Blogger Archive: slackur 
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Oh well. Back to Words with Friends. (SlackurJes, if you ever want to play.) Pic source: lazygamer.net
Folks spend their money and time on what they want or what's important to them, gamers included. Ah, but it's never that simple, is it? There are as many stories about collections as there are collectors, and probably half as many assumptions about both that are mistaken for various reasons. In the same way that a person's income, background, religion, appearance, and other factors often lead to very inaccurate assumptions about an individual, often anyone who owns more than a few video games can be labeled quite incorrectly.
Continue reading A Collection Story
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photo source: vg247.com
**Warning: light spoilers concerning the setting and philosophical implications of Bloodborne, and also some pics may be considered offensive to cat lovers.**
When it comes to Bloodborne, much digital and printed ink has been spilt in praising the game while warning the unaware about the intense challenge it unapologetically presents. As a result, I see no need to repeat this common narrative of which I happen to agree. If you've played any of director Hidetaka Miyazaki's games, you know what you're getting into, and Bloodborne is both familiar in this regard while being tweaked enough to have its own identity.
Continue reading The Blood That Bore Bloodborne
Remember when it was immediately obvious, even before you saw a screenshot, how a video game would play?
[img width=380 height=540]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-034/bf/U-034-S-02400-A.jpg[/img]
Because when I think of card games, I think of rainbow assaults to the face while 70's ghost woman haunts my Technicolor hand.
Continue reading Let The Game Be What It Wants To Be
When we were little kids tossing a football or shooting a basketball, we rarely stayed ourselves for long. Even if we didn't know any popular athlete's names, we were the star of the game; kicking the ball through the defense, knocking out the winning home run, slamming the puck into the net in our imagination. If we weren't pretending to be Michael Jordan or Arnold Palmer, we were a superior athletic version of ourselves, making all the right moves and showing off our skill to the crowd of our mind's eye.
Even for sports-challenged adults, such as I, a good book or movie takes us to a different place or time, our thoughts vicariously transporting us somewhere else for awhile. The potential benefits of such mental journeys extend well beyond escapism and can be informative, reflective, inspiring, even transforming.
Being the newest media on the block, video games embody much of the potential and problems of its siblings. As technology grows in leaps and bounds, so too grows our toolsets to create previously unheard-of experiences in the interactive entertainment realm. And yet, we can still use many of the same methods of examining our perspective as in other media.
Continue reading Gaming the Perspective
Suffice to say, even those who don't game online likely hoped for coal in the stockings of the grinches that took down XBox Live and PSN over Christmas of 2014. The DDoS attack created an outage that lasted a few days and kept owners of Sony and Microsoft's consoles from playing online, buying digital games and even locked out many single player experiences that required some online verification.
It's easy for us retro enthusiasts to roll our eyes, straighten our bifocals, and shake our canes as we brag about the obvious advantage of older consoles that weren't affected in the least. That doesn't change things for the many gaming youths who had just acquired a new toy and were unable to use it during their vacation time, or we older gamers who looked forward to unwinding through the holiday bustle by nabbing a few flags or finally getting in a raid.
We can prattle on about the obvious flaws of online-required gameplay and the lack of security and bandwidth in multi-billion dollar companies, or how it was a good thing that little Jimmy actually had to engage with the relatives instead of being glued to that headset, or how I assumed I was finished with Destiny and Plants Versus Zombies: Garden Warfare until forced withdrawal made the cravings start up again.
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In Bungie's defense, this offline multiplayer version of Destiny does have universal group chat. (Found these at https://www.etsy.com/list...ng?ref=shop_home_active_4)
Continue reading Gaming Unplugged
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Posted on Dec 19th 2014 at 01:39:52 PM by ( slackur) Posted under Bestises, paramount, superb, undisputed, greatest, most enjoyed, unbelieveable, incredible, undeniable, unparalleled, hyperbole |
As we all transition through arbitrary signposts on to another blocked-off sequence of events, I find it best to lift my hands up and feel the wind instead of grabbing for the emergency brake. Still, reflecting where we've been, gives context to where we're going. So as the cart methodically clicks on the track at the top of the hill, let's close our eyes and recall the latest part of the journey before speeding down to Whiplashville. Note that these titles weren't all released in the last year (or decade), but simply a slice of my best gaming experiences since I forgot to update the calendar twelve months ago. Onto the list!!
Continue reading Slackur's Unofficial Official Denary of '14 Gaming Experiences
[img width=400 height=353]https://fymtge.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/funny_demotivational_posters_01.jpg?w=1530[/img]
TWO buttons? Son, in my day we had a joystick with only one red button, and we did just fine.
I assume I was not the only kid who genuinely wanted video games to be more than just a niche hobby. As I would rant excitedly about my latest virtual experience, adults and often other kids would roll their eyes and shake their heads, as if I were trying to engage them in a heated debate over the color arrangements of my sock drawer or how fascinating was today's dryer lint. Aside from a handful of peers, nobody around me really cared, so video games felt like a lost treasure only a few friends and I could see. While it was lonely at times, these circumstances formed a gnostic cadre, forging bonds not unlike the secret club-house days of old. Every Nintendo Power or Game Players held delicious clues of future experiences, and instruction manuals whispered prologues of great adventures that lay ahead.
Continue reading The Usefulness of Ubiquity
[img width=700 height=157]http://alienisolation.com/sites/default/files/carousel_images_small/how_survive_en.jpg[/img]
Um, negotiation? Harsh language?
*Sometime in 1989, my dad is flipping through channels while an 11-year-old me is puttering with the family Commodore 64. I glance up to the screen in time to see the coolest thing on wheels my young mind has yet absorbed: a giant rectangle bristling with weaponry, tires almost as tall as the vehicle is high, and a turret atop that is so huge, it slides on a rail from the top and down the back so the whole thing can fit through a huge industrial door.
"Woah, what is that?" I ask.
"A movie." My dad says nonchalantly.
"What movie?"
"Aliens."
From the kitchen, I hear my mom call out, "Ken, isn't that too scary for him?"
The wood-grain 25" console TV flickers to a different channel.
This was my first encounter with the legendary franchise. And a moment that dug deep grooves into my life from then on, including a love of sci-fi I would end up sharing with my dad.
Alien Isolation is the latest product in that universe, which by most accounts needed a palate cleanser after the failure-on-many-levels Colonial Marines (full disclosure, I did enjoy that one, though I agree with the critique.) That game, like most based on the series, was modeled as a guns-blazing action game with a touch of horror, which makes sense; Aliens is highly regarded as a fantastic action/sci-fi/horror-lite movie that was also key in developing the quintessential and now ubiquitous 'Space Marine' archetype.
Continue reading Death and Harvey: Time with Alien Isolation
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Funny thing about us humans, we do a lot of things without asking why we do it. The same goes for continuing to do something without asking ourselves if we should have stopped long, long ago. For all of the things humanity has studied with great introspection, one thing most people tend to be terrible at is questioning their own actions and adjusting their lives accordingly.
If there's a whirling fan, someone's put their finger close to it. If it exists in the material world, it's been in someone's mouth. If you have young children, you learn daily how the simplest task can go horribly awry. And to the point of this article, if you're a gamer, chances are at least once you've stared at a Game Over screen and wondered why you feel compelled to press a button to continue.
Continue reading Continue?
"Truth is not elusive. We avoid it. We do not desire honesty, as it makes us aware of our complicity. Truth is a singular shining light that burns away our comfortable illusions. Therefore, a child is not healthy to absorb the whole of any truth, and not one of us is yet fully grown." - Nights In Forever
In those formative years just before high school, I had next-door neighbors with a son a few years my senior. The only electronic entertainment in their home was a simple 13" color TV in his room with an NES and three or four games. Normally he'd come over and enjoy our larger gaming library and bigger TV, but my own family strife meant every now and then we'd grab a few games and head to his house, sacrificing screen size and gaming access for peace and quiet.
One day after school, I stopped by his home and found an unusual sight; his mother and older sister were in his room, boxy grey controllers in hand, playing the original Super Mario Bros. I'd known my friend for over a year and had no clue anyone else in his family played games; no one in mine ever did. I was further surprised to realize that his mother was in world six; who went there when the warp pipes bypassed all of that?
My friend told me we'd have to game at my place, seeing as his mom and sis would likely be at this 'till past bedtime. They took over the NES on occasion, and would exclusively play through Super Mario Bros. several times in a row, from the beginning until 8-4, and loop again.
Continue reading The Gaming Naive
CCAG 2014. Cleveland's annual Classic Console and Arcade Gaming Show.
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An event so enjoyed by my Beloved and I that we plan half a year in advance and spend the whole day getting the most out of it. It is mainly a vendor event, but it also has arcade and pinball tables set to free play, old PCs and consoles set up for fun, tournaments and competitions for prizes, and a Chinese auction spread throughout the day. We've been going for over a decade and have yet to be disappointed.
This year was particularly memorable for several reasons. We nabbed five (!!) more NES games for our set, over 50 PS2, GC, and Xbox games for a buck apiece, several C64 and Bally Astrocade carts, more systems and parts for our Xbox LAN (yay original Halo LAN!) along with lots more goodies. We got to reconnect and chat with several convention buddies, and we tried Colombian cuisine for the first time, which was absolutely delicious.
Also, for the first time I found myself in a pseudo-argument with a gentleman selling me a game.
Continue reading CCAG, Playing Games, and the Philosophy of Flipping
As a video game collector, I have to admit I'm somewhat accustomed to picking up a game I'm not necessarily expecting to play. Oh sure, it usually won't be more than a dollar or two, but I'm guilty of spending (very little) money on games I consider duds such as Bebe's Kids or RapJam Volume One simply because I love the Super Nintendo and collecting for it. The same goes for many game systems, and even some eclectic oddities that I like to play around on more than play on, such as the CD-I or N-Gage. When it comes to modern games, the fact that most are more than a few bucks means I don't do the same, and I don't have a desire to grab a (as close as possible to) complete collection like I do for my favorite pre-PlayStation oldies. While seemingly unrelated, this brings us to:
When Titanfall was shown, I was not star-struck as many in the industry was but I have to admit the ol' Mech-lovin', giant robot-stompin', sci-fi buff in me was piqued. Interested, but not entranced. Other announcements such as system exclusivity and an online multiplayer-only design all but killed my immediate interest. Even the 360 version failed to appeal to me, especially since the 360/PS3 ports of Battlefield 4 felt so watered down from the PS4 port I enjoy.
However, when I found a window to acquire a Titanfall Xbox One bundle by a combination of trading off a stack of broken devices and redundancies in our collection and finally cashing in on all the Gamestop points we've amassed, it just made sense. Despite not having much interest in the system or library at the moment, it's a game system we don't have, acquired without much of any loss from us, and I know by the time another Halo or Gears of War comes out I'll be much more interested. And since it's the same price to get the system with a digital copy of Titanfall that it is a normal one, it just makes sense.
And don't get me wrong; I'm sure I'll enjoy the game. While I've never been an avid Call of Duty multiplayer fan, I enjoy many online shooters like the aforementioned Battlefield and Halo. And I've liked mechs since the Battletech board game days in my youth. Perhaps I'll be as charmed as the gaming media once I load it up and indeed have a 'genre-redefining' good time. I hope so!
But I'm more that fine right now with some excellent games that have perhaps gotten overlooked in the last several months of new system releases and Titanfall hype. Here's what I've been playing lately (instead of, oh say, writing for RFGen as I should.) 
Bravely Default (3DS)
I can't say the Final Fantasy name brand is dead to me like I've heard others say. I also can't say I get that old excitement whenever it's name-dropped either. Seeing as how Bravely Default began development as a Final Fantasy title, released as a new IP, and has been better received critically (and personally) than the last several Final Fantasy games, I sure hope the series continues. The story is naturally cliche to a fault and I have to say I endure the characters instead of being endeared to them. But the art is fantastic, the music beautiful, the gameplay fun, and the mechanics interesting. It's also rather addictive; I haven't carried my 3DS around everywhere this much since Soul Hackers.
Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (Xbox 360)
This just shouldn't have worked, especially as well as it does. Essentially a scaled-down Battlefield mod using the Plants Vs Zombies universe, Garden Warfare excels because of a humorous art design, decent and varied balancing, and the prevailing sense of quirkiness that the original PvZ games did so well. Perfect for those who tire of the gritty combat of modern shooters, Garden Warfare is smart in its focus of pure zany fun; kills are 'Vanquishes' and player deaths aren't even counted on the final tallies. The cartoony style is well realized and detailed, and the lack of gore and heavy atmosphere makes the whole thing so playful it's hard not to come away smiling. C'mon, you get unlocks by opening sticker packs! Unfortunately being an EA game, there's no LAN support and the only bots are in the Horde-mode like Garden Ops mode, but other than that it's about perfect for $30.
TxK (Vita)
If it weren't for the NSFW and completely unnecessary vocal effects during the bonus round (which I think were toned down with the latest patch), this game is the perfect successor to Tempest 2000 and Tempest X3, two of my all-time favorites.
Puppeteer
I'm not too far into this yet, but if the rest of it is as magnificent as the first few hours, this game is criminally unknown. I made the mistake of initially assuming this to be something of a modern Clockwork Knight: Interesting visually, but otherwise an average platformer.
Wow, was I underselling this game.
If we gamers mean it when we say that art, sound design, and originality are of supreme importance in a game, it's criminal that no one talks about this one. The first few hours I've put into it have shown more attention to detail, fascinating world construction, and inspired design choices than anything since the storied Journey. This game has, thus far, been quite the diamond in the rough and I intend to give far more attention to it soon. Here's the trailer, if you forgot about it or never heard of it:
Whether or not you're expecting Titanfall to soon eat up all your free-time, try giving one of these a shot; aside from possibly Bravely Default, they're likely to disappear under the shadow of higher profile releases, sort of like grunt soldiers under the massive metal feet of a-
Sorry, too easy.
What will be the last game you ever get? Many gamers assume that question simply depends on a bit of morbid posturing on when they die, and back up the clock a bit. But what if it was a conscious decision? What if, sometime in the future, you as a video game player picked up a game, or received one as a gift, and said definitively, "This is it. The last game I'll ever add to what I already have."
Kinda smacks as weird, huh? And perhaps more monumental than it really should. Firsts and lasts are generally memorable, and since most gamers assume they will be playing something off and on until they kick the bucket (and most of us are uncomfortable pondering our own end,) we don't normally think about what would be the last video game we will ever own.
But what if it were on purpose? A decision to stop buying any more games. Not for financial or practical reasons (though understandable, naturally) but because we have all we'll ever 'need' to play? Oh sure, it's perhaps easier to ponder for a collector who has more games to play than free time will ever allow, (ahem) but between free-to-play models, Steam sales, compilations, retro digital offerings, and future streaming options, most gamers have easy access to more games than they could ever complete.
And yet, even as many are lukewarm to the new generation of hardware, the assumption is that once prices come down and more games are released, we'll buy-in somewhere. Many gamers are even choosing now to jump into the 360/PS3 generation for the first time, given that prices are low, libraries are huge, and bugs are known if not resolved. Gaming is by nature technologically driven; more detailed graphics, longer (in theory) games, more (in theory) intelligent AI, higher player counts, added features, etc. Not every gamer ascribes to the 'newer is better' mantra, but few would argue against a future that continuously provides more options.
Yet the constant addition of game machines and games every year provides an embarrassment of riches to gamers who play more than the occasional title. It has literally become mathematically impossible to play, thoroughly, every new game released in a year, even if money allows it. Sure, each genre will have slow months and even years. But the back catalogue in each main (and many sub-) type of game has , with few if any exceptions, eclipsed the ability for a fan to have completely engaged each relevant title, not to mention each game in the genre.
Of course, the industry doesn't bank on a gamer's desire to play absolutely everything for everything. Its not uncommon to find a video game player who only plays one or two types of games:
The JRPG fan with a little strategy gaming on the side. The sports and Call of Duty bro. The $800 rig (not counting the actual PC) racing pro who dabbles in flight games. The MMO and-what-else-would-I-have-time-for? guru. The modern whatever's-free-on-tablets -and-phones casual.
When a gamer's scope is very focused (some would indeed say limited) it is easier to justify the constant upscale that the business-end of gaming runs on. Play out each Call of Duty and map-pack until the next game; hope that next year is more than a roster update and actually addresses legacy issues; upgrade your phone/tab to run the new wave of apps and games. A steady stream of new content to fit the field. And if you are more of a general gamer, chances are things aren't much different overall; a constant flow of 'gotta finish x to get to y'. Sometimes the games aren't even Pokemon.
Thus the consumer service is born. And all those folks who bought a Wii for Wii Sports, played for awhile, had their fun, and never bought a new game? Maybe they bug us because it goes against the modern consumerist gaming mentality. Played the next game, 'beat it,' and then moved it aside for some new hotness. Are games to be consumed and then tossed aside? Is this the only way to go about our hobby?
Well, sure, for an entertainment process it works. And I'd be rather pretentious to claim it 'should' be otherwise. But what if we stopped buying 'new' games? What if we looked back and decided, 'you know, I love old platform games. If I wanted, I could just go back and play all the greats I haven't played in awhile and ones I missed. Then, I could investigate and find platform games I never tried and played those.' After that, maybe I'm in an arcade racing game mood. I could start with the Burnout series, then move to ...'
Basically, almost each genre in gaming now has so many options, it would be feasible to spend our gaming time entrenched in genres we like, playing games already released, and not run out of material. It begs the question; why do we keep pursuing more new games when we haven't really played everything before? Especially in these days of PSOne/2 downloads and Nintendo's eShop, backwards compatibility and the relatively inexpensive costs for many older systems and games? In some ways it would make much more sense; as mentioned in previous articles, these games are going to slowly get harder to find and play, on hardware that is becoming ever more scarce.
Most gamers who have been through a few generations of hardware have likely played through a bulk of games that interested them and them moved on to the next system. We often 'beat' a game and then trade it, sell it, or store it, but rarely revisit it. Does that mean endless games have better value simply because they cannot be considered 'beaten?' Is Galaga inherently a more valuable video game than Radiant Silvergun? Or is it better for a game to have visible signposts, completion markers that signal it 'OK' to move on to the next game?
Obviously, there is not going to be a unified correct answer. I'm not advocating a position, but an examination. I want to make sure I don't have pre-existing assumptions about the how's and why's. I don't want to assume I have to buy the new thing because it is the new thing, anymore than I want to close off the future and assume nothing past a certain era is worth my attention. We can spend some time involved with something, and never remember to stop, look up, identify where we are, and plan to get where we want to be. As games have transitioned beyond quick-fix, in-and-out experiences and into involving, ever deepening virtual universes, the temptation can be to trudge ahead without pausing to wonder why we play what we play, and question if perhaps there is something better. A better game, a more enjoyable genre for our tastes, an unquestioned bias that we didn't realize we owned. A different way to go about things entirely.
Maybe we are better served widening our experiences, or focusing on favorites. Maybe a shotgun approach really fits us best. Maybe we should let games just be games, or perhaps use them as another lens by which we examine ourselves and the world around us. Maybe I can keep playing games as an excuse to ask more questions. Or the other way around.
I knew for a long time that PlayStation Plus was a great deal. At first, it just wasn't a great deal for me.
Now that I have it, it's still a great deal, but I'm at odds with the way it has steadily changed my gaming habits.
Back in the summer of 2010 when Sony announced PlayStation Plus, the addition of the Instant Game Collection rotation created one of the best deals in gaming, even if it boiled down to a Gamefly-like digital service where someone else picked out the rental games every month.
Since then the catalog has grown for several years, to the point that if one owned Sony platforms and an internet connection, the service could practically provide enough games to last a customer indefinitely. The longer the subscription, naturally, the more choices and variety in games become available. By design PlayStation Plus rewards those who have subscribed the longest. While I appreciated the design and intent, I had little desire to buy-in since I prefer physical copies and played my 360 much more often at the time.
Fast forward a few years, MS's focus on Kinect, and a promotion that allowed me to pick up PS Plus for a free year, and I find myself with every Sony system and a quickly growing backlog of games only visible from a menu. Given the PS4's requirement of PS Plus for online play, I took advantage of 2013's Black Friday, and let's just say I'll have Plus for... awhile.
Especially compared to the very meager Games with Gold feature added to Live, Plus is still easily one of the best deals in gaming, and at this point it would be silly for me to argue otherwise since I've greatly enjoyed many of the free games and discounts provided, not to mention the online fun on PS4. However, video games developing into an entertainment service as opposed to an entertainment product still goes against my personal philosophy and Plus is a poster child for such an implementation.
This change is not just rhetorical, much as I would like it to be. I've found that I now plan my gaming around what is announced for free each month on the service. It's not always intentional, and of course it could easily be argued that a simple matter of willpower should break this trend. In fact, many years ago I had to break my habit of playing for Achievements instead of fun, a practice I slowly developed and struggled hard to eventually overcome. The difference, at least in part, is that Achievements only tied into a virtual scoreboard and not my personal list of desired gaming experiences. While it was a surprisingly tough mental addiction to break, once I did it was easy to 'play what I want to play' instead of 'play what I bizarrely feel I should play for arbitrary score regardless of if I'm having fun.'
When it comes to Plus, games I would have perhaps desired to play later are front and center, and there is a greater incentive to play them before they get lost in the digital pile, a list that sticks out less than the physical copies of games on our shelves. I know that I'm far less likely to dig up a game from a digital back-catalog than a game temporarily forgotten on the shelf. In fact a cursory glance at my 360 XBLA games reminded me that I never completed Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, a game I had once eagerly awaited, excitedly played for a few hours (including a nifty co-op mode) and somehow promptly forgot about. I'm correcting that now, and shaking my head at how it happened, and I know that exact scenario has played out a number of times.
I could just 'play what I want' but as the back catalog builds and the hard drive space shrinks (especially on PS4) I find myself once again picking and choosing experiences based more on what's on the Instant Game Collection rotation before it disappears. I tag every game to download so it's not completely gone from my grasp, but I know if I have to search previous downloads to find it, it's even less likely to be played than if it only existed on hard drive.
Having fake cases to display for digital copies of games may seem silly, but now I genuinely understand the idea. Once it's out of sight, it's out of mind, even for desirable games.
Of course this is all silly. It's just games on a service, and it's quite a silly complaint to fuss about how there are so many games popping up I want to play that I'm letting many slip through my limited attention. If that were the only problem, I'd just shrug and move on.
The real problem for me, though, goes back to intentionality. Back in the glory days of the NES and SNES, my friends and I would pour over every new (pre-internet) gaming magazine. Each picture of a game we wanted grew our expectations. Even when a game was released, limited funds meant sometimes those previews and reviews were the extent of our experience with a game for quite some time, and it built up the desire and passion to really get as much out of the experience as possible. The tempered wait, the lofty expectations, the intentionality of playing games meant that even the poor quality ones were often savored, and the great ones were truly cherished.
The opposite of this, for me, are Steam sales. I'd be a hypocrite for griping about buying access to dozens (or hundreds) of great indie and big name games for a few bucks apiece. Yet this complete saturation of immediate gaming breaks down the intentionality of gaming. In a few short years, these sales have made having a backlog like mine very commonplace. Sure, a game can be picked and downloaded easily from the digital library list, but how many folks are intentionally savoring each, or even a few, of those games the way we used to before such access was available?
During the original PlayStation era, I knew a fellow who would rent each game as it was released, play through it as fast as possible, and return it for something he hadn't yet 'beat.' I hadn't thought much about it until I began asking him about the actual games he played.
"How did you like Vandal Hearts?"
"Who?"
"Vandal Hearts. You said you finished it last week."
"That the one with the squares?"
"The one with th- What? Squares?"
"Yeah, didn't you have to move each guy on little squares?"
"...yeah, sort of? I liked how in the story-"
"Yeah, I don't remember the story. That was like two games ago."
"Seriously? You don't even remember when-"
"I remember, like, the cool Mr. T with a gun for an arm. He was cool."
"Gun for a-... that was Final Fantasy VII!!"
"Was it? Oh, I remember that one. It had the bike, right? I wanted to just stay on the bike. That was cool."
"I... have to go cry in a corner for awhile now."
"You should totally sell your old Nintendo crap and buy Madden."
"Great. I'm about to have to cry in the corner of a jail cell."
That's a paraphrase, but the idea is there. He was the original games-as-service customer. He played through each game as a notch on a scoreboard, and moved on. And as much as that's not me, I respect that's just how some folks game. That's their entertainment, their unwind, their free-time preference.
This approach does, however, work against the 'games as an art media,' but that's another article. More to the point, I have no desire to engage in video games this way; I want to intentionally experience individual game creations. I'm not looking to elevate Bomberman to Shakespeare, but I do want to make sure that when I play a video game I'm not going to look back at the last hour and think, 'that wasn't what I wanted to spend my free time doing.' And I find that games-as-service models, such as PlayStation Plus, tend to rewrite my gaming time to match its schedule instead of me proactively choosing how to spend my time.
Will I be able to break myself of this tendency like my Gamerscore pursuit before it? Or has Plus become a fixture I'll wrap my gaming around until those servers are shut off and I lose every game I never got around to? Am I trapped in a game providing service the same way monthly paid MMOs 'trap' me into feeling I have to play enough each week to justify the cost? Does it really matter?
The first step of intentionality is to identify the factors involved, both static and dynamic. So here's step one, and that answers the last question; any pursuit that improves understanding of the self is a worthwhile venture, especially when video games can be involved.
As video games become more culturally relevant, the skills and artistry needed to create such media becomes more appreciated. The occasional name-drop such as Will Wright, Sid Meier, or Hironobu Sakaguchi gives deserved credit and helps gamers to find and follow those responsible for their favorites. However, like movies or music bands, many of the other important and project-defining people are rarely listed or known.
One such under-credited job are the teams responsible for porting a pre-existing game to different hardware. Like a movie's editor or lighting director, if the job is done well it's easy to forget them, but if something goes bad...
And gaming has certainly had its share of bad ports;
From the passable (Killer Instinct on SNES)
to the abysmal (Street Fighter II on ZX Spectrum)
to the notorious. (Pac-man on Atari 2600)
Despite the fact that the large majority of gamers do not have any working knowledge of how a video game is made, many assume that the process of porting a video game from one console to another, especially onto more powerful hardware, is a simple and straightforward task. For example, the original Sonic the Hedgehog was released in '91, so putting a version of it on much more powerful hardware made ten years later should be a cinch, right? For anyone unfortunate enough to pick up the glitchy, frame-rate stuttering, tinny sounding Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis port that came out on the Game Boy Advance, apparently it's not as easy as CTRL-C and CTRL-V with a few touch-ups.
It is perhaps more understandable to have problems when a new game is developed for multiple systems around the same time. Battlefield 4 has become a poster child for the disaster of releasing what appears to be an unfinished, buggy game with intentions to patch later. Frustrating as it is, one thing to keep in mind is that within a fairly short window, the game released for (count 'em!) PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Windows. Four consoles and PC, each with very different hardware and challenges, two of which are completely new to the developer. Sure, other games have released across this spectrum, including EA's own much-better running Need for Speed: Rivals. However, Battlefield 4 has a massive online player count, a (mostly) high frame rate, and many features and components that arguably push the respective systems beyond contemporary releases. In short, to have such a massively complex game with five different builds release close to the same time is an undertaking the average game player honestly cannot comprehend.
Don't think I'm letting EA or Dice off the hook, mind you! I've had the PS4 version of Battlefield 4 and Premium since day one, and it's been a yo-yo of excitement and disappointment. Certainly, I think if the game wasn't ready for release, it should have had longer to cook, and likely some systems are requiring more work than others to fix completely unrelated issues across platforms. Even games released for a single system can wait months, or indefinitely, for corrective patches. That Battlefield 4 has seen multiple patches across all five platforms since release (and still has issues across the board) speaks to the monumental challenge of making each version work as intended. Obviously, even with the money and manpower behind one of gaming software's biggest juggernauts, these problems cannot be easily resolved.
In a completely different area of ports, there are the challenges for Farsight Studios, makers of The Pinball Arcade. Whereas Zen Studio's popular Pinball FX series takes pinball into magical realism with tables that only exist in the virtual realm, The Pinball Arcade is an attempt to replicate, as close as possible, original real-world machines. From buying and deconstructing the actual pinball tables, digitizing all the art, and creating 3D models of each visible component, Farsight Studios takes a painstaking, documentary-like approach usually only seen in series like Gran Turismo or Forza.
Here's a glimpse at their process:
http://www.nintendolife.c...wii_u_3ds_and_kickstarter
Next to the eye-candy of Pinball FX2's tables (including my favorites, Plants Versus Zombies and Empire Strikes Back) the extraordinary work involved in a digital replica of original tables can easily go unappreciated. Sadly, here Farsight Studios often doesn't help itself. I own most of their physical collections, and the most recent disc copy of The Pinball Arcade has an ultra low-budget feeling front end. Despite being released for multiple systems, there are no cross-buy options. There have been occasional sound and support issues, and the patch list of fixes and soon-to-come features is even larger than Battlefield 4's. Yet despite all this, (and undoubtedly having a small team to work with,) Farsight's underdog work in keeping pinball alive in a digitized form has kept me on their virtual tables much longer than Pinball FX, and despite its clunkiness the PS4 disc has stayed put in the system.
But my favorite example of a recent port brimming with passion for the source is definitely Galaxy Force II on the 3DS, part of the Sega 3D Classics line. As much as I like Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Shinobi III, adding 3D to these classics comes across as a nifty but completely unnecessary parlor trick. Galaxy Force II, on the other hand, was designed as a 3D perspective game using nifty sprite wizardry. Out of SEGA's back catalogue considered for 3D ports, those with 'Super-Scalar' technology are the premier chance to put the effect to great use.
Initially, I had no real interest in Galaxy Force II for the 3DS. It had many strikes against it as a digital-only release of a game with a history of unimpressive home ports, whose only notable new feature was something I never use. (To be fair about the home ports, I never imported the PS2 Sega Ages version, though now price and not interest is the barrier.) However, a chance read over at www.hardcoregaming101.net lead to this interview:
http://blogs.sega.com/201...erview-with-developer-m2/
And after reading about the crazy amount of passion for this project, I was enamored with how the team tackled each challenge. Despite the massive increase in hardware power the 3DS represents over a 1988 arcade board, their description of the process involved requiring encyclopedic knowledge of the original hardware and a constant search for efficient coding tricks in order to get the game running. Then running at 60FPS, then running with sound, then running in 3D, then running in 3D with a perspective of riding the original moving cabinet. It's a fascinating read, especially to gamers who assume that a simple copy-paste rom and some tweaks are all it takes to get a game running on hardware other than the original.
After becoming so impressed with the effort involved, and since the fruit of their efforts was available for six bucks, I decided to give it a shot, and now I realize that reading developer interviews may be dangerous for my wallet.
You wouldn't expect a game from 1988 to be the showpiece for the 3D on the 3DS. But after viewing the game with the slider almost all the way up, this was the first 'wow' experience I've had that stayed that way through the entire game. Even jostling the screen around and having the angle occasionally pop in and out of 3D while getting into the game, I never wanted to move that slider. Galaxy Force II felt as if it were a game designed around the effect, and the fluidity and responsiveness made the game play more like a nostalgic mind's eye version instead of a cruel reality version of an old classic.
Sure, it took longer to read the article than to complete the game (admittedly with some helps turned on to relieve some of that old-school quarter-munching gameplay) but the game is so much fun to play, I want to go right back to it. Every ounce of dedication I read about is visible onscreen and felt in the action. What could have been a cheap, quick cash-in on an old name feels like a true labor of love and a reminder of why SEGA's arcade days were so lauded.
It's a cheap download with no substantial marketing, a quickly-finished arcade experience in a list of hundreds of games for a system who's namesake feature has been abandoned even by its creator. Developer M2 no doubt knows just how niche this little game is, and yet they treated it as if they were given a precious gem to shine and display brighter than ever before.
When ports go bad, everybody points a finger and moves on. When a port is good, gamers tend to shrug and just pick it up for their system of choice, often not giving a second thought as to the immense work it likely took to get there. When a port is a passion project, built with care and attention, sometimes it becomes even better than the original and deserves attention.
So kudos and thanks to all the artists, programmers, engineers, and talent that occasionally, quietly produce a port that shows their passion.
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