Thursday, October 23, 2008

Control

Welcome to another Non-gamers' Corner. Last week I took a look at modern game controllers (excluding the weird, slightly erotic looking 'Wiimote' which was coupled with the Nintendo Wii, one of the current video game consoles) so if you're not familiar at all with anything game related, especially controllers, search for either 'non-gamers' corner' or take a look at my September 30th post.

Anyway, the whole reason I wrote that article was to write this one. Now that we know what a controller is, lets talk about why it can be so frustrating to first learn how to play a game or games in general, especially in front of somebody(ies) who have had years of experience.

On a side note, I was going to address non-gamers as female gamers, because most of the experiences I've had with people that find video games stupid or weird or just too alien to understand have been women... whether it's girlfriends or mothers or whatever. However, a non-gamer can be anyone but that doesn't change my main example that I'm going to use for the issue of learning how to control a character in a video game.

Boyfriends/male friends trying to teach their girlfriends/female friends how to play games. There, now I've got your attention. I've seen so many cases of this (and have been guilty of it myself) in which the 'teacher' tries to patiently explain how the game works while the 'student' jerks and waggles the controller in hopes that it will help them learn faster, and possibly appease the one in the teacher role. Ultimately the teacher gets incredibly frustrated usually giving up and leaving the whole experience a sour one for both people. I've seen too many people turned off of video games because of this and many pissed off girl friends that end up resenting the boyfriend and his hobby.

It all comes down to control, in a literal and figurative sense. Playing a video game is all based on muscle memory. The problem is that gamers don't realize just how innate the action of manipulating a gamepad has become. Think back, all you game enthusiasts, and remember how difficult it was controlling Mario for the first time, or speeding along with Sonic or jumping over a crocodile in Pitfall.

I can remember vague memories of twitching in direction of my character jumps in hope that this would make the leap more successful. I'm not sure how long it took me to get out of this this stage and into a more comfortable feel to the controller but I know it wasn't overnight and really no non-gamer should be expected to just 'get it' right away.

'Getting it' takes time and, most importantly, one on one interaction with the game. Having someone trying to show you the ropes and always telling you what do means you're more distanced from the experience. If you do not own a video game console just ask to either borrow your friends or have a bit of quality time with whatever game that someone is getting you to learn.

It's also important for you non-gamers to understand that most games have similar control scheme within their genres (for e.g. most games like Super Mario Bros have the same button for jump and the same button for run, etc.) so this makes it even easier for regular gamers to pick up and play. Basically, once you get the hang of a type of game, you've basically got your fingers trained for next one you try.

Instruction manuals always have a layout of the control scheme and most games have a tutorial mode which contain really dumbed down segments that take you through the absolute basics of a game. Some people find this tedious and patronizing and some tutorials have been known to take a very long time to finish. Some have been known to be absolutely horrendous and give you very little idea on how to play the game. If you feel even more confused while going through a tutorial or reading an instruction manual, it's better to walk away from it or just jump into the game and see how you do.

So, looking back, learning the controls of a game comes down to patience, a little bit of help from friends, a little bit of time alone with the game and the understanding that you're not going to get everything right away and that it takes time to get to be really good at certain games. And, all the teachers out there, just try and remember how long you've been playing and the learning curve you had to go through when getting there. And even if you think you're great, there's always someone out there who handles a controller better than you.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Whacking off


So I've been preoccupied by Whacked! over the last few days and it's been taking up too much of my time. The minute I saw the cover art for the game was drawn into the stylistic world that it portrays. It's a bit of a relic and touted poor reviews but it's got some great characters and environments. Maybe this has something to do with one of their animators.

The game is shaped around the concept of a fucked up game show and in between levels there are 5 to 30 second commercials. Imagine my shock when I saw this:

Look familiar at all? Dan Paladin, the man behind the art of Castle Crashers and Alien Hominid, worked on this baby right as he was putting the finishing touches on the flash version of AH. His unique style alone was enough to keep me going for the game.

However, it seems that lead designer Phil Saunders was the man to shake hands with for coming up with great ideas like a psychotic rabbit name 'Lucky' who has stumps for hands because he's been harvested for good luck charms or a pirate ship floating in the middle of a bath tub that has a dead and twitching giant foot protruding from the water.

The game is definitely not without it's faults however. It plays like the hyper-active cousin of Twisted Metal (that was the only game I could think of right now) and the action gets pretty hectic. You go around killing your opponents for stars and you try and reach 100 or 150 or whatever the quota is. Problem is that the game is so unbalanced, especially in solo mode, that once you're close to reaching the amount of stars you need to pass, suddenly the computer comes at you will billions of different weapons and special stage modifiers that suddenly you're now in last place with you star total.

However, any game that has a character like Lucy, immediately has my attention because I'm apparently an adolescent boy.

I love how she makes a social commentary on the age range for the game show... ie the video game... ie many video games. The fact that they play with the fact that she has bars over her goodies just takes the whole character design to another level.

Ideas are intertwined in Whacked! which gives a great feel of the world the game inhabits (for instance, the Asson ad that you saw before is connected to a level that has a broken oil pipe in a subarctic climate and is also connected to the creation of one of the characters, Toof, who is a orange eating-machine that Asson apparently developed to eat oil particles). I give a nod to the writing 'team' on this one.

But going back to the sex which means going back to Lucy, which also goes back to the title of this post, I've been reading a book (what... that thing full of word thingies? what does that have to do with video games you ask?) called Porn & Pong: How Grand Theft Auto, Tomb Raider and other sexy games changed our culture (ISBN 978-1-932595-36-9) and I've found it to be a fascinating look at how sex permeates into all aspect of culture and pop-culture, including video games.

Damon Brown is the author and has written for non sex related publications like Playboy. While Brown's objective writing and history of sex and pop culture is a very interesting read, I was immediately drawn to the forward written by Jon M. Gibson who apparently was the co-founder of the Nerdcore label of calendars and stuffs.

His musings on the immaturity of the video game industry regarding sex really hit a note with me as I have a inherent interest on sex, video games and sex in video games. I'm not going to go into too much detail as this post is already long enough, but I will share a quote from the forward to Porn & Pong:

It's the foreplay videogames lack. They just skip right ahead to the fucking, on an express to orgasm. Evidenced by horny-boy fluff like Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Playboy: The Mansion and The Guy Game, boobs and booty - the McDonald's drive-thru version of sexy - are the only things that seem to matter.

This is very true but man did it work like a charm when I was younger. More on that later...

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Paper Manny Calavera!

No this isn't a fancy papercraft of the famous Grim Fandango hero but an installation I saw today of a local Torontonian artist, Roger Hupman. His website is adorned with 100 different paper mache skulls that he created after going down to Mexico and being inspired by the Day of the Dead festival. (He apparently didn't attend the festival but saw many altars and paraphenalia dedicated to the holiday all over the country.)

Grim Fandango takes it's inspiration from the Aztec mythology for the afterlife. This isn't the only parallel between Hupman's work and the much overlooked adventure game. Two skulls in particular, #47 and #60, look like the skeletons found in the game because of the way they were made.

These ones were made like paintings. With the paper spread flat, painted on and then wrapped to create a cylindrical head, much like Calavera's. I'm so tempted to commission my own personal Grim Fandango death mask! Or skull, whatever you want to call it.

On a non-video game note, check out the crystal ball skull and the siamese twin skull.

Halloween is right around the corner...

Friday, October 3, 2008

Other things I can't get

So I might not be able to get the AC/DC Rock Band Pack when it comes out because of my citizenship. There's a few other things (American items no less) that I can't get my grubby fingers on just yet.

The first set of items is again related to the Rock Band series. Mad Catz, who were previously known for releasing shitty ass third party controllers to consoles and PCs, have apparently stepped up their game and released some pretty well received peripherals for everyone's favourite 'rock star in a box' experience.

My fav happens to be the M.I.C. controller for Rock Band 2. How no one thought of this before is beyond me. Basically it combines the controller and the microphone into one sleek looking piece of equipment that makes me yell, "Here's my money... take it."

Problem is that Mad Catz only ships to the States. This is a problem I have run into before when I was trying to get LOL for the DS but agetec seems to be hating on the Canadians. Looks like I need to make some Yankee friends to feed my gaming habit.

The second item I can't have are Castle Crasher figurines. The Behemoth's store has been out for weeks and I keep sending e-mails to the administrators with no reply in sight. This makes me sad.

UPDATICUS: Looks like the awesome protagonists of Castle Crashers are back in stock. Now I just need to pay off enough on my credit card to buy some sweet sweet orange knight with accompanying dead fish weapon.

Rock Out at Wal-Mart

You can now get even more AC/DC at superstores other than buying old vacuum cleaners (Don't get it? Go back to physics class). Sam's Club and Wal-Mart are offering an exclusive, in store offer to get the AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack for $39.88 for the 360, PS3, Wii and $29.88 for the PS2.

While wikipedia has it down for Nov. 16 release in North America, ign has it down for an 'US release' with 'Europe, Australia and New Zealand will also get the pack for all four consoles in December.' Guess who gets left out again?

As some of you may remember we Canadians had to wait until December of '07 for the first Rock Band to come out, which happened to be 2 months 2 days later than our American counterparts. The reason for this was given as 'localization' that the Canadian carts had to be shipped with french instructions as well.

If memory serves me right, there was no french instructions in my Rock Band. Many people thought that the delay was to be able to create the supply for the overwhelming demand for the popular rhythm game in the States... thereby giving us canucks the shaft.

So will we see AC/DC comes to our shores on Nov. 16. I've asked on the official Rock Band forums and I'm waiting back to hear from no one. I'll put it right up here if I hear anything.

There's also been backlash against the corporate whoring of this product, Wal-Mart being a big and easy target these days. I wonder if the same problems would arise if it was through Future Shop or Best Buy but I'm not sure. I'm not a fan of Wal-Mart either but that might just be by proxy. Unfortunately I won't boycott, even due to the high price, because I am a rabid Rock Band collector.

This blog isn't called 'Collections of a Video Game Confessor' for nothing.