Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Greatest Game of All Time: Complete


As I've said before my PS3 is currently broken and from the looks of it I probably won't get it fixed until the end of the semester.  As soon as I start up my summer job I'll be able to pay for the repairs.  Until then, my PSP and PS2 have been getting quite a bit more of my attention recently.  I've been playing through Final Fantasy IX, my favorite FF game, but that's is a story for another blog post.

I was nostalgically going through my old PS2 games, specifically the Ratchet & Clank and Kingdom Hearts series, until I found my copy of Shadow of the Colossus.  I bought this game about two years ago used because of all the praise it gets, but I never had the chance to finish it.  I really enjoyed what I did play.   The world was beautiful for what the PS2 could do graphically back in the day.  The shear size of the colossi when one is first revealed to you makes it seem impossible you could ever hurt it and the sense of accomplishment you get when the creature finally falls to the ground dead is an amazing feeling. That said, I did burn out on it eventually.  The game has a great opening and (now that I've beaten it) ending, but the lack of narrative in between makes the game seem like it's dragging.





I only had two colossi left to defeat, so instead of starting a new game I decided to continue where I left off years ago.  It took me a while to get back into the controls.  I don't think they really hold up anymore.  Response time seems slow and the climbing mechanic has been improved in games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed since then, but the game is still good by today's standards.  Luckily the second to last colossus seemed fairly easy.  The last one took me close to an hour just to figure out what to do, although it was probably the most satisfying boss fight in the game.

Without spoiling it, I have to say the ending is probably one of the most profound game endings I have ever seen.  While the twist was somewhat obvious it was sad to see the culmination of all your work almost be for nothing.  Another thing I love about the ending is the interactivity of it.  It isn't just a cut-scene like you see in a lot of games, the player is still controlling the character while everything is playing out.  The ending to Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood had a similar feeling to me.  It gives you the idea that you can still control what will happen and perhaps prevent something terrible from occurring even though it's inevitable in both cases.  Interactive cut-scenes aren't anything new, but I feel they aren't always done right.  Some of the best game narratives are done with no cut-scenes at all, like Half-Life and Bioshock.



So that is what I've been playing lately.  After completing Shadow I can see why so many people consider it one of the greatest games ever made, but I can also understand why some fell out of the experience.  I would agree more with the former myself.  I think I may still purchase the ICO Collection when it's released even though I already own Shadow.  I've never played ICO and would love to go through SOTC again before Last Guardian comes out.  Plus I am somewhat of a trophy-whore.


Peace.  face_peace

Monday, April 4, 2011

Audiosurf: How Music Games Should Have Been

I didn't really get into either Guitar Hero or Rock Band.  I played at my friend's house and enjoyed them enough, but I never bought them myself and was really confused by all the hype surrounding these games.  I'd rather learn to play a real guitar than a plastic, fake one.  I came to the conclusion that these games simply weren't for me, so I never really payed attention to any kind of music game, until I found Audiosurf.

If you never heard of Audiosurf here's a quick run-down:  You control a ship traveling along a track hitting notes in the rhythm of the music playing.  Sounds like the typical Rock Band/GH setup, except that the track changes with the song.  The track fluctuates with the beat, causing the ship to jump to it, and changes based on the speed on the music.  If the song is slow it'll crawl uphill to match it and when it picks up the ship will fly downhill at breakneck speed.  The color of everything as well as objects in the environment also change depending on what's being played.



Much more exciting than watching notes continuously fall down a screen, but the real kicker is that this program will work for any MP3 file you insert into it.

Any MP3 file on your computer can be put into the game and it will analyze and build a course based on that song track.  It doesn't rely on the developer to create and release tracks.  The code works so that any song can be played on it.  Rock Band might have over a thousand songs available for it in some form, but Audiosurf's track list is literally infinite.

The program itself is pretty amazing.  As a soon-to-be computer programmer I'm fascinated by its ability to analyze a song, find the tempo, and build a game level based on that.  I am not one bit musically inclined so a person who has any sort of musical ability can easily impress me.

There are some downsides to this game, however.  While every song works with the game not every song is fun to play.  There's some great techno songs that I thought would be insane to play in Audiosurf, and then turn out to be totally lame.  You have to find songs that fit well.  That's something games like Rock Band have over Audiosurf.  The developers picked the songs and balanced them accordingly.  Not every song in Rock Band or Guitar Hero is terrifically fun to play, but at least the majority of them are.

Another reason why this kind of game will never catch on is that it kills the DLC market.  That was Rock Band's bread and butter.  I'm sure they made more money selling DLC packs than they did the actual game.  Publishers want money and allowing a music game with an infinite song list will seriously cut into their profits, so unfortunately I don't see them adopting this tactic anytime soon.

Audiosurf is really the only music game I've played regularly and the only one whose "business model" (or lack thereof) I support.  If you've never played this game I would highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy music games.  It's only $10 on Steam right now and doesn't really require any sort of powerful PC to run.  My laptop handles it just fine. Music games aren't dead, per say.  They are just now finally getting the opportunity to evolve with the changing market.

Peace. face_peace