AndyB

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Posts posted by AndyB

  4. Posted

    It seems to me that one of the main problems with game journalism that relates to games like Ico , Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Psychonauts is that the gaming press doesn't know how to word their reviews in a way that will market them properly. They don't know how to get their audience interested, so maybe these games need to learn how to promote their charms in a way that mirrors the type of 'journalism' (Insane demo! awesome graphics! mayhem!!) that appeals to kids and gets their attention.

    The very word quirky is a bit of a turn-off except to people who read Edge, Idlethumbs, Way of the Rodent etc. So I think it is partly a question of finding out what vocabulary can be used to get people interested in the more original experiences.

  7. Posted

    Examples:

    Half-Life 2: signing away our future rights and ushering in a new era of EULs. Steam is awful. Great game, but very shortlived, too linear, gravity gun underused. Too short and haven't heard of any good mods yet.

    Doom 3: good to start with, very dull and boring afterwards, stopped at the monster with the flying lights. (To be fair I knew I shouldn't have bought it before I did). Last time I looked there were very few single-player levels / mods.

    Yoshi's Island (gba): OK but not as good or as fun as Super Mario World. Everything from the music to the colours aren't as enjoyable.

  9. Posted

    A long time player of video-games, I'm starting to wonder -what-is-the-point- of it all.

    What do you get out of games? Do you feel that it is just pointless "jumping through hoops"?

    Convince me that there are still good games worth playing (and not just SNES games).

    :deranged:

  10. Posted

    I think why games suck was captured in a recent quote of the moment... the one about games being about things and stories being about people.

    Yes, the experiences that New Games Journalism harks at is all about people. It isn't about the sterility of a bubble-wrapped game where victory is assured, but about coming into contact with other people's creativity, values and behaviour, as filtered through our little boxes of electronics:

    http://www.alwaysblack.com/blackbox/possessingbarbie.html

    Now Bow...... and Posessing Barbie are both about Multi(player) games/ chatrooms, but does a game have to be multiplayer to get the same effect of recognition of other people. Ie. Can single-player games also have the same kind of effect where rough-hewn animations make the player see the designer behind the game and come into contact with them?

    From NTSC-UK

    "

    "Well, it was strange." says David, his voice starting to rise again. "I didn't believe it to begin with. I was just tooling around in 'Pilotwings' on the N64 and I found a cave."

    I had a faint recollection of this place and the strange rumours that had whispered amongst the Nintendo faithful back in 1996.

    The Japanese have a saying, 'God is in the details'. In Pilotwings it would seem that had been taken quite literally.

    According to legend, graphic designers had become fed up with simply creating the same textures. To alleviate the boredom, someone had drawn the image of Christ on one of the walls in the cave.

    A nice update of a classic SNES title had become a biblical experience.

    "That's very interesting" I say, feeling as if everyone has now fled the store, leaving just the two of us to chew the fat. I look around for a means of escape. Meanwhile the madness continues.

    "Anyway, one night, I was just sitting in my room. I had the game on pause and I was in the cave. When I looked at the screen and squinted, I could see a face. After a while, it was all I could see."

    His voice drops to a whisper once more.

    "That vision - that image was put there for a reason. It's God's way of telling us not to play games - to stop wasting our time."

    :eek:

    And yes, it is all A bit pretentious, but there is definitely room for games which are more centred around people and relationships rather than shooting things, collecting gems / fruit, bullet time and battles.

  11. Posted

    SOAP OPERAS?? :fart: no. Also what do you mean, that games should emulate soap operas/love stories/psychological thrillers? How is that the ultimate evolution of anything?

    I don't like the sound of your idea. It would bore me. It really sounds like you don't like games at all

    What I mean is that it would be an extension of the adventure game / RPG to have games where there are dynamic social plots which allow for interesting interactions with other characters.

    What do I mean by psychological thrillers? Well, a game based around the idea of having a scary-ass masked psycho trying to ---- with your character's head. and you would have to simultaneously work out how to escape (puzzle solving) and who was doing it (thinking back to your conversations with NPCs).

    Want an interesting example, okay take Beyond Good & Evil, and imagine that instead of having preset situations the game played out slightly differently each time. One day there would be a Domz attack on the centre of Hyrule (oops! Hyliss) and everyone would have to go into their basements. There could be dynamic kidnappings with different relatives of NPCs being taken each time, so you would see them sobbing on the street corner, or drowning their sorrows in the Akuda bar (Barakuda = Barracuda) ;) . And from these different plot points you could get slightly different missions. It would also increase your level of emotional investment in the game if you could -get to know- the characters better.

    This kind of (fake) human interest wouldn't need to make a game boring and prosaic, it could still be set in an exciting (Xtreme? ;) )situation if necessary it would just make it feel more worthwhile and give you something to talk about if someone asked you what you were doing, as opposed to .. I'm just trying to make this last jump in the level / work out the bosses weakness / run over some dealers / shoot this bee firing freak / combine the honey with the moss to make a moustache.

  12. Posted

    emulate their favorite action movies when they were 10 years old, therefore we get poor results in games that are enjoyable.

    Yes, imagine if all films were 'action movies' with Sly Stallone, or Arnie, or Duke Nukem.

    What I'd like to see is games that emulate soap operas, love stories, psychological thrillers. The ultimate evolution of the 'adventure / RPG/ SIM' genre. Where you could worry about the neighbours from hell that move in next door, whether the daughter of the family starts dating an undesirable man. If your character will get a good job, or remain unemployed. If the lovers will stay together or their families will split them apart (Romeo & Juliet). Whether the next door neighbours grandfather will be found alive and well when he escapes from the nursing home. Meeting characters like Mrs (?) Havisham etc.

    (But there will always be a space for action, and high-adventure)

  13. Posted

    netmonkey, I've been thinking the same thing since I heard that Keita Takahashi was an 'artist' first, and that Miyamoto was employed to do graphics at Nintendo* I was going to suggest that this was an important factor in the games they made. But I couldn't get any further than that in this argument.

    apparently he also wanted to be a toymaker, which IMO shows up in the way that you can kick shells about, and play with things in Mario.

    What I think makes many games suck is that no matter how good they are, they are a solitary experience, with little to talk about. No matter how good they are, to me it feels like being a dog enjoying knawing on a bone. -fun, but with very little in the way of "human interest" to it. It is a solo- masturbatory kind of thing.

    yay!

    (Which isn't to say that I want to see games become ponderous narratives, but to see games with more in the way of human drama and interesting situations and characters. ---BUT I want to see games go in ALL directions)

  15. Posted

    I see reviews of WarioWare Twisted / Topsy Turvy that say you will look like a nob on public transport, thing is I wouldn't play it on public transport incase someone wanted to mug me for my handheld. More so if I got a PSP.

  21. Posted

    Does anyone else here think that Nintendo is making a wrong move by releasing the GameBoy Micro, which is a smaller (kind of) GBA? I just can't see who it is aimed at and why they think it will have a place in the market.

  23. Posted

    I wonder how many cool games that we'd really enjoy pass us by each year because we assume that they are too easy / made for a quick buck / too embarassing to buy?

    I've just bought Tak 2: Staff of Dreams which is a funny, enjoyable platform-action-adventure.

    Likewise, I've been looking at reviews of Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure (which looks neat), not seen it in stores yet though.

    --Have you taken any chances with licensed/kid's games recently that have paid off? If so share it with us.