Sometimes at GDC, I end up going places where I shouldn’t be. It’s like the intellectual equivalent of an MMO where I decide to see what’s over that hill and OMG EVERYTHING IS 20 LEVELS HIGHER THAN ME AND I AM GETTING TEH ONE-SHOTTED!
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Most of the games out this week are RPGs that require significant commitments. Dragon Age II (pictured above, sporting the two Bs that are apparently crucial to a Dragon Age game) focuses the action on a smaller geographic space, but over a wider timeline. Expect to spend a lot of time in a city called Kirkwall. A lot of time.
Pokemon Black and Pokemon White for the Nintendo DS and a PSP port of Phantom Brave are no trifling matters either. Phantom Brave is now saddled with the subtitle “The Hermuda Triangle”. Get it?* It’s a good SRPG grindfest, but it’s no Z.H.P. or even Disgaea. The twist in Phantom Brave is that your characters are phantoms temporarily summoned into inanimate objects during battles. After a number of turns, the summoning wears off, leaving you with an inanimate object again. I always thought it was an odd design decision to restrict how long each of your characters can stay in a battle. Whee, my awesome mage is kicking ass and taking names and — oh, now she has to leave. It’s downright rude, like walking out of a movie or leaving dinner before dessert is served.
Also, now that baseball season is starting up, you can hit the courts in 2K’s Major League Baseball 2K11 and Sony’s MLB 11: The Show. If Sony and 2K can do it, I don’t understand why other sports videogames can’t share a franchise. It’s downright rude, like not sharing your toys.
* Me either.
Our podcast adjusts The Adjustment Bureau, in which Matt Damon and Emily Blunt deal with a bunch of stuff and some of us aren’t amused, but one of us is. Is that shadowy enough for you? This week’s 3×3 — commentary tracks we’d like to hear — starts at the 58-minute mark.
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No. Wait! Let me just–
I can see those bubbles up there. Every time I play this level I see them up there. Every time I play this level I miss them because I choose my downward route too soon and there’s no way to get back up to them. They know this of course, as they sit up there on that ledge remaining intact. I’ll get them eventually. They task me, and I shall have them.
There’s so much to collect in this world. I don’t even know why I care. I don’t decorate anything. Not my world. Or my moon. Or whatever. I haven’t even explored what there is to decorate other than my sackboy. And now that I’ve got him suited up with a nifty warm cap and a smart hula skirt and sensible hiking boots, I’m not really interested in redecorating him either. Other than decorating, I’m not really sure what the point of all this collecting is. Nor do I care. I love collecting these stupid little bubbles and objects. What’s cool about the best of these levels is that you can see the objects you’re missing, and you get the sense that with just one more try you’ll get those bubbles you missed in that drop this time. In this way the levels echo some of what’s nifty about the story levels. So much replayability.
Today’s level, For Vanished Heights, had a fair amount of this going on and that kept me coming back. I found this one in the Highest Rated section for the month. The writing in the level’s messages was weird, as indicated by the level details:
Shrill on the wind, a maiden’s voice calls… The ephemeral world twists and shatters. The voyage begins…
That’s okay. A little clunky writing can’t hurt a level like this.
I just wish I could figure out why collecting these little bubbles–which remind me of recently uncovered ancient piranha eggs–is so addicting.
I went away from Mm Picks today after a Pac Man clone tried to lull me to sleep. You know you’re in trouble while playing a level when the little ding that indicates you earned an extra life causes you to go, “Crap!” As an alternative today, I jumped into the Highest Rated category of the community levels for the first time. This immediately paid off with Shadow of the Colossus.
What can I say, really? It’s an exciting, beautiful level. You start out riding a horse and shooting bubbles. Seems rather tame. Then…a colossus. I think I just like typing the word colossus. Colossus. See? I did it again.
Oh, you also use your grappling hook to hitch a ride with a bird. This worked very nicely. It’s a pity the hobbits didn’t have one of these things.
Reach rhymes with?
In the PBS documentary, Digital Media–New Learners Of The 21st Century, ASU professor Dr. James Paul Gee discusses how much more beneficial playing video games is for the development of the brains of our kids than is the current educational system that forces teachers to teach to the test.
Speaking of the theory of learning behind video games, Dr. Gee has this to say about the RTS:
Take Real Time Strategy games, which are the most complex video games. A game like Rise of Nations has over 350 commands. Essentially hundreds of variables interacting…you play it for hours, you run civilizations…I mean it’s more complex than what any kid would see in school. We have evolved an almost perfect way to teach these incredibly complex games.
He casts the way kids learn–and master–video games like RoN and Civilization against the way current assessment-driven education teaches kids. The latter comes up wanting. He goes on to ask why we don’t give kids a Halo test, but do insist on algebra tests.
Tina Barseghian writes about this in a recent column:
The current assessment system forces teachers to teach to the test. Video games hold out a different way of thinking about assessments: namely, that we don’t need it. Compare a student who’s taken 12 weeks of algebra classes to one who’s played the video game Halo on the most challenging setting. The algebra student must take a test to assess what he knows on the day of the test. The Halo player has mastered the skills needed to get to the final level–and that’s his ultimate goal. No need for a test in that context.
Both the video interview and the column above are worth a look. And not just because it’s cool to see Tom Noonan acting in a PBS video.
The daily levels this week, selected mainly using the Mm Picks–the picks that the Media Molecule folks find stimulating–have been interesting in how they call to mind other games. The first level made me want to buy Plants vs. Zombies. Yesterday’s level made me nostalgic for moon landing simulators, which are among the first PC games I remember playing. Today’s level made me consider my PS3 controller, drowsily, and then look over at my Xbox, which has been quiet for the last couple of weeks and is clearly in need of some attention. And deserving of it too.
It’s not that the level is bad. Not at all. Monster Pinball 2 looks great and a lot of people love it. It’s fine. I guess. If no other pinball games existed, I might keep tinkering with it. But it’s just…so…lagggggggggg–I can’t even finish that. For me it runs incredibly slow. As do the other couple of LBP2 community pinball games I tried. At some point, as I was playing them, I suddenly snapped out of it. Why mess around with substitutes, when you’ve got the real thing?
As much as I’m loving these community levels, you’ll have to excuse me for a bit. Secrets of the Deep is calling my name.
Not really much to say here. I just got addicted to Moon Lander 2, today’s level. Another level suggested by choosing the Mm Picks option. It’s so simple, yet so freaking frustrating…in just the right way. If you ever loved Lunar Lander, you’ll probably get what I mean by that. There’s a nifty gambling sensibility to the scoring here that I grew to love in a goofy giggling way, but mostly I just loved the navigating. And the utterly addictive music. I’ve heard this piece before in these levels, so I imagine it’s one of the stock pieces they make available to level designers. A bit of digging reveals it’s called “Rock Your Body Rock” by Ferry Corsten. I wish more of an effort was made to credit and highlight the music makers here. I don’t know, maybe I’m just looking in the wrong place. Whatever, I’m addicted to this level and this music is a big reason why.
Also, I just want to tell you that many Moon Landers died to bring you that screenshot.
I’ll be at GDC for the rest of the week, so there will probably be a conspicuous absence of me from the front page while I’m getting my head filled with crazy ideas from various game developers. There are about a dozen sessions I’m really psyched to attend, including Hidetaka Suehiro explaining what the heck was up with Deadly Premonition, Clint Hocking on “dynamics” (berets optional), and David Braben looking back at Elite, which invented open-world games long before they were ready to be invented. I’ll also be moderating a panel consisting of Soren Johnson, Jon Shafer, Dustin Browder, and Ian Fischer talking about the future of strategy games. But I have to say I’m most eager to hear Emily Ridgway talk about her work on Bioshock and Brutal Legend, two of my favorite games of all time. Of all time! Ms. Ridgway’s work in sound design and music is sublime.
But as soon as I get back, I intend to hold forth some more about Rift and Killzone 3. You have been warned. Plus, I have a bone to pick with Capcom.
