Triage Effect

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I’ve just read the sales figures for the first week of Grand Theft Auto VI and the numbers are staggering. A total of five-hundred million dollars was spent on the game in seven days; the biggest interactive entertainment opening in history, and perhaps the most profitable debut of anything on any kind of entertainment medium. It’s bigger than anything that music or movies has ever thrown out way, and yet, there’s still this air of distaste when it comes to video games. There’s still this idea that the platform is only relevant for people wanting to have fun, and looking for entertainment, but why? Sure, the core principles of gaming, are entertainment, but have we not moved onto a bigger picture? Has gaming not become enough of a legitimate artistic plateau to warrant attention from cultural analysts and authors? And I don’t mean the kind of attention that sees misguided fame-seekers boasting about how much they don’t know regarding the sexuality of Mass Effect, nor the finger-pointers who accredit the downfall of our youthful society to the violence of Manhunt or Mortal Kombat. What I mean is the kind of attention that sees the likes of ‘Citizen Kane’ hailed by movie critics as genius, or the release of Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ as a revolutionary cultural artifact. Movies and music are platforms that seem safe to define as artistic, but for some reason the same recognition escapes video gaming. I’m hoping, with the release and consequent success of Grand Theft Auto VI, this will change.

GTA has always been recognized for its treatment of pop culture, it is a legitimate satire of modernity that, in its every incarnation, summarizes the mood and tone of the period it belongs to. GTA VI, however, is different. Where the former games borrowed heavily from films and shows, notably Goodfellas, Miami Vice, and Boyz in the Hood, this time around the narrative is unique, and entirely relevant to contemporary society in its own right. Niko Bellic is one of hundreds of millions of people who seem to be migrating west for a better life, and finding themselves struggling to make ends meet. Disillusioned by the American Dream, Bellic believes in the idea of success and prosperity in the land of opportunity. It is, however, not so easy. There’s a poignant occasion in the early minutes of the game where Bellic is outside his cousin Roman’s, and, by chance, bumps into an arrogant, wealthy American who berates him and then hands him one-hundred dollars. This acts as a metaphor for Bellic’s existence in Liberty City; a series of accidental run-ins that lead to him amassing a wealth of money; the land of opportunity certainly earning its slogan. Person after person delegating tasks to work horse Bellic until he eventually rises up and overcomes them to become the higher power. It’s a lesson in modern living, and a warning sign for understanding your own place in society - you’re relevant for as long as you can be bothered to stay relevant, and your own work is all that will remind people of your importance. All of the people above Bellic have settled on their wealth, and lost the drive to get their hands dirty; they do not possess the same spirit that Bellic has. As he reminds us on a few occasions, he is in Liberty City to find something, and he will stop at nothing to get what he’s looking for. I don’t wish to spoil the game for you, so I wont tell you what he’s looking for, but I will say that he finds it, and, rather fittingly, it does not fulfill Niko. His tireless journey of toiling and killing is punctuated by a self-reflective climax where our protagonist pulls the mirror up in front of himself and has to come to terms with the fact that what he’s been searching desperately for is a lost cause. Everything about Bellic’s existence up until this point becomes nullified, and as a result of his affiliations he loses what he’s finally realized is truly important. It’s the kind of story you’d expect to see in the cinema of Krystof Kieslowski, and an entirely Oscar-worthy saga, only, this is a video game.

Gradually we’re witnessing a change in the mentality with which people approach video gaming, but it’s far too internal, and even then it’s more of a ripple, than a rip-tide. Some how, externally, the world needs to recognize the power of the platform, if only to know that this passion of ours; this hobby we feeds so much money into, it’s not wasted, nor is it wasting us. We ARE being enlightened by astounding narrative efforts that are provoking reactions within us. People such as Ken Levine, Fumito Ueda, Goichi Suda, Hideo Kojima, and the Houser brothers, are worth just as much to the world as any Scorsese, Scott, Spielberg, or Lynch, and declassifying the artistic vision of the men and women who work behind these games on the principle that they’re “just games” is a naive, and narrow-minded practice.

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As a very recent recruit to the PS3 band-wagon one of my first, most important actions was to seek out the Metal Gear Solid Online beta from PSN. Excitement, over the course of the 12 or so hours it’s taken me to play the game, understandably died. Slowly. Fragment by fragment, like the tragic single-parent kid who’s waiting for his dad to come to his mother’s house and pick him up for a day at the ball park. “He’ll be here any minute, honey.” No he wont…

Konami is that dad, and MGSO is that ball park. So far it’s taken me around 14 hours to play this game, and it’s still a work in progress. Let me explain the many, MANY steps it’s cost me so far…

1. Downloading the game. This was tragically slow in itself. It took around 4 hours to do so, and it’s only 740 megabytes in size.
2. Installing the game. This consumed about 40 or so minutes in itself. Besides, why do you have to install PS3 demos at all? Does this take up room both for the source file, and the installed file? I friggin’ hope not…
3. Updating the game. I actually make it into the game, and I’m not ready yet. Not even close. I need an update. This, using a peer-to-peer system, takes about 10 minutes to find a below-par, barely-reasonable download speed, and from that, if you’re lucky, you’ll have your file in about an hour or so. I fell asleep at this point, and woke up several hours later to work on…
4. Installing the update. I actually have to install the update too? This doesn’t happen automatically? This was another wait, not so long; 10 minutes. After which I had to quit and restart the game.
5. Registering myself. Surely I can just play now, right? WRONG! YOU’RE WRONG LOU! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN THINK THAT! How naive of me. What, in actual fact, I had to do now was obtain a KONAMI ID AND a GAME ID. Not one or the other, but both. The registration for process asks for just about every bit of your personal information; for what reason I’m neglecting to understand.
6. An error has occured. So, I take my time entering all this stuff (dammit, I just wanna play) and upon the attempted submission of all this information I’m told that the server load is too high - please come back later. Are you fucking kidding me? Come back later? I’ve been here. I’ve been through this shit for hours now, and you’re telling me to come back later? I come all this way for the McDonalds breakfast and you tell me you wont serve me because I’m 3 minutes past the deadline? Fuck you Konami! Fuck you Kojima! I’m sure MGS4 will be great, and I’d like to think MGSO will be half-decent by the time I actually get to play it, but your shit is fucked up - sort it out.

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I was recently reading an editorial in EDGE magazine, and a certain journalist was suggesting that the only way forward for gaming was a future where all of the gaming superpowers collaborate on the same system, and to some extent it’s an agreeable target. With all of the biggest wigs getting those thinks caps good and sweaty around the same, designer roundtable we could see some incredible ideas born. It creates a far easier job for developers, also, who are focused solely on this single mega-console. In my opinion however, where ease of development and thoughtful collaboration prospers, genuine innovation dies.

Think of it in terms of shopping; one place being home to everything is a convenience to the consumer, yes, but for how long? Prices stay low momentarily, but without other stores offering alternatives at equally budgeted rates you’ll see the prices of items slowly rise. Suddenly the store is free to dictate its own rules, and can bend the customer across a barrel with little effort. Buying into the so-called one-stop-shop is a victory for covenience at the expense of our own freedom; as humans we enjoy the luxury of choice, take that away and we’re mere pets.

A one-console future could see us succumbing to a similar fate, we lose choice and we accept the standard. Slowly, and with no incentive to push any particular boundaries, the standard drops. Without a frame of reference the world outside the box becomes a mere blur, and we readily allow those benchmarks to fade away.

McDonalds needs Burger King, Coca Cola needs Pepsi, and Microsoft and Nintendo need Sony. It’s almost like these opposites are all in some form of spiritual alignment; as if they were meant to co-exist in order to provoke a response from one another. They are, essentially, an atom. A series of protons, neutrons, and electrons conflicting with each other to create an intangible harmony.

I’m running over here - far more than I anticipated I would be. Therefore, the final factor I wish to touch on is price, and the argument that with only one console to buy the consumer wins. It’s an idealistic, albeit naive conclusion to draw from. To call back to the point I made earlier about the one-stop-shop, who is to say that that one mega-console isn’t the price of an XBOX 360, PS3, and Wii combined? It, surely, isn’t such an unlikely scenario? Sony, at the time of the PS3’s release, were shifting their console at the $600 mark. And that’s WITH its rivals already having debuted at a comparative fraction of that price. To have the audacity to do that, with competition to consider, leaves few prospects for the idea of a reasonably priced machine in a market with no competition.

It’s worth ending this article on the following quote from Orson Welles; an artist who thrived under tenuous conditions, and then faultered given complete control,

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”

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In the second installment of Boss Battle we take a look into the kind of dark habits of humanity we think would make interesting Wii games!

And please subscribe! At least do it for the children!

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You are about to read a Blog Banter article. Blog banter is a sect of gaming odd-balls with the combined goal of turning the brains of the people inside out with sheer mental power.  This act is also commonly known as “thinking”. The head of the think-makers is bs angel, and as such, you should crawl along to her palace of information to get some knowledge about this whole Blog Banter process. Some links for the rest of the think-makers will appear below this article.

There are many common misinterpretations about the video gamer. A lot of these are old and contorted, like a Grandma playing Twister, as stereotypes seem to carry along the wind with no real backup. They just exist as gospel truths because they’re old beliefs, and this isn’t necessarily a logical way to think. In this era of acceptance, where we’re all trying to hold hands and heal the world, the gaming platform and the gamer within that platform is still struggling to find acceptance. It seems okay, perhaps even “cool,” to be a casual gamer. But don’t you dare turn the focus of conversation to clan matches or your lengthly collection of Intellivision classics, for you will thusly become banished to the realms of enthusiast; the domain of geekdom.The geek is yet another common stereotype that, like the image of the video gamer, seems to revel in its own myth with no real re-enforcement.  And as such it leads me to connect the dots on these two alleged breeds of social misfit and present you with my gamer stereotype: gamer’s are geeks. It makes sense, sure, to envision the gamer as the geek for it is a platform created by such people, and then accelerated by them - but this is such an old concept! It’s so 1980s to see this picture of the spectacled nerd with the my blind mum cuts my hair in the dark with a sharp knife-do sitting atop his brain-filled cranium. And yet people still seem to see the enthusiast gamer in the same light; the social misfit, dodging sun-light, and trying desperately to conquer his Japanese import copy of Persona 3 in a darkened room with only a downloaded strategy guide for company - he apparently cannot talk to girls, nor can he play sports, or enjoy social occasions.

Now, as is the nature of the question, I shall bring myself into the mould. I would classify myself as a gaming enthusiast; it’s my escape. I work hard on things, I worry, and I think entirely too much. But my counter-balance is video gaming, which I get involved in when I need to remove myself from the harsh realities of modern existence. I’ve done so since my brother bought home a Commodore 64 when I was aged 4, and have not stopped gaming since. I read several gaming magazines, subscribe to RSS news updates for numerous websites, and listen to about 4 or 5 gaming podcasts (I even co-host my own!). It’s safe to say I am an enthusiast, but am I this stereotype? The lonely, reclusive gamer? Not by any means! Let’s take the those three factors I mentioned earlier into consideration…

1. Girls: I’ve had a pretty steady stream of ladyfriends since I was about 12 years old. It’s an early start, I know, but I rather quickly noticed the glory of the girlie and was something of a pre-teen lothario! Perhaps the only boy in the playground to actually stand still rather than run when girls would announce the commencement of a kiss chase in their oh-so subtle “KISSS CHAAAASSEEEE!!!111″ tone.
2. Sports: I was quite a warrior when it came to soccer and athletics at school, in fact, I was part of the youth development scheme for Chelsea FC here (one of our main soccer clubs). I’m still very active in this respect, and play twice a week. I’m a very big sports fan… Figuratively speaking. I’m not ACTUALLY very big. Otherwise it would be something of a marvel that I’m any good at sports at all. I’d be famous, darn it!
3. Socializing: Hmm, see, if anything I’ve done far too much “socializing”. As a former, erm… drug lover… I’ve done enough “socializing” in the span of 6 or 7 years. The kind that many could only accomplish in 10 or 20, and vowed never to touch another substance again. Not even beer! (I never really digged that stuff anyway.) Beyond all that very dark nonsense, however, I still go out regularly. It’s just now I don’t have the added pleasure of waking up in a ditch with my shoes missing!

And so, the gaming stereotype of gamers as geeks need not apply to everyone. You can still be a bit rock ‘n roll, and be able to play Phantasy Star Online with your guild of Dreamcast lovers, even years after the official servers have closed down and the Dreamcast has been phased out. Why? Because you’re an enthusiast, and you just know how - that’s why!

Check out these other Blog Banter articles! The Average Gamer, Silvercublogger, shinybento, Unfettered Blather, Boom Stick Brigade, Gamer Unit, Zath!, Man Bytes Blog, Game Couch, Video Game Sandwich, Delayed Responsibility, thoughts and rants, Hawty McBloggy

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The first episode of Boss battle is here, brought to you by the same guys who haven’t brought you anything before! In this debut episode Luke and Lou discuss our picks for games we believe should be movies, and the future of the Sony PSP.P.S., Sorry if I (Lou) sound retarded and nasal. I wasn’t feeling too good, see!

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So it’s safe to say that the past few years have been an unkind companion to Sony’s next-gen efforts. While the PS2 continues to enjoy a steady level of popularity, many thanks to the continued excellence of output for the console, other incarnations of Sony gaming have not been received with as much positivity.

The PSP, although a decent piece of hardware, just did not find the audience that it was seeking; much of this can be accredited to an inconsistent stream of worthwhile releases, but most importantly it was the introduction of the UMD disk. In this New Media market one thing that developers of new technological approaches and philosophies constantly preach is the cross-pollenation of formats and the ability for integration with other avenues of entertainment. The idea of community, and each member of the gaming community affecting another’s experience is, seemingly, the way forward in digital entertainment. The PSPs own failure was an inability to accept this philosophy, and having the sheer lack of foresight to then go on and create a whole new format for use with the PSP console. A large measure of success is that shared experience. For example, let’s assume I am a PSP owner, and you’re not. With any new piece of kit there’s that “What’s that?”-factor, and when you’ve got that intangible you need to be able to hold it. The Nintendo DS, for example, has it’s dual touch screen, and ease of use for casual gamers. It has its catalogue of pick up and play software. Where, however, did the PSP find a strong, fallback niche? It was aimed at hobbyists, and its games reflected this. This closed one huge market almost instantly. It tried to be a multimedia device, and UMD was its failure; another big avenue closed. The final nailgun shot to the face was the launch, set at around the $250 mark. Comparatively the Nintendo DS launched at a more palatable price of $150 - a whole $100 less. Picture the scene, Joe Casualgamer is at Gamestop, he’s no fanboy for either one of these companies, and he probably doesn’t even understand the term. He’s faced with the dilemma: PSP or DS? Hmmm, a cheap, casual gaming device with a genuine claim for innovation, OR, a chunky, expensive piece of plastic which does everything, but to about average level. Oh, wait, but it plays movies? Oh… It plays UMD movies? I see… *hastily picks up DS and walks on*.

Now, moving on to that big, black, shiny device we’ve all come to know as the Playstation 3. To call its launch a slow start is to reinvent the very definition of the word slow, a more apt classification would perhaps lie under the banner ‘false start’. The console didn’t so much leave the starting blocks as it did not actually arrive at the race on time. As the last installment of our current console crop it had a hard task ahead of weaning the masses away from the two behemoths which had claimed ground before it. It’s a bit like turning up for open mic night at your local comedy club, putting your name down, and then being told that you’ll be the closing act after Richard Pryor and Bill Hicks (don’t ask me who represents which console, although the thought of Hicks’ raw cynicism in conjunction with Wii’s family-friendly image makes my heart smile). Upon the PS3’s eventual appearance it caused somewhat of an instant faux-pas when it brandished its hefty $600 price tag, justifying this price with its integrated blu-ray playback. While it was delightful that the console was giving us a taste of the future, it wasn’t so much offering us that taste as it was clawing open our jaws and stuffing the taste deep down our throats. At no point was the consumer given the choice to opt out of the Blu-ray backbone and just purchase a stand-alone gaming system. Instead the consumer was told that it would either support this ridiculously expensive technology or not own a Playstation 3. Once again Sony becomes a victim of its own swiss army knife-mentality; rather than create a GAMING console whose focus was GAMING, and offer us this at a fraction of the price (with a Blu-ray expansion as standalone extra), it tried to offer us everything and failed to take into account that money still does not grow on trees, no matter how hard we wish at night. Gamers, understandably, revolted and the PS3 sales were shoddy. This rather dark scenario, coupled with the fact that the system launched with about 3 or 4 decent exclusives saw Sony executives bowing politely and begging for our forgiveness. Within a year of the PS3’s arrival, Sony announced that it would be discontinuing the 60GB SKU and giving us a 40GB model instead. That’s fair enough, Sony, 40 is still a lot… Sorry, what did you say, Sony? Well, I just heard you mutter something under your breath? You’re taking what away? PS2 back-compatibility? Oooohhh, Sony *shakes head in disappointment*… In a rather desperate bid to boost sales the 60GB PS3 would be the world’s last chance at owning a next-gen Sony console that could play current-gen Sony games. The fact that Sony highlighted this attribute as something worth snatching away from gamers highlights the company’s lack of faith in the console’s future. The idea that we would all rush out in masses just so we could play our PS2 games on this allegedly next-gen console which should, by the very definition of evolution, be able to cope with artifacts from its past, was absurd. 2007 capped off a rather dismal year for the market’s apparently technically superior console; XBOX 360 exclusives were the order of the day on critic’s end of year lists, and the Wii continued to sell out in every shady corner of the planet. There was, at the end of the day, a glimmer of hope. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, and Ratchet & Clank 3 had given the world a small, meaningful kick in the teeth; 2007 finally had some meaning… So what of 2008? Part 2, and Sony’s fightback, coming soon…

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Well for the past few weeks I have opted out of console gaming, for what I thought would be a more rewarding experience-PC gaming. I have to say I’m really getting fed up with it, maybe it’s because I’m using Vista or maybe it’s because I haven’t owned a windows PC for about 8 years (that’s right I was in merry Macland). But everything seems to fail for me, I can’t run Need For Speed Carbon, Battlefield 2142 is jealous and only lets me play with its bots (no online multiplayer), and the Steam Bioshock demo quits just after the plane crash. I have to warn all those grazing in the console field that the grass is most definitely not greener over here! I’m hopping back over the fence just as soon as I finish The Witcher (will certainly review on completion). I sure am missing achievement points- It’s gotten to the point where I’ve actually been making my own achievements(Bellow), just for using the PC! Vindicate me PC! VINDICATE ME!

Visit the REAL-Real life ACHIEVEMENT points.

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I picked up Assassins Creed from a friendly gaming retailer a matter of weeks ago. Brimming with excitement over the prospect of playing this much-hyped piece of electronic satisfaction I got home and literally threw the game into my 360… Well, I say threw, but perhaps that is an overstatement. Let’s settle on dropped. I dropped  the wonder into my console and began firing away with these itchy trigger fingers.

A few hours passed and things seemed good, events were starting to reach that chasing tail point, but I could tolerate the nature of the game since I seemed to be making progress with it; happily I would go about the business of mugging, eavesdropping, and murdering the poor hapless folk belonging to each of the vast kingdoms. Over and over again I would do so, in fact. This was done quite happily until, somewhere around Memory Block 4, things got a little stale. Once I’d accessed Memory Block 4 the means seemed to vastly outweigh the rewards, as I would complete missions of trawling through kingdoms trying desperately to find people to snatch information from, then murder the kingpins in question. And yet, still, I would remain on Memory Block 4. Oh, kill another fella in a seperate kingdom, should I? So be it. Once again I navigate a lengthly horse ride from one kingdom to another, and then rinse and repeat the same series of actions I’d been utilizing thus far throughout the game. But, to my surprise, I’m still on Memory Block 4? Okay. Fool me once, Mr. Ubisoft, shame on you, but I wont be your sucker-ass fool-piece in the second round. Hastily I removed that game from console, never for it to burden my existence again.

It was a wake up call of sorts, as prior to attempting desperately to become engaged in this Creed experience I had completed Mass Effect. Now, making the jump (no pun intended) to Assassins Creed from such a game is almost akin to reading a Philip K. Dick novel, and then attempting to invest the same nature and measure of interest in an instruction manual. A shitty instruction manual, no less. One which perhaps makes a desperate attempt to translate itself from Traditional Chinese text to English, and fails. What you’re left with is an incomprehensible mess of things; some useful to you, but most mere nonsense. While you’re whole-heartedly trying to find a reason to keep on reading, it becomes quickly apparent that you’re hitting your head against a brick wall. Repeatedly.

I know this is an overly long, overly useless metaphor on why I couldn’t complete Assassins Creed, but allow me to break it down for both developer and reader: don’t create a game which seems more desperately akin to the idea of cool than that of coherence. Narratively, and without spoiling anything for those willing to give the game a shot, this game belongs in the past. Fragmented plots may seem really hip, but there’s a reason Memento worked, and a reason Assassins Creed doesn’t. Just bear that in mind when you make that sequel you’re so destined to create.

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