Am I evil? Yes, I am.

My new appearance on Big Red Potion (episode # 16) is up. Check it out here. This week I was joined with Jared Newman as we discussed being evil in games: how games handle it, the pros and cons of such approaches, and why we do it. I think we all had some interesting discussion on the matter, and as always, I've thought about things I should have said but didn't get around to. So here goes:

I wanted to delve into how moral choices in games need to be less defined as "good" or "evil." It's my belief that most people are either good, or want to be good. If given a choice that's predetermined as being "good" or "evil" no one will pick the evil option unless it's done for comedic effect.

Perhaps that's just me, but I can never take being a dick in Fallout or Fable at all seriously. I laughed aloud in Mass Effect during my second playthrough when Commander Shepard refused to use the non-lethal gas grenades on the infected colonists. Even in GTAIV, where you're supposed to be an antihero, I still found it out of character for Niko to reckless run over civilians for shits and giggles as I was doing. Conversely, this bothers me a lot less in a game like Saints Row 2 where it's never attempting to be serious. Whenever I get into this mindset, I cease to take the game seriously from a narrative point of view, and merely view it as a sandbox. Think Noby Noby Boy, but more violent.

When I try to take a game seriously, however, I always naturally do what I would do in that situation i.e. play good. Though life is never that easy. In my view, most people try to do what they think is good, but end up doing evil deeds without realizing it. We brought up Braid and Shadow of the Colossus as examples of games where you only realize the consequences of your good intentions when it's too late. Both those games, however, didn't give you a choice. I would love to see a game where it would give me a choice and I'd pick the evil option unknowingly. There was a part in inFamous where you have to decide who to save. Sadly, it's very clear which choice is the "good" one and which choice is "evil" (or more accurately the lesser of two goods). Having the same dilemma without knowing how you'll be judged would have added even more weight to the situation.

I think that's really what this comes down to; games need more unpredictable results. If you know you'll gain a certain number of Paragon or Renegade points and be able to purchase certain powers, that'll strongly influence how you'll chose to deal with that particular dilemma. Having situations where you don't know what kinds of rewards or penalties you'll endure is far more interesting.

For example, Joe brought up how he'd accidentally let lose an army of homicidal ghouls into a city in Fallout 3. He thought he was doing right though. I mean, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Too bad Fallout 3 has such shoddy story-telling. Imagine that on a smaller scale more along the lines of inFamous with a fully voice-acted third-person protagonist and it could really create some compelling drama.

Joe also brought up how Silent Hill 2's ending is finely tuned to how you play. That's a truly brilliant idea and I wish more game would do that. How come in inFamous I can play as a good guy, yet still injure (and probably kill) countless civilians in the crossfire with no repercussions whatsoever? I want to make mistakes and accidentally kill people and have random NPCs hate me. Then in return I could hate them back and abuse my powers. That's how people turn evil; gradually and unknowingly.

I feel like because games require so much more active participation than any other medium, they'd make a great way to explore this side of the human condition. How frustrating is it to watch a movie where a character learns a lesson of some kind, but the whole time you're watching you can't help but think that you would have acted differently, making the lesson seem irrelevant to you? If movies and books tend to portray a character learning a lesson, what better way to teach said lesson than have the player be that character and learn it for themselves based on their own choices? That's something games can offer us that other mediums cannot, and we've only begun to scratch the surface in that regard. Amirite?

E3 09: Alien Vs Predator Preview

I have a confession to make: I never played any of the previous Alien vs. Predator games. I am as wary of licensed games as many others are, especially when said game combines two properties that really have nothing to do with one another. Despite all of this, Alien Vs Predator ended up being the most interesting first-person shooter that I saw at E3. Imagine my surprise.

AVP is split between three campaigns: that of a human soldier, a Predator, and an Alien. All three will encompass one complete story, but you can experience it from varying points of view through a set of species-specific missions. The first demo that we were shown was from the human side, which was a curious choice considering that it fails to capitalize on the greatest strengths of the brand name and looked like a fairly typical sci-fi/horror FPS at first glance. The level took place in a dark industrial setting, with the player throwing flares to brighten up areas beyond his flashlight. The flare landed underneath a staircase, showing off some really impressive lighting that brings to mind the entirely orange and black aesthetic of Alien3. Since the flares are your only source of light besides the flashlight, you are forced to make their placement a tactical decision. At this point, I was still fairly unimpressed, as everything that I had seen looked a bit generic. "You roam around metal corridors fighting monsters," I thought. "How original."

All that changed once a pitch black Alien silently emerged from the shadows, leaping at the screen. The audience twitched as the PR guy--who had been demoing the game all day--died from this attack. "Where they come from is randomized" he noted, before trying again. This time the alien came from the same basic direction, but a little higher up. The creatures are very hard to see, so even the slightest change in trajectory can throw off your game and force you to squint to make out their shape against the shadows. The marine popped off a few rounds, but the Alien was too close to him when the bullets struck. This caused the creature’s acid blood to explode onto the screen, which would probably hurt like hell and cause you to go blind in real life. Since that wouldn’t be too much fun in a game, the on-screen acid sizzling ends up being one of the best vision-obscuring effects ever rendered.

Check out the rest of the preview here, at TGR.

Prototype Review

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Prototype may be the first game since Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 where the core mechanic revolves around consuming people. This, in and of itself, makes the game awesome. The question as to how awesome is a bit trickier, as Prototype is one of the most unique and schizophrenic games I've played in recent memory.

The game introduces Alex Mercer, a moody bloke with amnesia and super powers (i.e. the ability to take on others' forms and memories). He's out to get revenge on those who gave him said powers. I'm not sure why, exactly, as having said powers seems kind of awesome. Supposedly he wants his old life back, but if that old photograph of him in the Cosby sweater is anything to go on, his old life was rather dull. There is a virus converting much of the city into mutants, however, and Alex feels like there's got to be some connection between what's happened to him and what's going on in the city. So off he goes to investigate.

On paper, Prototype bears more than a passing resemblance to the recently released inFamous: Both games feature a 20-something male who wakes up with inexplicable super powers. Both games contain viral outbreak and both take place in a city that's been quarantined. They're also both are free-roaming platformer/action games. In practice, however, the two games couldn't be more different. Whereas inFamous focused heavily on its narrative, platforming, and atmosphere, Prototype focuses on combat above all else.

Oddly enough, the elements that Prototype has in common with inFamous are its least successful. In my view, the best thing about games like inFamous and Crackdown was the way that they delicately balanced shooting enemies with collecting power-ups. Prototype has both those elements also, but the draw distance is so terrible that collecting said power-ups feels broken. Furthermore, inFamous had an engrossing story and Prototype does not. None of that means the Prototype is a failure, just that it offers a completely different kind of experience than Sucker Punch's superhero adventure.


Read the rest of the review here, as Honestgamers.

E3 09: Mass Effect 2 Hands-on Preview

Mass Effect was truly an epic game, one full of planet-hopping, galaxy saving, and alien shagging. Since the original seemingly had it all, constructing a worthy follow-up would be quite a daunting task. Thankfully, Bioware seems to be up to the challenge, keeping everything that was great about the first game and improving upon all its little problems immensely.

The first change worth mentioning is that Mass Effect’s much maligned combat has been greatly improved. My demo had me raiding a tower on a blue metropolitan planet that looked a bit like Coruscant from Star Wars. Classes have been tweaked from what they were in the first game, opening up new abilities to fit every player type. In this case, I was playing as a Soldier build and the assault rifle was my go-to weapon. The combat is similar to the original, with the time-stopping weapon and ability wheels popping up with the press of a button. Everything is a bit faster paced this time around, with two hot-keys available for different rechargeable abilities. I could also tell individual teammates to lock-on to different enemies at any point. Where an enemy gets shot now seems to make a much bigger difference in how they react, making combat that much more visceral. All of this comes together very smoothly, as I could imbue my bullets temporarily with a special power that would send enemies floating through the air and then tell my squadmate to take them out while they were incapacitated.

The first Mass Effect did a lot to push dialogue trees forward in games, but the conversations were not without their problems. While the voice acting was great and the facial animations were expressive, dialogue sequences still felt stilted and janky as the camera unceremoniously cut between two staid characters. Now, the camera and characters both move around a lot more, proving that the inhabitants of the Mass Effect universe can *gasp* both walk and talk at the same time. Bioware has also made these interactions time-sensitive, so you can’t just stand there awkwardly deciding how to respond. The game forces you to be quick, or the conversation may not go the way you want it to. Furthermore, you’ll have the option to interrupt a chat with the left shoulder button. In one choice example, we were shown Commander Shepard ending a discussion by throwing a guy out of a window, hearkening back to the days when Han Solo could shoot Greedo first and yet still be the hero

Check out the rest of the preview here, at TGR.

E3 09: Red Steel 2 Hands-on Preview

Prior to the launch of the Wii, Ubisoft’s Red Steel remained an intriguing proposition due to its unique blend of guns and gesture controlled sword combat. Unfortunately, it was a launch title, and Ubisoft had yet to learn how to develop for the Wii at that point. As such, the controls felt clunky and sometimes broken. However, if the E3 demo is an indication, it looks like Ubisoft has listened to nearly all the criticisms of the first game for this upcoming sequel

The first point worth mentioning is that Red Steel 2 has little in common with its predecessor. The game features an all new story, setting, and art style, going for a Samurai Western theme instead of the original’s Asian setting. The sequel features minimalist cel-shaded graphics and a desolate wasteland location that acts like a crossover between the anime Lone Wolf and Cub and the classic western El Topo. You play as a gunslinger/samurai who literally gets roped in to ridding his hometown of a malevolent gang, with the opening cutscene having him bound at the wrists with rope and dragged behind a motorcycle.

Check out the rest of the preview here, at TGR.

E3 09: Trine Hands-On Preview

2D platforming continued its comeback at E3 in a big way, with New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Shadow Complex leading the charge. So it’s easy then to overlook a fairly anonymous downloadable 2D platformer like Trine. That would be a mistake, because Frozenbyte’s upcoming title was easily one of the best games I saw at this year’s E3.

At its core, Trine is a 2D physics-based puzzling platformer. In its single player, you can toggle between its three characters at will, namely the Knight, the Thief, and the Wizard. The Knight can slash enemies with his sword, and use the right analogue stick to block with his shield from any direction. The Thief shoots arrows in any direction, and can grapple Bionic Commando-style under wooden objects like walkways and boxes. The Wizard summons boxes (one at a time) into existence by drawing them, and can move objects like bridges and boxes telekinetically.

What makes this interesting is Trine’s co-op, played by two or three players, in which you cannot assume the same role as another character. This makes the puzzles harder, as you’ll all have to work together to find a solution for getting each player across the game’s chasms. Here’s an example: a path ahead is covered in spikes while there’s a series of platforms high in the air. The Thief can grapple across the platforms from underneath, but the Knight and the Wizard have to jump across them, and reaching them can prove tricky. First off, the Wizard creates a box to stand on, then the Knight throws said box, with Wizard perched on it, up towards the platforms. Then the Wizard summons a box for the Knight to stand on, and then the Wizard telekinetically drags the Knight on the box using his wizardry. If it sounds complicated, don’t worry, because it’s actually easier said than done or thought out. The game is all physics-based, so where the Wizard grabs the box with the pointer will actually effect how it will move, as does where the Knight is standing. Working in tandem to keep one player perched on a box is just one example of how teamwork in Trine will really pay off.

Check out the rest of the article here, at TGR.

E3 09: Shadow Complex Hands-On Preview

While I hate to blithely sum up a game as game X meets game Y, there’s really no better way to sum up Shadow Complex than as Metroid meets Uncharted. Chair Entertainment (the studio responsible for XBLA title Undertow) and Epic Games’s Shadow Complex is a 3D-rendered, 2D side-scrolling action-adventure game with a heavy focus on shooting and exploration, not unlike Samus’s early adventures. The aesthetic and modern-day jungle setting, however, has far more in common with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, not to mention the hero who looks and sounds an awful lot like Nathan Drake – always a possibility when he’s voiced by the same guy, Nolan North.

The game starts off with protagonist Jason Fleming’s girlfriend Clare being kidnapped, bringing Jason to the heart of the jungle where he must infiltrate a mysterious military base – a shadowy complex, even – and rescue her. The demo I played began with my landing in said jungle, where I was to find my climbing gear that would allow me to grab hard to reach ledges. The climbing gear is the first of 18 upgrades you’ll unlock over the course of the game, including a full suit of armor and in pure Metroid form an ice-beam-esque “foam gun” that can create temporary staircases and makeshift cover. This was all set against lush, detailed 3D jungle environments, shown off by Jason’s ability to explore his surroundings with a flashlight aimed in any direction with the right analogue stick.

Check out the rest of the article here, at TGR.