Air Forte
Any videogame with a cleverly integrated Star Wars reference automatically gets my seal of approval. Air Forte, Brendon Chung of Blendo Game latest project isn’t just some kind of slapstick Robot Chicken affair. The game has some clever writing for its somewhat short length. It’ll make you laugh, make you cry and perhaps just a little frustrated through its hilarious kind of edutainment.
Air Forte’s presentation is really well put together. The main page is simple, functional, entertaining. The game’s Johnny River’s styled soundtrack, composed by Benny Hammond of the Volcanics, complements the game well. There are some good tunes in Air Forte and they’ll have you looking for MP3s in no time flat. Graphically, it’s tame in comparison to Flotilla’s three dimensional presentation. You play as a small jet that flies around on a two dimensional plane. More on this in the next paragraph.
Welcome to the next paragraph. Air Forte challenges you to find multiples, vocabulary and countries. Each level presents the player with a small statement like, “Multiples of 2.” It’s pretty self-explanatory. You fly around using either the mouse or the keyboard—depending on the number of players—collection the correct tabs. When you’ve collected every one it’s onto the next stage. It’s never a challenge to collect the pieces, nor are the controls ever cumbersome. The challenges are the tough part.
I had no idea that “jump” was a noun and a verb. There were a few times during the story mode that I was genuinely surprised at my lack of knowledge. Some of the mistakes I made are too embarrassing to repeat on the record, however, Air Forte helped me brush up on my geographical and vocabulary skills. It helped me empathize with Jazz Hands’ predicament.
Challenge mode mixes the vocabulary and mathematic elements in to one level. Infinite mode counts down from ten seconds and each correct answer gives the player two for each correct answer. There’s also a practice mode that allows you choose your categories and the number of floating boxes that appear. It’s a good way to brush up on your vocabulary, multiplication and geographical skills. Like Jazz Hands, I messed up on almost all of these categories on the first time around. Being an illiterate octopus must be hard, but at least he has eight hands and can have a four player round of Air Forte by himself.
Air Forte’s cast is an eclectic group of talking animals. There’s a group of puppy-eyed puppies, the king frog, two guitar playing mice, the protagonist—who you name—the infamous yet misunderstood villain Jazz Hands and, yes, a Rastafarian Cat. The game’s story is split up into seven or eight comic book like section. Each stage reveals a little more of the unfolding—paper pun—plot. I won’t spoil the story for you, but it has a happy ending and a hilarious epilogue.
I only had two or three problems with Air Forte. Length. The game’s story will take you about a half-an-hour to get through. It’s a fairly short game. The online components—leader boards and high scores—will keep you occupied for a little while longer if you play competitively. Replayability. The epilogue is a funny and nostalgic piece of writing. I expected, however, after a second play through to see some different endings for the characters. Once you play through Air Forte’s story mode there really isn’t a reason to play through it again. Challenge mode and Infinite mode offer high score, leader board standings, however, the story mode does not. Gameplay. There’s really only one kind of game in Air Forte. You collect multiples, vocabulary and countries. Some variety could have made the multiplayer aspects of Air Forte a little stronger.
Air Forte really feels more like a bench test, a proof of concept if you will. The design, sound and play are solid, yet the short length prevents players from having a full experience. It’s certainly a funny, Blendo style experience. I can only hope that some updates are coming to expand on this unique experience.
Air Forte is a nicely constructed game. The story can feels a little undeveloped at times, but will you get a few good snickers out of it? Yes you will. As a proof of concept and as a game, Air Forte is a true show of Brendon Chung’s skills as a game developer and designer. Air Forte provides an enjoyable experience for illiterate octopi and Rastafarian cats everywhere.
You can pick up a copy of Air Forte on Brendon Chung’s site www.blendogames.com.
Likes:
- Great design
- Hilarious story with interesting characters
- Competitive online leader boards
Dislikes:
- A little more content needed
- Replay ability isn't really there
- Short length, short story
Review Score
/ 
Sin and Punishment: Star Successor
The Nintendo 64 was a glorious console. One of the best ever made, and it has some of the best games of all time. Star Fox 64, Zelda 64 and Mario 64; they are all timeless classics, but there was another game that drew a lot of attention. Masato Maegawa’s Sin and Punishment: Star Successor is the sequel to Sin and Punishment: Hoshi no KeishÅsha (Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Earth) released in 2000 for the Nintendo 64, Treasure’s second shoot 'em up on the console. And ten years later, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor ushers in Masato Maegawa’s first foray onto the Wii, and his fourth on Nintendo home consoles since Ikaruga in 2004 and Bangai-O in 1999. I’d expect no less than an awesome shoot ‘em up experience from the creators of Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun and Gunstar Heroes. And the game delivers. The package, however, may leave you wondering about the shipping cost.
The story goes like this: The universe is divided into dimensions, inner space and outer space. Inner space is populated by humans and the Creators, a shady group of beings who can—in an instant—wipe humanity off of the face of a planet. These creators use humans to populate habitable planets to be a frontline defence against invading forces from outer space.
Earth-4, a human colony, was recently devastated by the Creators, and the outer space forces sent a recon unit to the planet. Isa Jo, a relatively rookie operative working for the Creators—and the inner forces—was sent to investigate and to destroy the recon unit. Something happened along the way, the recon unit lost its memory, it assumed the form of a girl named Kachi and Isa’s mission caved. An enigmatic story, for sure. Is it well developed, no.
The game manual asks, “Who is the most worthy of being called human? The alien life-form with an insatiable curiosity about humans, the young fighter struggling to define his own humanity [or] the fighters who wish to end the oppression of humans on Earth-5.” Kachi has a dark secret revealed at the end of the game. For those who have played the first game of the series it might not come as too much of a surprise. And for those who haven’t, you might just ask, “Okay, why does that matter?” Isa is the son of—and this really isn't a spoiler—Saki, from Sin and Punishment, and he has inherited some of his father’s not quite so human traits. A number of the bosses in the game call him a “monster” but I’ll leave it to you to find out how far that description takes his character.
You can play as either Isa or Kachi in the single-player mode. Isa has melee attacks, a single-target lock-on mode and a charge shot that destroys most enemies. Kachi has a lock-on mode that can destroy several enemies at once and the same assortment of attacks as Isa. The Wii controls hold up their end of the gameplay. The game is compatible with any controller you can use with the Wii, including the Gamecube and classic controllers. Most players on the leaderboards seem to use the Wii Zapper attachment to get the highest scores. Who you select to play as has little to no affect on the story or the game’s progression. It’s simply a matter of preference and whether you like riding jet bikes or ostriches.
Sin and Punishment is a damn fine looking game. Bosses are huge and enemies are both colourful and plentiful. The game runs at a constant clip with little to no slowdown. Overall the game's presentation is well done and highly varied. You'll go from being in an underground facility coursing with lava to an under-the-sea tunnel travelling across Japan to an enemy's dreamscape. It's a varied experience, and though the Wii's hardware is limited when compared to the PS3 or Xbox 360, Sin and Punishment looks pretty nice and is fairly detailed.
You can’t play Sin and Punishment with someone through friend codes, but at the end of each level you are given a choice to add your high scores to both local and online leader boards. And because I’m so good at shoot ‘em ups, and I got an advance copy, I placed 16th on easy difficulty on the first level. That was a few days ago, and my score has since been obliterated by about 30 people. Yeah, there are a lot of people playing and most of them are probably way better at these games than I am.
This brings us then to the game’s faults.
I don’t really care about Isa or Kachi. Is that a bad thing? They’re okay characters, but neither engaged me in such a way that made me care about their struggle. I mentioned above that Sin and Punishment delivers an awesome shoot ‘em up experience, but that’s about all it does. It is a bad sign when you have to refer to the manual to find information about the story, and to get the full experience of this game it feels like you have to play the first game. As a stand-alone experience, Sin and Punishment: Star Successor will befuddle most and confuse the uninitiated, which included me.
A few reviews that I've read remarked that plot in most of Treasure’s games are indecipherable or secondary to the main experience and they ask, why bother thinking about them? That's an unfair stance. The story is weak, really weak, but it's still there for the player. For instance, you can make a connection between Isa and Kachi through their pasts. Isa wants to forget his and Kachi doesn’t have one, so they have a personal connection, which helps them transcend the unnatural nature of their friendship. But this development seen in their characters is far too brief to really effect the player. We aren't thinking too deeply when a bullet storm is coming our way is my point. There was ample opportunities throughout the game where direct exposition could have given you all the details. It’s really a matter of having a background with the original Sin and Punishment. Having that makes this narrative experience worthwhile. There is a story here and it’s worth exploring, I just found it difficult to enjoy it with Isa and Kachi in the way.
Why do they look like crazed muppet-children? It’s a small qualm to make, but Isa and Kachi look like children. Children with hover boards and jetpacks. Well, I guess they are kids and one is an aliens, but still. Wouldn’t a story about adult-minded individuals help engage the older demographic of players? They don’t even really develop through the course of the story.
There’s this amazing sequence at the end of the game to which I reacted, “Oh my God.” But the characters weren't as impressed. They just slowly float back down to Earth like nothing really happened. You went into space, destroyed a whole armada of ships and saved the planet. What’s more you found out about your past and connected with an alien in a way that few others of your kind will ever experience. Isa touches down, stretches and things go back to normal. Like he does this everyday. It would have made for a better story telling experience if Isa or Kachi were more human. But like the manual asked, that detail is in question.
There are good stories to be found in shoot ‘em ups, for sure. Is Sin and Punishment one of them? Maybe, if played from an experienced point of view. For the uninitiated, like me, I found the story more or less tacked on to create continuity between a series I haven’t any nostalgia for. It’s always a bad sign when reviewers tell players to ignore the bad and focus on the good. I’ve done that a few times, but it has always been the opposite for me. A good story can hold a game together. An experience held together by gameplay is more of a toy than a videogame. The story isn’t bad—like Star Fox Assault bad—it’s just undeveloped. And for a sequel, which is meant to expand upon all facets of the first experience, that’s a step in the wrong direction.
Play Sin and Punishment: Star Successor for the competitive leader boards, stunning visuals and hectic gameplay. Play it for the nostalgia, Treasure’s legacy and for the difficulty. If you’re looking for a riveting story filled with excitement, or a story that will expand on the original Sin and Punishment, look elsewhere. I mentioned above that there are some references to the first game and that there are some definite connections to be made. I can only hope that Sin and Punishment 3 will develop Isa and Kachi’s characters and bring some story to this amazing shoot ‘em up.
Likes:
- Stunning visuals, great boss fights
- Wii controls work, no flailing around
- Competitive online leaderboards
- Nice environments
Dislikes:
- Isa and Kachi are about as human as the game's case
- The story is a shallow pass at what could be an epic tale
- No character development
- Difficulty at times can be brutal, but it's a shoot 'em up
Review Score
/
The review scale at LevelFortyTwo is between 1 and 5. A score of 5 is considered an amazing game, 4 is a well-done game with only minor issues, 3 is in the middle; not great, but not bad, 2 is a very problematic game, and 1 is absolutely terrible.
What did the Rastafarian cat say to the Glowing toucan?
"Your bird cage has locks, what a coincidence so do I!" That was a bad one. Even by my incredibly low standards. A little while ago, I had the chance to interview Brendon Chung, a videogame developer and the founder of Blendo Games. We sat down across continent to have a talk about his future endeavours, his games Flotilla and Gravity Bone, the nature of videogame development, Day of the Tentacle and the origins of Blendo Games.
Level Forty Two: Tell me a little about Blendo Games.
Brendon Chung: Blendo Games is my little company I stared to get my games out there. I’ve been doing some small hobby games for a lot of years, and I’ve worked professionally. It’s my little stab at the Indie game scene.
Lv42: You’ve worked with Pandemic Studios, how was working on Full Spectrum Warrior?
BC: You get to work with other designers, artists, producers and programmers. It’s different from making games as a one man team. You really get to learn all of these other disciplines. You have to learn everyday, so it’s an educational environment.
Lv42: Do you enjoy the freedom of making Indie Games?
BC: It’s kind of a double-edged sword. With a big team you get to make big games. When you’re a one man team you get more creative freedom to do whatever stupid experiment you want, but you’re limited in the respect that you don’t have this giant resource pool of programmers and artists who make these giant games.
Lv42: What challenges have you faced as Indie developer?
BC: The biggest problem for me is just getting the game to work on a variety of systems and making sure it works on other platforms. I don’t have a giant Q&A department to test out my stuff, so I’m sort of flying by the seat of my pants.
Lv42: Today I spent a bit of time playing Pilot Light, and I noticed that the text [font] seemed really familiar. It was the same text from Day of the Tentacle.
BC: That’s right, yes. I’m a huge fan of that game and I thought I’d pay a little homage to it.
Lv42: Do games by Tim Schafer and developers like him really inspire you?
BC: Definitely, those are the games I grew up playing. I mostly grew up on the old Sierra adventure games and the old Lucas Arts, Day of the Tentacle and Monkey Island games. Those have been a huge inspiration for me.
Lv42: You’ve also said that games like Thief and X-Com have influenced your game development. What was it about them that you liked? The graphics or the story? Or a combination of the two?
BC: Thief is the game that got me interested in learning more about game development. That was the first game I played where it put you into a role of an interesting character. Where you weren’t some Rambo guy with 20 guns strapped to your back and blowing up things. It was cool to play this role of a master thief who can case an action without anyone knowing he was there. Like hiding in an alcove when a guard walks past him. That got me interested in learning more about what games are really capable of doing beyond the pure action genre.
Lv42: Do you think that when you are designing a game you should have a certain amount of immersion through a character?
BC: I like it when games try to explore unexplored territory or try to push a genre into different directions, or discover new genres. I think games are a very young form of media.
Lv42: Are there any recent games that have influenced your style of writing?
BC: For me, the most recent game that I’ve been really impressed by was Far Cry 2, 2008. That game came out of nowhere and it really impressed me in that it so strongly resisted that urge to do cinematics and scripted sequences, and it let you, the player, create your own unique narrative.
I had to put morphine into my buddy, and then I got stuck in a fire fight and the forest went up in flames, things like that.
Lv42: What character did you play as in that?
BC: I played as the Mauritanian guy, Quarbani Singh.
Lv42: I ended up playing as the Irish guy, Frank Bilders. I always wondered what it would have been like to have played as a different character and go back to experience what he [Frank] was like in the game.
BC: When I was playing and the Irish guy was my buddy. He was very cool, very surly.
Lv42: I found that the Jackal was one of the most engaging villain in all of videogames.
BC: I like that he was this weird, ambiguous guy who was not purely one dimensional.
Lv42: There was a definite influence from Heart of Darkness in him. Have there been any novels influenced your writing style when developing a videogame?
BC: I can’t think of—immediately—any novels that have greatly influenced my stuff, but I do read a tremendous amount.
Lv42: Did the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy influence your development of Flotilla?
BC: Those are definitely books that I loved reading. The idea for Flotilla was to create this really interesting and strange universe that made you want to go back and learn more and more about it. And to see how the choices you make effect the universe and how the wacky characters react to you.
Lv42: Your games have this great sense of humour built into them, especially in Flotilla with the rastafarian cats and glowing toucans. Is humour a really big part of your development process? Do you want to make gamers laugh as they play?
BC: As a developer it’s more fun to work on light hearted stuff. I think a lot of other studios have the grim and serious genre pretty cornered. It’s nice to work on something that’s a little bit lighter and I think, for the most part, that the humorous games from Lucas Arts that I grew up playing were all about these funny roles you wanted to explore.
Lv42: Why are there Rastafarian cats in Flotilla?
BC: I just though it was hilarious. It started out with the music. I had this Rastafarian loop going on, and I thought I need to find an animal to attach to this. And what’s better than a cat wearing a little Rastafarian beanie.
Lv42: Which of those Lucas Arts game do you think has most influenced you?
BC: Probably Day of the Tentacle. That game was hilarious and it’s so strange with the sending inventory items through that magic toilet bowl, which is just out of left field. I loved it.
Lv42: What is it about a game like Day of the Tentacle that inspires you as a designer?
BC: It's absolutely hilarious. Chubby death-metal roadie chatting with George Washington and Benjamin Franklin? Every game needs that. DOTT never stops surprising you and just keeps getting more ludicrous as it continues. I love it when a game goes "all in" with its weird little world and compels you to keep discovering more about it.
Lv42: What is it about characters like Bernard, Lavern and Hoagie that appeals to you?
BC: A nerd, a med student, and a chubby roadie are practically the polar opposites of buff dudes with 20 guns strapped to their backs. I love that. I have nothing against dudes with 20 guns strapped to their backs, but the DOTT crew stand out as being still so original after more than 15 plus years of games.
Lv42: The music in the game did change appropriately during the exploring sections and in the combat sections. In what way should music accompany a videogame’s style?
BC: In what way should music accompany… what, I’m sorry?
Lv42: I’ll see if I can frame the question a little differently. Do you think videogames should be a synesthetic experience, that they should combine… that maybe they should, uh, a focus on all the player’s or gamer’s senses and put that into one? To both have a visual… I think this question has gone to hell.
BC: [Laughs]
Lv42: Okay, I think we’ll come back to that one. I’ve got to think that one out a little bit. I was reading in another interview that director Wong Kar-wai is one of your favourite directors.
BC: Yes.
Lv42: What about his style of film making has influenced your game making?
BC: Have you seen any of his movies before?
Lv42: Unfortunately, no. I’ve seen his BMW short online. It was very cinematic, calm and slow.
BC: There’s such a sharp contrast in his work to a lot of videogames because his films say so much with so little dialogue. You just kind of know what characters are thinking about, I like that introspective quality to it. I love that he can tell a story with just a look that a character gives. I don’t think I’m achieving that in my games, but it’s something that I strive towards doing because it’s so different from traditional videogames.
Lv42: Is that something you were trying to do with Gravity Bone? With its enigmatic story and characters with block heads.
BC: It was one of my goals with Gravity Bone to see how far I could get with telling the story without any real dialogue or giant spiels of text scrolling down the screen, and just having them talk in weird trombone wah, wah noises.
Lv42: Where did the inspiration for Gravity Bone come from?
BC: Gravity Bone came out of the adventure games I played growing up. I wanted to make a first-person shooter where you never shoot a gun. Where all you do is interact with the world and pick up inventory items to solve puzzles. It’s a non-violent first-person shooter.
Lv42: You said that you developed Gravity Bone as an experiment and as a first-person shooter without shooting, is this your way of rebelling against traditional game design?
BC: I don't think we have a "traditional" game design yet. Games as a form of media is too young to have set conventions. I see game development as being a bit like the Wild West right now. It's a big lawless furball, and there's a lot of unexplored territory. We're seeing new genres being created every year, it's a crazy time to be making games.
Lv42: Why did you design that character with such large block heads?
BC: [Laughs]
Lv42: Was it some kind of a metaphor or was it just a stylistic choice?
BC: [Laughs] No, there was no metaphor. The reason for the block heads is that is that because I’m a pretty terrible artist with my 3D applications. I tried doing real 3D characters with nice detailed faces and I failed horribly every single time. So one afternoon, I got frustrated and made a guy with a giant cube head, and I thought it was hilarious. And that’s basically the end of that story.
Lv42: It definitely works for the game’s presentation.
BC: I was very surprised and relieved that it actually worked out.
Lv42: Do you have a way to describe your art style?
BC: Generally whenever I start a project I look at the resources that I have and whatever technology that I have available to me. I work within those limitations, and design around those limitations to make the best thing I am capable of doing. I’m not capable of doing high polygon art with specular maps and normal maps, so I generally got for a lo-fi look.
Lv42: Do you think videogames should strive towards a higher realism or to create a stylized reality?
BC: It depends on the game that you are making. I mentioned that I was a big fan of Far Cry 2 and I think that they’re going for this really gritty, realistic experience that’s immersive so that works for them, but for a game like Grim Fandango they’re going for a very Humphrey Bogart, film noire kind of look. The whole stylized art-deco approach worked for them.
Lv42: Grim Fandango—with Manny Calavera—has some of the most memorable characters of all time. Do you put a large part of your game development into creating memorable characters?
BC: I watch a lot of movies and I try to learn what I can from them. The approach I take is to not tell the player what this character is, but to take an oppourtunity to infuse their personality into what they say, their look, their dialogue, their body language as opposed to a textbox that tell you that your character is grizzled.
Lv42: Is this something you tried to do with Flotilla? Because the captain didn’t have a concrete identity. You had to place yourself into his shoes.
BC: Flotilla is my little narrative experiment in trying not to do a linear narrative. I wanted the player to feel that they were the writers of the story and that they had control over the decisions they wanted to make. Whether to keep the hitch hikers in the ship or spit them out the airlock, and to see how the universe reacts to that position.
Lv42: A game like Grand Theft Auto IV gives you so much to do. You can go on dates, you can take care of your cousin and stuff like that. Do you think player are given too much freedom with narrative and not enough time is focused on character development?
BC: I never get that feeling. I enjoy the GTA series, I know that it definitely doesn’t appeal to everyone, but I know that open-world games allow you to roleplay as your character. I love driving around the city following the traffic rules because I find that fun for some reason. Whereas whenever I watch someone else play stomping through the city at a million miles per hour, and that’s great for them, but I love how they can play how they want to.
Lv42: Do you think videogames are a subjective experience?
BC: For some genres, sure. I think for the more linear games that are routed through a tunnel people find similar experiences, but some games that afford more freedoms, I definitely agree that every experience is subjective to that one player.
Lv42: In something like Gravity Bone, do you think that the experience is extremely dependant on your interpretation of the narrative?
BC: Yeah, and Gravity Bone is kept pretty vague and open to interpretation, however the player wants to interpret the story.
Lv42: Was there any specific message in Gravity Bone?
BC: No, I wouldn’t say that. I did have something in mind, but I wanted to keep it open to how the player wanted to read it.
Lv42: What games are you playing right now?
BC: Right now, I’m in a gaming hiatus. I’m working on my next title right now, so I haven’t gotten the time to check out whatever new stuff is out there. I’m still stuck on Team Fortress 2.
Lv42: Can you discuss any details about your future project?
BC: It’s a little too early to talk about it any details. I tend to do a lot of prototyping on my work, so generally what I have now will end up looking completely different from what I end up with.
Lv42: Do you prepare concept artwork before starting a project? If so, how many drafts will you go through before finalizing a character?
BC: I spend a lot of time doing research into whatever I'm working on, and do a light pass on concept work. I find the most interesting things usually emerge during implementation. As you're constructing together a level or making a 3D model, you'll always discover some new angle or surprising twist that you didn't see before.
Lv42: What is the more expressive medium: 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional?
BC: I don't think one is more expressive than the other. It's apples and oranges. I think Another World is one of the most beautiful games made, right alongside Ico. I generally place little importance on what direction you go in; what matters is how well you execute and implement that given direction.
Lv42: One of the first game I played from Blendo was Grotto King, how has your development process changed since then?
BC: For one thing Grotto King was a free game that I made. A big difference was that Flotilla was a game that I was selling. I had to place a large amount of time on stability and making sure that the game runs on different systems, and making sure it’s easy for players to update to new version and to report bugs whenever they find one. In terms of infrastructure and technology, it’s been pretty different.
Lv42: Do you keep up with your community?
BC: I love the Valve approach. Instead of creating games you release to the world and forget about, they continually maintain and update their projects.
Lv42: Do you have any goals for Blendo Games?
BC: My goal right now is just to pay the rent. Further down the road, I’d like to expand and to make bigger games.
Lv42: Do you have any advice for Indie developers out there?
BC: My approach has been to just make something, and to not really worry about whether it will appeal to people or not. You have to start executing an idea, implement it into a game and release it. And you’ll certainly fail many, many times, as I have, but you’ll get better over time.
Lv42: What game developers have inspired you?
BC: Looking Glass Studios and Bullfrog. Their games just exude so much personality; they have a real human touch to them.
Lv42: Have you ever experienced a paradigm shift in your videogame development?
BC: If a "paradigm shift" means what I think it means, then yes!
When I first began making small games as a hobby, I generally began my projects with stacks of concept art, documents, and all sorts of ridiculous plans. I came to realize this was stupid. The very moment you start implementing something, a large chunk of your plans become obsolete because you can now see something that works much better. Even worse, you also realize that another big chunk is impossible due to technical or design reasons. I have old notebooks full of dead, broken documents.
So nowadays, I work in the opposite direction. I begin a project by first taking stock of what kind of resources I have available and what I'm good at doing. From there, I construct my game around these things. This generally results in good scope control and ensures you work on something you're capable of actually completing. I still fail a lot (I now have a hard drive full of dead, broken prototype games); but I find a broken prototype is infinitely more valuable than a broken document.
With every project completed, you build up that knowledge base, giving you more options to choose from for your next project.
***
Be sure to check out Brendon's site at: www.blendogames.com and to play his latest game Flotilla, which is available through Blendo Games, Xbox Live Indie Games and Steam.
Screen shots and concept pieces courtesy of Brendon Chung.
Spy Fiction
Access Games has become one my favourite video game developers, for a few reasons. Deadly Premonition is one, and Spy Fiction (2002) is the other. Spy Fiction is an eclectic collection of influences that was created during the spike in action-stealth games at the turn of the millenium. Released in 2002, the game received less than average scores all around. Most saw it as nothing too special or too revolutionary, and reviewers saw it as a knockoff of the other spy series at the time. The game definitely wears its inspiration on its sleeve taking elements from Syphon Filter, Splinter Cell and, most importantly, in terms of influencing the game, Metal Gear Solid. However, you can’t forget the influence of spy films like James Bond, Mission: Impossible had on the game and on its director. Spy Fiction is after all a take on spy fiction, a literary style inspired by the exploits of intelligence agencies during the First World War. It's a game that, upon further inspection and a fair amount of research, has some interesting innovations and insight into how games are directed.
Spy Fiction's story goes like this. Billy Bishop and Sheila Crawford are special agents in the Phantom Strike Force, one of many in the Special Execution Agency. They’ve been called on to investigate NanotechDyne Inc., a pharmaceutical company that specializes in creating deadly viruses. It is suspected that they are in league with Enigma, a shadowy terrorist organization, and they plan to unleash a new virus on the world to create terror and chaos. The investigation ensues and you learn that Dr. Forrest Kaysen has created something called Lahder, a noxious purple gas that’s capable of killing thousands of people in mere seconds. You start the game in medias res as your team is about to storm the Enigma compound. Along with you is Nicklaus Nightwood, a senior member of Phantom, and almost immediately the plan starts to dissolve. Nicklaus is captured, Billy and Sheila are apprehended and Dietrich Troy, one of the game’s antagonists, is threatening to unleash Lahder onto the world’s population. Things aren’t looking good for the team. So it's "Back in the hole" for Billy Bishop and Sheila Crawford as we go to the beginning to see how this all started.
A deadly purple gas? Dr. Forrest Kaysen? Special Agents and a murderous plot? This is starting to sound really familiar. Spy Fiction was written and directed by Hidetake “Swery” Suehiro of Access Games. I’ve mentioned Swery in previous articles, and I've examined the thematic connections between his games and other forms of media. And there’s another interesting connection to be made between the characters and themes presented in Spy Fiction to the ones in Deadly Premonition. Spy Fiction, as I wrote above, is a take on spy fiction. It's easy to look at another game like Metal Gear Solid and make comparisons to the stealth-action sequences, the alert systems and, oddly enough, how the characters present themselves on screen. It's far more difficult to make comparisons to the filmic techniques Swery incorporates and how he emulate those seen in James Bond films or in the Mission: Impossible television series. It's far easier and much more interesting to examine the game's story telling and how insane it gets when compared to Western spy fiction.
Swery is an auteur, who has a specific style to his games and a specific lens on the themes presented within them. He also has a tendency to use influences from other forms of media. Deadly Premonition is interesting because it took Lynchian themes into account when creating the small town America survival horror/Twin Peaks experience it gave to the player. He successfully took a Western television phenomena, Twin Peaks, and created a virtual simulation of the experience, of course with an enigmatic Swery twist. It's interesting that he was able to adopt this style of story telling to suit the influece he is simulating. Spy Fiction is interesting because it espouses a post-911 anti-terrorism message while incorporating the human conflicts inherent to the spy fiction genre. The story isn't a typical affair either, nor is it typical when compared to Western spy fiction. Take a look at a James Bond film like GoldenEye. James goes from locale to locale tracking down Trevelyan while attempting to get some codes to GoldenEye, a satellite weapon. It's a huge story full of intrigue, murder, blood, gore, sex, satellite weaponry and Nintendo remakes. Spy Fiction has all of this insanity and the similar themes, but the threat comes in a much more microscopic form. Lahder is a virus being used by criminal organization. Swery—again—adopted a kind of film making and storytelling to suit the genre. The game also takes on the stealth-action genre by attempting to one up them in almost every way. Most of the gadgetry you get isn't all that great; however, this doesn’t stop Spy Fiction from being one of the best stealth-action games of the decade.
Can Snake hang from the ceiling using magnetic couplers or disguise himself using stealth technology? Can Sam Fisher fight his way through any conflict or throw a steel-edged playing card through someone’s torso? Does Gabriel Logan have a crack team of operatives waiting and willing to help on his missions? Actually, most of them could pull those off if they had the tech and personnel, which most of them do. On the whole, Spy Fiction didn’t pull off anything new or add a new layer of complexity to the genre. There are a few items that are pretty nifty. A 3D camera allows you to photograph a target and assume their identity. A small device also allows the player to simulate the voices of other characters to make their disguise even more convincing. There's a cloaking device that activates when you hug a wall. Also, an interesting detail about the agents' weaponry is that they use Walther P99, the same as James Bond, first appearing in the novel Dr. No (1958). Along with the tech, Billy Bishop and Sheila Crawford have an entire team from the S.E.A. watching their every move. They provide you with dead drops for picking up supplies and disguises to help you move stealthily through the missions. They have quite a team, but Enigma is rife with all sorts of criminals.This is where similarities between Spy Fiction and Deadly Premonition begin.
Dr. Forrest Kaysen and General Douglas Lysander are exactly the same characters as Forrest Kaysen and The General from Deadly Premonition. They are identical, exactly the same, without difference; they just appear in a different setting. Another similarity comes in the form of the purple gas Lahder. Not to go all out with references or conjecture (or to spoil anything), Dr. Forrest Kaysen meets his demise rather quickly in Spy Fiction. During a demonstration of the new virus, Kaysen was pushed into the testing chamber to be used as a live subject. It didn't end well. Kaysen appears in Deadly Premonition as a sapling salesman who visits Greenvale, a town that when it rains is covered with a purple fog. The origin of the purple haze can be attributed to military experiments involving the town, but I can't got into further detail lest I ruin it for everyone. The purple fog is an important comparison, not just because they are similar in their nature, but for what they represent. Lahder in Spy Fiction is a deadly substance representing a shift in warfare. Whoever controls Lahder is able to create terror, chaos and global turmoil, and thus they are able to control the world through a form of terrorism. It's a dangerous substance, but it also clouds the mind because of it's power. A similar situation occurs in Deadly Premonition with the Raincoat Killer. The purple fog represent the clouded nature of the town's existence as well as York's past. The fog clouds York's perception of the crimes in Greenvale; however, not simply on a microscopic level but on a spiritual level as well.
The purple fog represents chaos and the unknown, and it's up to our protagonists to diffuse it any way they can.
The similarities between these two games isn't just on a surface level. Kaysen and Lysander represent vivid comparisons, but what does this really mean for the game? Why am I writing so much about this and boring you to death? This all goes back to an argument I made in a previous article about the videogame auteur, one which I won't make you relive. I will say this. If we wish to understand these comparisons we have to look at the team behind it. Spy Fiction’s official site is still online and some of the details inside are really telling about the game’s inspiration and the Swery’s influences. Check it out here: http://www2.sega.com/gamesite/spyfiction/index.html. Swery writes, “If someone asks males who their hero is, you will hear answers such as a Professional Sports player, a foilice officer, teacher, or a martial artist. But for me, it would be a spy.” He goes on to write, “So, it was very suitable for the first game that I direct to have the factors of Love and Hate, Loyalty and Ego, and trust and Betrayal. A spy is physically strong, falls in love with beautiful people, is loyal to justice, has cool gadgets, and above all else, a spy is mysterious.”
Swery spent four years in college majoring is film before he switched his interest to computer graphics and scenario writing. In his third year of college, he and a friend tried for a job at SNK. He got the job, his friend didn’t. This led to his involvement in several titles that eventually led him to Deep Space and the lead production role in Extermination (2001) for the PS2. From here he moved onto Access Games where he worked on Spy Fiction and Deadly Premonition. From Extermination to Spy Fiction to Deadly Premonition, we have seen an astounding change in Swery's style of directing and style of writing. Spy Fiction is an interesting example of how novels and film can be adapted into the videogame medium. Swery takes elements from actual spy films and incorporates them into his game. Well, you say, Metal Gear was based off of Escape from New York, so why do you see Swery as revolutionary director? I'll tell you why. He's changing.
As his portrait changes from project to project, so too does his style of direction, his script writing and his game mechanics. Spy Fiction is exciting because when its okayness is compared to Deadly Premonition's brilliance, you can see a general trend upwards. Swery's themes and images, along with his auteuristic nature have traveled paralel to his improvement as a videogame director. This means that his next project, whatever that may be, has the possibility of once again transcending his last project through his adoption of a new influences. He likes Commandos, he like Spies and he likes FBI Special Agents, who knows what could be next? All I know is that his videogame development goes far beyond just the use of similar imagery and characters.
There’s always a challenge when affecting a thorough analysis of a videogame based solely on narratological themes. Story can only get you so far, and yet great storytelling is far more important than control or gameplay mechanics. For instance, Deadly Premonition is a mediocre gameplay experience. Driving was hard, Greenvale was huge and combat was a challenge. But the story was so strong that it outshined any inadequacies with the game. It is impossible to simply ignore what a game does on the surface of the experience. How much enjoyment you receive from running and gunning, or, in this case, hiding in the shadows, determines how a game is received by the general public. For a game like Spy Fiction a base level of analysis isn’t good enough. By avoiding the failings of a game’s mechanics all you are left with is the story, the aesthetic and your overall experience. In Spy Fiction's case both the story and the style impressed me, and my overall experience with the game left me wanting more. What Spy Fiction represents is the start of an auteur. To my knowledge, Swery started using his nickname when he created Spy Fiction. This was the start of the purple fog, Forrest Kaysen and General Lysander, who have stayed with Swery's most recent project.
It’s always been a dream of mine to one day write or direct a videogame. If I could choose a mentor or a videogame director to study it would be Swery. Spy Fiction is a grand display of inspiration. It combines spy fiction, filmic technique and an intentive story filled with intrigue, double-crossing and terror. It's not Metal Gear, Splinter Cell or Syphon Filter; it didn't revolutionize videogame storytelling or direction. However, it has an unyielding sense of self. Is it an homage to spy films or is it something more? Spy Fiction is an insightful experience and is unlike any other game out there… unless you count Deadly Premonition.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker
In my history with the PSP, I’ve only finished two games. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is one of them. From the gorgeous visuals, amazing sound design and tough, but manageable controls, Hideo Kojima’s first title on the handheld system succeeded in holding my attention. Previous Metal Gear titles on the PSP have been, for the most part, overly complex. Portable Ops was a mess of poor controls and time constrained objectives. Acid, a turn based strategy game, was an interesting departure from the norm, but was poorly received. MGS:PW focuses on story, and it creates a believable continuation of Big Boss’s story. And the player gets to see some startling character development that is later—or rather chronologically before—seen in Metal Gear for the SNES and on Playstation 3. Overall Peace Walker delivers, but does Kojima’s message come in peace or does it leave us scrambling to pick up the pieces?
Big Boss, or Naked Snake, from Metal Gear Solid 3, is the commander of the Militaires Sans Frontières. He’s been called to Costa Rica by Ramón Gálvez Mena, a professor of peace studies, to help liberate his defenceless country. Costa Rica is being used as a territorial means of controlling the United States. Whoever controls South America controls the shipping lanes to the United States and thus the world. The Peace Sentinels, a heavily armed group of soldiers, are transporting nuclear weapons into the country and Ramón has hired Snake and Kazuhira Miller to stop them. Along with the professor is Paz Ortega Andrade, a student of Mena’s, who was captured by the Peace Sentinels. As an interesting note, her name “Paz” means “peace” in Spanish. Kazuhira’s name means peace in Japanese. Characters are kidnapped, nuclear annihilation becomes imminent and the story ducks into a maze of complexity. It's what you expect from a game written and directed by Hideo Kojima.
Peace Walker takes place in the 1970’s – the Cold War era – just after the first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. This is the start of a new age, one of nuclear deterrence and private militartization. The theory behind nuclear deterrence is that if a nation was to initiate a nuclear attack, other nations would inevitably, if they have the resources, strike back. This prevents Nation A from ever attacking Nation B because they know it would lead to their destruction. It’s sort of like those Mexican Standoffs you see in old western flicks. Neither side can foreseeably win or benefit from firing. Except in this case those bullets are nuclear devices, the cowboys are continents and the stakes are higher than a few bottles of whisky. However, this standoff creates an illusionary peace. If no one is willing to fire then the system of nuclear deterrence works. One factor stands in the way of this peace.
Snake has an awesome line in the game. “When you pick up a gun, sooner or later you’ll end up in hell.” The SALT talks limited the creation of ballistic missile delivery systems, or ICBMs, to the existing levels at the time. That meant that the creation of nuclear arms in both the U.S.S.R. and the United States temporarily froze as per the agreement. This, however, wasn’t the end of the talks. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker takes place in 1974, five years before SALT II. Understandably this was a politically tense time. Hot Coldman, the director of the Peace Sentinels, has decided to demonstrate the United States of America nuclear capability through the creation of the perfect deterrent. Peace Walker is a retaliatory AI that removes the human element from the deterrence theory. It will always retaliate. Remove the human element and the system will work. But Snake has other plans for Peace Walker, which brings us to the boss fights.
One of the big things, pun, about great boss fights is the sense of scale. Whether it’s a boss’s physical size or presence in the scene, you want to feel like they’re an unstoppable force. You want them to feel like bosses. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker creates a sense of scale on the PSP that I thought was impossible. Smaller boss fights with light armoured vehicles or tanks are a little on the tedious side, especially if you want to capture troops; however, the a.i. controlled boss battles are amazing. Not to mention that the little tunes they sing are constructed through a rudimentary Vocaloid program, these bosses mock you with their size and strength. Knowing that a giant rocket propelled Hatsune Miku is coming for you is more than a little unsettling. An interesting feature of MGS:PW is the ability to use a Vocaloid editor. It allows you to change the tune the bosses sing and it allows you to program your own bipedal mech. Did I mention you get your own Metal Gear?
It’s called Metal Gear Zeke. Otacon, I mean, Huey Emmerich designs a mech that you can customize and send on missions. You can’t help but notice a little anachronism when it comes to the design of the mechs. When it’s finished Zeke looks more advanced than Metal Gear. And most of the AI controlled bosses you fight are far too agile to have been built in the 1970’s. Metal Gear could barely walk let alone jump or climb up on buildings. With Zeke you can send the soldiers whom you capture using the Fulton Recovery System. The inability to crawl and move, step out from cover to fire and drag unconscious/dead soldiers makes stealth missions a challenge. Often your best bet is to use the Fulton Recovery System to take soldiers away from the battlefield.
The FRS takes unconscious soldiers off of the battlefield sending them up into the sky in a balloon. They’re recovered using a helicopter and sent to the Mother Base. The FRS can also be used to pick up prisoners of war or soldiers left near death. Everyone recovered in this way are sent to Mother Base where they await further instruction. Base management can be a little tricky to get the hang of. Mother Base is divided into seven sections: the Waiting Room, Combat Units, Research and Development, the Mess Hall Team, Medical Team, Intel Team, Sickbay, and the Brig. All of the soldiers you pick up through the FRS are put into the waiting room and then sorted, as their abilities dictate, into the unit best suited for them. A few unique characters like Chico, Amanda and Miller have obvious strengths and are only suited for specific units. I put Miller in the kitchen just for the image of him in an apron serving crispy bacon to the troops. There’s a lot of variety to be had with Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.
The most demanding section of Mother Base is the research and development department. Like all of the other sections, the more soldiers the better the department works. Each soldier potentially unlocks a new weapon. An RPG2 requires a certain level and a rank two RPG2 requires a higher level. As you add more soldiers to the department more and more weapons are unlocked and new items become available. Each section of Mother Base works on this kind of system. The more soldiers in the combat unit the more GMP you have. The more soldiers in the mess hall the happier the other sections become allowing them to work beyond their abilities. It’s an interesting haven for the soldiers you recruit. Later in the game you have the ability to connect to wi-fi hotspots to recruit soldiers. You can also trade with friends or put soldiers up for adoption over the PSN. You can also get a certain game developer on your team. I put him in the brig.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker has local and online multiplayer support. On certain missions you and three other soldiers can take on missions and fight bosses. It's an odd set up. I tried one tank battle. My partner was less than competent. You have to play with someone close by or go online. Sending commands comes in the form of battle phrases you can shout out to other players. Duck, run, over here, stuff like that. So after I picked up my partner up off of the dirt, I went back to playing on my own. It's probably fun to play with friends, but I've never seen Snake with a partner and I don't think he should get a sidekick.
Peace Walker has two main themes, and one overarching theme. Nuclear deterrence and private militarization, and peace. Both sides of the conflict, the Peace Sentinels and the MSF, believe that either route can bring about world peace. One through mutually assured destruction and the other through an unfeeling business structure. As we saw in Metal Gear Solid 4 this innovation created by Snake and Kazuhira Miller—secretly funded by the Patriots—becomes just as threatening as the nuclear threat the Metal Gear series has focused on. Kojima believes wholeheartedly in the disarmament and dismantlement of nuclear weapons, but you can’t help feeling that the narrative surrounding Peace Walker is anything but peaceful.
After Les Enfants Terrible, Big Boss defected and created the Militaires Sans Frontières. During Operation Peacewalker—this game—he creates Outer Heaven, a fortress nation that later houses Metal Gear. In turn of trying to rid the world of nuclear threats, Outer Heaven becomes the 1970’s, 7th atomic nation. He was presumably killed during Operation Intrude, Metal Gear, but survived to destroy the Patriots from the inside. What we see here is the creation of continuity. For me the most surprising part of the story’s tie into the series is that Metal Gear for the SNES is the most direct connection. The next time we see Big Boss is in MGS4 where he makes a brief appearance. MGS:PW fits well into the series. It works with the continuous plot and helps flush out Big Boss’s character.
Near the end of the game, MGS:PW takes on a Kubrick hue. HAL from 2001: A Space Odessy, an artificial intelligence, and the imminent nuclear annihilation of the earth like in Dr. Strangelove—incidentally one of the main characters has the same name—show Hideo Kojima’s influences when constructing this narrative. An interesting side note are some of the texts and films cited in the game’s credits. It includes: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics; Immanuel Kant’s essay Perpetual Peace; Osamu Tezuka’s Phoenix, which he began to write in the late 1960’s, René Descartes Discours de la Méthod; and Stanley Kurbrick’s films. It’s an extensive list that shows a fair amount of research went into philosophical ideas of war and peace, as well as research into period pieces created during the Cold War era. I mentioned above that you get to recruit a certain game developer into MSF. Kojima’s blurb in the game says that he’s 70 per cent films and the other 30 can be put to use anywhere. The narrative surrounding Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is solid and thoughtful. It shows a little bit of Kojima’s war fetish, but it argues a point about humanity’s true nature through the development of Big Boss/Snake.
I’ve only finished two games for the PSP. I am glad to say that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is one of them. The graphics are great, the sound is sound, the story is typical complex Kojima and the game left me wanting more. Definitely pick up MGS:PW if not to give you PSP some use then for the peaceful message the game promotes.
Likes:
- Streamlined combat and sneaking systems
- Interesting story tie-ins to the Metal Gear series
- Having Hideo Kojima on my team
Dislikes:
- Anachronistic design of the bipedal mechs, though still cool
- Sticky controls not suited for the PSP
- Private militerization as Big Boss's answer to nuclear deterrence
- Multiplayer is good with friends, not strangers
Review Score
/
Japan’s Used Games Market
It's insane, let's just say that to start.
There's a store in Japan called Book-Off. I walked into one in Nagano, the location of the 1998 Winter Olympics. The shelves were lined with used manga, novels, DVDs and CDs, just the standard stuff and nothing all too special. It's pretty much the equivalent to used book stores in the West, like BookCity in Toronto. When I first started looking around for these stores I thought it was just a small chain, a few stores here or there in smaller cities. Book-Off has more than 800 stores located in Japan and about ten in the United States. Even the one in Nagano is a massive place displaying row after row of dusty shelves cradling dusty manga. I turned down a random row. My eyes widened.
Though their main focus is the reselling of manga, Book-Off has a small section dedicated to videogames. The one in Nagano was full, packed, stuffed with old Japanese videogames. My vintage second self wanders in a daze towards a shelf labeled, "Old Soft."
A game like Psychic Force—sealed and with a manual—can go for about $25.00 online. That's for a circa 1999, Playstation fighting game. It's a rare thing to find in store here in Toronto or in any other city in North America. There are copies out there for sure, but even at the best videogame stores, which have a wide selection of vintage games, appreciation in value, availability and rarity make vintage gaming an expensive hobby. The insane part, I bought Psychic Force for about two bucks.
I lost my mind when I started flipping through those dusty shelves. They had Japanese games, both new and used, for about one to two dollars. And that was just the start. Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Super Famicom, Sega Mega Drive cartridges; almost every platform of the last decade had a small section to itself. I'm a bit of a Dreamcast fanatic, and that's where I spent most of my time. I couldn't believe how cheap the games were going for. Shenmue, 250 yen; Capcom Versus SNK, 150 yen; Sonic Adventure, 100 yen; and so many more going for less than a Pokeball.
These low prices are symptomatic of two things. One, it was Nagano, which is a small but developed town. In Akihabara, used games stores still have the inflated prices we're used to in the West. The location of the store helped because the demand for these games must have been low. Two, it was a book store selling videogames. Maybe they didn't know the actual retail prices of the games, or maybe they just wanted to get them out of the store. People like me help clear the way for better and newer stock. Out with the old soft and in with the new soft, yet there's more to it.
The term "old soft" was an odd label for the section. There's a magazine there called Old Gamers. It's a big retro strategy guide, it has tips for vintage gamers and it has the latest news on the oldest games. There's definitely an appreciation in Japan for "old soft". Vintage games are viewed in nearly the same light as there are in the West; it's just that nostalgia has been replaced with progression. The "old soft" shelves were a lot smaller than the PS3, PS2, Xbox 360 or DS. They were just sitting there waiting to be picked up by a Westerner with giddy, nostalgic eyes and a full wallet, or any collectors in Japan. And after about an hour of browsing I left with a handful of games.
Things like appreciation in value, availability and rarity are all–from my perspective–reversed in Japan. Shenmue in its original packaging was going for about a dollar and fifty cents. A few years back, my brother pulled some money together and bought a Dreamcast. It came out somewhere near $150.00 with two controllers and a few used games. Shenmue was included. It typically goes for about $20.00 "new" online and about half that for a used copy. Even when spliced, the difference in pricing comes out to a pretty hefty decrease. It was amazing for me, but there's a problem with these cheap games. They're all in Japanese and region coded.
How many people actually have Japanese region Sega Dreamcast that's still working? Only a few, and you have to download a special boot program to make Japanese games work overseas. It's an expensive hobby, and we all feel this pain when we see copies of Earthbound or the Mother. For me, this difference in prices has to be looked at through a different lens. If I was a Japanese game collector looking for some Dreamcast games, would the games I listed above evoke nostalgia? Games like Shenmue are common, and even the more expensive games in Book-Off were probably everywhere at one point. It's easy to get them. If we then go back to our Western lens and look at vintage gaming in North America, can we really find good, vintage games for that cheap?
So what's the difference? Why the hell are vintage games so expensive in the West and so cheap in Japan?
Most vintage games are made in Japan.
There's a drink called Mitsuya Cider. To buy a bottle in North America costs about three dollars, which mostly pays for shipping costs. Over there, near the source of the production, a bottle is about half that. There are more unopened copies of Shenmue, Psychic Force and Marvel Vs. Capcom in Japan than there are Pokemon. So many copies are circulated throughout the country that when the next generation of consoles comes out, the old are thrown out or sold, and then replaced by the new. This old software ends up in bookstores and pawn shops. Then they're picked up by vintage gamers. It's the circle of virtual life. Except about 200 per cent of the unopened games are put into warehouses, just like over here in the West.
The differences lies in the appreciation of value, availability and the nature of Japanese nostalgia.
I'll say it, Shenmue is boring. If you can get into it, learn its ways and get to the fighting then it's a thrill ride. We feel nostalgia here in the West because Shenmue was the most technologically advance game when the millennia came round. I first played it when I was about nine. My brain almost exploded because of the detail in the characters and the environments. To relive that feeling; I'd pay almost anything. That's one major difference. Good games aren't available and we all want them. It's the whole supply and demand argument, except the demand won't be supplied. Games in Japan are too plentiful, and not enough people want to play them. It's a conundrum.
I just remember reading through my old EGM’s looking at all of the Japanese games that were either too violent for me to play or to expensive for me to buy. When I walked into a Book-Off, I saw all of those games right in front of my going for less than a bottle of Coke. I was so excited to see my nostalgia come to life so cheaply, yet there was some apprehension whenever I'd pick up a game. The two problems, for me, is that most of the games are Japanese only and my suitcase could only hold so much. Even if I wanted to relive some of that old nostalgia, I'd have to suffer a bit. Buying a game like Xenogears and Chrono Cross, which I did, is kind of a futile thing to do. Unless you have a decent understanding of Hiragana or in some cases Katakana, they’ll be a mess of indecipherable text. So it's either buying a game for cheap that I am unable to understand, and thus sacrificing the story, or purchasing an expensive game at home and watching my savings dwindle.
We struggle to play these games in hard economic times, and most of us are just looking to relive our childhoods. I'm not looking to make money off of my nostalgia, and even if it takes playing on an emulator, the feeling and just having the game again is the most important aspect of collecting these games. One thought that crossed my mind as I browsed the shelves was, "This could be a good chance to make some money." If a copy of Shenmue goes for so much back home and for so little over here, why not exploit the system a bit? I nearly slapped myself. That's outside of the spirit of vintage gaming.
Going into that book store in Nagano and the shops in Akihabara showed me a new side of Japanese gaming. They're always looking forward, but only a select few look back. Magazines like Old Gamers show that side; however, it's just not as pronounced as it is here in the West. The nostalgia is there in Japan, no doubt, but store rooms are small and warehouses are few and far between. It's insane, and perplexing.
Top Nine Videogame Reporters and Journalists
Journalists in videogames are as diverse and wideranging as journalists in the real world. Some are action reporters, others prefer to sit down with their subjects and chat. The common thread that ties them all together is their search for the truth. This truth depends on their skills as an observer and actions as a reporter. Good journalism in videogames is about how a character develop a story. And there are a few characters here who have epic stories to tell.
1. Jade – Beyond Good and Evil: GC, PC, PS2, Xbox: 2003
With a laundry list of good deeds, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil is a real action reporter. With the IRIS Network and under the penname "Shauni", Jade infiltrates and exposes the Alpha Section–the so called protectors of Hillys–as a corrupt military organization bent on world domination. Now that’s a scoop. What distinguishes Jade is the diversity in which she uses journalism to help save Hillys. Altruism comes in many forms. You can promote the preservation of ecological zones, support a local orphanage or defend the planet from alien invasion. With her camera, Jade exposes lies told by a corrupt military regime and reveals the hidden plot to take over the world.
It helps to be able to kick a little ass when you’re a journalist. Though her interviewees might be a little more intimidated than cooperative, Jade isn’t looking for a peaceful solution to save Hillys from its fate. She uses revolutionary journalism as a weapon to fight the Alpha Section. Jade is an action reporter who constantly throws herself into dangerous and life threatening situations. Sometimes you might even forget that she’s actually a journalist. With her camera she categorizes the planet’s wildlife for future preservation, she finds evidence of the Alpha Section’s involvement with extraterrestrial life, the DomZ, and she exposes the truth to the people of Hillys. Journalists in videogames often strive towards finding a definite truth in their reality. Through her investigation, Jade finds out the truth of her existence and why she kicks so much ass.
Without spoiling her secret it involves a prophecy, her penname and the colour green. Jade finds a larger than life story for IRIS Network, and in the process she finds a personal truth. Journalism isn’t always about making headlines or getting onto the front page, for some videogame journalists and real life journalists it’s about exploring the self. There always has to be a motivation for a journalist. Jade's past is obscured and we only know so much about her character. There's always an exploratory impetus for good journalism and in-depth stories. Jade is a damn fine journalist, and she’ll go to any lengths to find the truth even if it takes her into space and beyond. And back here on Earth another journalist is looking for his true identity.
2. Rex Chance – Impossible Creatures: PC: 2002
Rex Chance has what is, possibly, the best name of all videogame journalists. He’s a former wartime correspondent who worked during the Spanish Civil War. And in 1936, when fascists attacked a local village, he tried to save a child only to see him die. Disgruntled and disillusioned, he returned home only to be fired from the news agency. A few years later, Rex received a letter from his estranged father Dr. Eric Chanicov. His father had gone missing several years earlier, and in the letter he revealed that his reasearche was being used in the development of Sigma technology. Rex puts on his protagonist boots and war reporter gear and heads out to Isla Variatas, a remote set of islands in the South Pacific.
Rex is also a hybrid semi-creature half-human who has the power to control animals. The game is old, so I can spoil some of the plot on this one. Sigma technology has allowed scientists, like Dr. Chanicov and Upton Julius, to combine creatures and creature more powerful hybrid specimines. Rex just so happens to be the first cross between an animal and a human being. He represents a newer and stronger form of the human species. His awesome name is just an added bonus. Now he has to fight for his life and find out the secret behind his existence.
Rex takes to his leadership role pretty quick. As an international journalist; he's seen his fair share of war, blood and fighting. Most couldn't go from taking a cruise to commanding a legion of half-wolverine half-crocodile mutants in one day. However, the intensity of warfare can really affect a journalist’s outlook on life. Ernest Hemmingway was a foreign correspondent during the Spanish Civil War. After he returned, he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls, a powerful story about an American demo man sent to destroy a bridge. Now, Hemmingway wasn’t a genetically created human being. He was just a journalist, but his retelling of the Spanish Civil War provides some insight into the intensity of warfare and how it can change you as a person. When it comes down to it, Rex is pretty hardened and he brings that to his journalism.
Throughout the game we learn about Rex's past from his journal. He is constantly writing and detailing his journey with Dr. Lucy Willing. He shows his skills as a leader, a technician and a fighter. You have to wonder, why did Rex get into journalism? It could just be that he has good instincts for danger and his dormant animalistic traits make him more aware of his surroundings. Or it could be that he is obsessed with finding the true nature of his existence. Journalism in videogames is often used as a means of finding personal truths. Investigations are used as a vehicle to drive a journalist towards the truth. Rex receives a letter from his father and investigates the true nature of his existence. Impossible Creatures left players on a huge cliff hanger and I think this game definitely needs a revisit. And speaking of sequels.
3. Reuben Oluwagembi – Far Cry 2: PC, PS3 and Xbox 360: 2008
Far Cry 2 was a huge departure in the series. Jack Carver disappeared and the player was given the choice of 12 unique, yet silent, characters. The game’s plot can be surmised in just one statement: Find and kill The Jackal. This notorious arms dealer has armed the Alliance for Popular Resistance (APR) and the United Front for Liberation (UFL), and it’s your job to track him down and eliminate him. It’s a real virtual adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and Francis Ford Copalla’s Apocalypse Now. The problem for you is that the Jackal is like Nietzsche spouting ghost or a spectre, and there are others looking for him.
Reuben Oluwagembi is a journalist looking for the Jackal. Your interaction with Reuben in Far Cry 2 is limited as your character doesn’t really have a voice. He wants to expose the illegal arms trade in the small nation and he asks you at the beginning of the game to look for the Jackal’s tapes—small bite-sized recordings that have been spread all over the country. The Jackal touts his overman philosophy and believes he has gone beyond the bounds of morality, but that doesn't mean he condones the brutal level of violence in the small nation. The player kills a lot of people. Essentially, we become apart of the bloody cycle of this trade and you go up against mercenaries who are armed to the teeth. It’s easy enough for you to dole back the punishment, but Reuben is just a journalist and he isn’t the protagonist.
A majority of the journalists on this list can either defend themselves or have the miraculous ability to dodge bullets with ease. Reuben is only human and he’s looking to write a story. The Jackal, is inaccessible to anyone else other than another mercenary. He can’t go out by himself and go looking because he'll get killed. In one mission, Reuben asks you to rescue a number of journalists that had been captured. They were to be executed or deported from the country, and if you did everything right that won’t happen. It’s important to him that this story is told and that the world is made aware of the chaos the arms dealing trade has created in this small country. As an observer, Reuben becomes an objective voice on this conflict that you are trapped within. His observations as a journalist form an empathic bridge for the player exposing the true nature of the game's violence. The saddest part of all of this is that Reuben’s story was ignored by the international press. He plans to publish his story on his blog.
You can check out his blog here: http://reubenblog.typepad.com/.
4. Frank West – Dead Rising: Xbox 360: 2006
Looking for a scoop on what he thought was a riot, Frank West goes to Willamette, Colorado and finds himself in the middle of a zombie infestation. With no other journalists in sight he has an inside scoop on a story the government is trying to cover up. He has the ultimate exclusive. Unlike Rex above, Frank’s intervention and interference in the situation goes beyond his role as a journalist. In order to survive, he has to wait 72 hours until Ed Deluca, his chartered helicopter pilot, returns to save him and his scoop. Frank initially goes into this situation looking for a story, but it evolves into something much deadlier. Frank is really more of an action hero than a photo journalist, and zombie smashing has to go against some part of the journalism code of ethics. Hell with it this game is about causing undead mayhem and saving lives. Frank is one of the toughest videogame journalists ever, he knows how to knock out a zombie and take a fantastic photograph.
Frank has reported on wars and shows his skills as a natural leader. And in a time of crisis, like a zombie infestation, having someone who knows what to do and where to go—the roof in this case—is essential to survival. Think of Dead Rising as George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead simply with a journalist instead of two cops, a flyboy and a lady. The fun and the danger are both there, but the atmosphere changes with the character's vocations. Journalists don’t get in the way of their stories. They aren’t supposed to get involved and start bashing heads at a riot. In a videogame, where’s the fun in just being an observer. Sometimes you just want to be involved in what is going on around you. Yet, Frank finds himself up against a greater opponent.
He’s going up against the zombie invasion and a mass government conspiracy to cover up this incident. Dead Rising has six endings. Some end with Frank escaping to tell his tale of zombies, victims and survival. One ends with him being kidnapped by government forces leaving his fate unknown. Another has the zombie infestation going nationwide affecting the whole of the United States. In Tatsunoko versus Capcom we see Frank standing by some lockers with his co-workers. So maybe his story was told, but as we've seen in the trailers for Dead Rising 2 the zombie infestation has spread. And he isn't the only journalist who's had to deal with the undead.
5. Joseph Schriber – Silent Hill 4: The Room: PC, PS2, Xbox: 2004
An in-depth investigation into a serial killer and the occult sounds interesting. Who wouldn’t want an interesting subject like Walter Sullivan? Joseph Schriber is an investigative reporter who led an exposé into The Order, a cult running the Wish House, an orphanage in Silent Hill. As a fan of the survival horror genre, you know when “Silent Hill”, “orphanage” and “cult” are all in the same sentence that you might just want to stay home. As a journalist, well that’s another story.
Joseph Schriber lived in room 302 in South Ashfield Heights, an apartment complex in a small town not too far from Silent Hill. We learn of his fate from a small diary that's passed under Henry Townshend's door. His diary reveals that Walter Sullivan is more than just an ordinary killer. His investigation revealed that Walter had committed suicide in prison and his body disappeared. Joseph went one step further and dug up Walter's grave only to find his body gone and the numbers 11/21 marked in the empty coffin. Those numbers represent the 21 murders Walter has to commit in order to revive his mother who has been manifested in his psyche. It’s a long story. The interesting part of all this is Joseph was able to decipher all of this and The Order’s influence over Walter. His diary's red pages help Henry defeat Walter and return some order to Ashfield Heights.
Going overseas for a story is a typical endeavour for a journalist. International reporters travel to every end of the Earth looking for stories. Joseph Schreiber travelled into Walter Sullivan’s psyche to find his story. He literally went into Walter's “Other Worlds”. Joseph even returns from the afterlife as a spirit to help guide Henry, now that’s dedication to your craft. What's more none of the analysis of the game or the development of the mythos could have occurred without his investigation. Joseph Schriber found himself an amazing subject for an unprecedented investigative report. Yet there are other serial killers out there terrorizing the media with their myths.
6. Nolan Campbell – Clock Tower: PS 1996
What’s up with videogame journalists and serial killers? It’s like they have a death wish. Nolan Campbell is a relatively young reporter for the Oslo Week Newspaper and he's embroiled in the murderous plot of the Scissor Man. Unlike some of the other journalists here, Nolan is a little bit of a bad one. I can respect that he’s looking for a scoop and the Scissor Man, but it’s more than a little strange to romantically hound Jennifer, a 15-year-old and clearly disturbed individual. Still with his cameraman Tim, the two make a formitable teamand manage—if you play your cards right—to help defeat the Scissor Man. Finding images of Nolan is next to impossible, so here's a photo of director Christopher Nolan and B movie star Bruce Campbell.
What distinguishes Nolan from the other journalists—so far—is that he’s just a third-rate writer looking for a story. He has no grand altruistic vision driving him towards protecting Jennifer and defeating the Scissor Man. He’s just in the wrong place at the journalistically right time. He's just a little more unscrupulous than some of the other characters on this list. There are certain boundaries that you have to abide by when writing a story. No making up names, avoid misquotes like the Scissor Man and use the utmost discretion when approaching a subject. Nolan and Tim investigate the Scissor Man myth and find themselves in the middle of a tense situation. In a few scenarios they survive and in others they end up either roasted in a fireplace or shoved into a wine barrel. That’s a morbid fate for two reporters looking a big scoop. However, like most of the journalists on this list Nolan and Tim have ultimately redeemable characteristics and traits.
In a few of the game’s scenarios, Nolan actually helps Jennifer defeat the Scissor Man. In one ending, he distracts the large-fulcrum wielding maniac until she casts a sealing spell. He redeems himself a little and managed to make himself out as a good journalist. As far as I know, Nolan never actually published his story about the Scissor Man and his ordeal. Well, he’s more than just a sleazebag asking Jennifer out on a date just to derive some “truth” out of his investigation. He is searching for the truth and though he may have some odd mannerisms and off putting characteristics, he is a journalist in search of a story. He finds it, but there are things worse than serial killers out there.
7. Rick Henderson – Hitman: Blood Money: PC, PS2, Xbox 360: 2006
A journalist can work his or her entire life towards getting one good story, and that scoop of the century seldom comes looking for us. Rick Henderson is a journalist with the First Edition, a newspaper dealing with both international and national affairs. In Hitman: Blood Money, he’s lured to Alexander Leland Cayne’s estate assuming the former Pentagon director wants to talk about the attack on the White House or his plans for retirement. What Rick found was the story of a lifetime. Alex had the Hitman.
The Hitman is like a myth, a ghoul or goblin made up to scare politicians and the world's corrupt into being good. He's really the result of a cloning experiment designed around creating the perfect human being. He was made from the genes of four of his previous targets (Lee Hong, Pablo Ochoa, Franz Fuchs, and Arkadij Jegorov) and some from his creator Professor Ort-Meyer. The nature over nurture problem comes into existence, he kills the Professor, ending the production of Hitman 48’s, and Hitman 47 mystifies himself as the International Contract Agency’s deadliest assassin. Rick stares, mouth open as Alex tells him all this. In journalism this is called a “Get”. Fortunately and the unfortunately for Rick, this “Get” gets him killed.
Rick's last words are, “Your secret is safe with me! I swear to God, I won’t tell a soul!” Now, he knows, Hitman knows and I know that any journalist worth his salt would go right to printers with this kind of story. With the overwhelming evidence at the scene and the evidence produced by Alex, Rick could easily account for the hundreds of unaccounted murders and assassinations that have taken place over the last twenty years! Now this—as Alex comments early in the game—is the type of “good journalism” Rick is known for. Unfortunately for him, his story is left unpublished and he ends up as another casualty of the Hitman. Hmm… but he did have his recorder with him and even the best clean up teams can be sloppy sometimes. This is truly the mark of a good journalist.
8. Lotta Hart – Pheonix Wright: Ace Attorney: GBA 2001, Ace Attorney Series
How does one describe Lotta Hart? Born in the Heart of the Heartland, Lotta is a hot blooded, Osaka accented—akin to a Southern accent in the United States— photographer whose first claim to fame involved a UFO and a wedding. She’s steeped in the paranormal and has been heavily involved in Pheonix Wright’s case file. She’s kind of annoying and has a penchant for getting into “a lotta” trouble, but she’s a damn fine photographer and she has a huge fro to boot.
As a journalist, Lotta leaves a lotta to be desired. Okay enough with the puns. She’s a photographic journalist who lives by a strict journalistic ideology. If she has a source, evidence or an insight into a case; she’ll protect it no matter what. That’s professional, but it makes things difficult for Pheonix. In Justice for All, she becomes a key witness in two different murders. In the first case, Maya Fey had been accused of murder after she had channelled a dead spirit. In the second case Juan Corrida, a television superstar, had been murdered and Lotta’s photographs become key pieces of evidence in the case. The problem is she needs to be coaxed into giving testimony.
Journalism is about helping people, defeating tyranny and finding the truth. That’s the ideal. Sometimes journalism can be just about finding that scoop or that claim to fame. Lotta is a good journalist and photographer, but when someone’s life is in danger c’mon, just C’MON! Especially when it’s a friend like Maya. Still, any journalist can respect the protection of sources and information. Just when it’s a life or death situation you might want to rethink your ideology, especially when Franchizka von Karma pops out the whip.
9. Frederick Lancaster – Front Misson: SNES 1995, Wonder Swan Colour 2002 and DS 2007
How many journalists can claim to be an accomplished Wanzer pilot? Frederick Lancaster is an Oceania Community Union war reporter who joins the Carrion Crows, a crack team of mercenaries hired to combat the United States of the New Continent. Huffman Island becomes the focal point of the OCU and the USN’s conflict, and he's right in the thick of it. Lancaster’s really not much of a fighter, but he’s quite a journalist and he has a giant mech! Imagine the interview you could get. You could literally pull people into interview and meetings. But he’s just there as a reporter and as an observer, and the only pulling Frederick does is info out of the Carrion Crows, and he has quite a beat.
War reporting and videogame journalism make a good combination. It means that a character like Frederick can fight for his life and keep his wits about him. Combat in Front Mission is visceral. Wanzers, derived from German “Wanzer Panzer” meaning “walking tank”, are giant duelling mechs that can battle over any terrain. Fredick isn’t an accomplished pilot, but travelling with the Crows means that he has to know how to defend himself, properly pilot a giant mechanical tank, travel light with a constantly moving caravan of soldiers and learn how to maintain his machine. Most journalists I know have trouble waking up in the morning. Frederick Lancaster is tough stuff.
Admittedly, Frederick is one of the worst pilots you can have on your team. He’s weak and the only skill he excels at is the “Evade” skill, which is kind of funny and rather apt. Journalists in war zones have a tendency dodge bullets, but not always. Journalism is a dangerous career choice, especially during times of war. Frederick is quite a journalist and he makes an appearance in Front Mission 4, seasoned and still reporting. One thing about his character that can be deceiving is his stance with the OCU. He fought with the Carrion Crows, not because he wanted to defeat the USN, but because he saw a story in the mercenaries. Journalists are supposed to objectively observe their surroundings and write stories. The change they create comes after and from the reactions of his or her audience.
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Journalism in videogames is used as a tool to help characters develop their stories. Whether it's Frank West beating down some zombies or Jade revealing a large extraterrestrial conspiracy, journalists seek the truth so audiences can get a bigger picture of the world around them. That's really what journalism is all about. Each of these characters has a story and we become their audience.
There are a few more videogame journalists out there still. Heavy Rain's Madison Paige and Uncharted's Elena Fisher are two, and the crews from Siren: Blood Curse and Michigan: Report From Hell. Leave a comment and let me know if there are any that I missed.
12 Thumbs Up!
Marcus Fenix, Cultural Icon
There's something mesmerising about the Gears of War trailers and—very honestly—they can make me a little teary. The feelings of nostalgia and melancholy you get from these ads and their musical accompaniment is an orchestrated effort to engage the viewer within a metanarrative through these localized sections of the story. These trailers develop Marcus Fenix and the COGS as modern day war torn and tragic heroes. How many times when you were fighting the Locust horde did you think of these trailers? How many times did you remember the melancholy feeling you got from Mad World, How It Ends and Heron Blue, the songs accompanying each of these dramatic and amazing ads?
There's a chronology here that adds to Marcus Fenix’s development as a character and cultural icon. When I say "Cultural Icon," I mean how his character has evolved in the public sphere. We all know who he is just by his appearence, though not all of us might know him by name. Fenix starts off in “Mad World” alone running through empty streets, defeating giant enemies. You see the enormity of the conflict he is going into. Then in “Last Day” we see a revitalized yet nostalgic Fenix with some of his comrades. It isGears of War 2 and appropriately the trailer features two soliders, Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, looking at one another. The development of brotherhood is a huge theme of the games. Dominic saved Marcus at the beginning of the first game and they are still together fighting the in the second. In “Ashes to Ashes” we see Dominic running alone through a field of ash and petrified bodies, much like Fenix in “Mad World”. Here we see the continuation of the imagery from the first trailer of broken statues and still figures. However, instead of being left alone to die, Fenix rescues him—much like how Dom rescued him—and they fight. Again: brotherhood, friendship, warfare, fighting and continuity.
It’s important to note that Kevin Riepl and Steve Jablonsky composed the ingame soundtracks for the series. Mad World, How It Ends and Blue Heron were written and performed by Gary Jules, DeVotchKa and Sun Kil Moon, respectively. Of course, all this changes when the player makes the jump to the in-game action.
I spoke with three people about these ads. I showed them the ad itself and guaged their reaction. Then I let them listen just to the musical track with a lyrics sheet. This article is based on their emotional responses and how their insights reveal Marcus Fenix's cultural status and the ideals he represents.
When striving towards the thematic analysis of trailers, one has to be aware of the context they are created in. In other words, you have to look at the entire series and the ads that have accompanied them. We’ll be moving from trailer to trailer in this article discussing each and then moving on. We'll be developing a few overarching questions about the series and about Fenix's character within these trailers. Each trailer adds another layer of emotional complexity to his character. Can we consider Gears of War as an emotional or empathetic game? This is how these ads build Marcus Fenix’s character alongside a general continuous stream of sounds and images. Does his cinematic personality equate to his ingame persona?
Mad World
"It's the one verses the many,” said Jeyan Jeganathan, a student and journalist. “It feels as though there has been a constant struggle with the enemy and it’s just another ordinary day.” As a soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments, Fenix regularily finds himself fighting for his life. He’s a veteran of the Pendulum Wars and at the start ofGears of War—the first game—we find him incarcerated for dereliction of duty. Fenix abandoned his post to try to save his father, Professor Adam Fenix. He ended up in Jacinto Maximum Security Prison. He waited there four years with the scum of Sera and was rescued by Dominic Santiago. Moving parrallel to the trailer is this feeling of abandonment and confinement. We feel as though we are alone in the world, both in the trailer and in the game.
“As a gamer, I feel the challenge of saving the lives of humans from this horde,” said Jeyan. “It’s ironic how the ad is filled with images of intense combat, but is drowned in this very soft music. The bass, or lower sounding instruments, carry the load of the song. The low pitch accompanied with his unique voice make the song very emotional.” Certainly in these ads we see a dichotomy between the actual in-game action and the tone created through these songs. From a reading of the lyrics Jules’ Mad World is exposing the monotony of life in the modern world. Take a look at some of the lyrics from the song:
Goin' nowhere, goin' nowhere
Their tears are fillin' up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
Their tears are fillin' up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow
“My interpretation of the lyrics were of a guy with sort of a blank face, almost expressionless or trying to hide it,” said Jeyan. “He brings up his childhood, probably a happy moment in his life, and tries to relive those times.” These lyrics show an emotional stagnation and a standstill in human development. In the trailer, Fenix and his war with the Locust horde is portrayed in a similar and almost depressing light. At the end of the trailer we see him fighting an immense Corpser, alone and without any of his squadmates. This represents the enormity of the war Fenix fighting in. It's personal war.
The trailer's imagery affects how we view his character. At the start of the ad, Fenix is looking into a puddle and a rain drop stirs it. At the same time the song cues in with its lyrics, “familiar faces, warn out places and warn out faces”. We literally see a warn out face that is scarred like Fenix. Instead of falling into the pit, Fenix moves on and fights the Locust horde, unable to escape his inevitable demise. A little dramatic on my part there, but this is the kind of analysis these ads draw out of the viewer. As he runs through the empty streets alone he ducks into a building. The light contrasts to the darkness outside. However, the light reveals a Corpser and thus we see that his reality light and dark are one in the same. There's no element or any amount of good that will save you when facing down a horde of enemies, alone. This is like a dream for Fenix.
There is one lyric in the song that reads, “The dreams in which I'm dyin'/Are the best I've ever had.” If you pause and think about the nature of the song and the style of game it’s accompanying, does it really match up? What is it about these ads which mesmerize both gamers and critics alike? There’s something beautiful about them; however, it isn’t something ephemeral or something that just affects the viewer once. They affect how we view Marcus Fenix’s development as a character and cultural icon. And this becomes more apparent how Gears does this is the second trailer.
Last Day
“The Advertisement is quite thought provoking,” said Sameeha Zay, a student. “The ad is an emotional roller coaster showing the sacrifice the soldiers are willing to take after questioning the harsh reality of possibly not returning home.” We see Marcus, Dominic, Augustus and another other indistinct character—probably Baird—in the trailer. This takes place after the events of the first game when it was discovered that the horde survived the detonation of the Light Mass bomb. In “Last Day” we see as the COGS prepare to assault the Locust horde and Queen below ground. We also see them recuperating from the events of the first game, both physically and emotionally.
“I felt the emotions of confusion and internal conflict,” said Sameeha. “These feelings may be a relevant for soldiers in real life when they prepare to fight in the name of their country while leaving behind their family and friends knowing that death may be inevitable.” You know what Fenix and Dominic have to lose and what they have lost; and you know the hell that they are descending towards. And as a player, this struggle literally becomes your hell. The immense amount of violence, both viscerally and psychologically has affected every one of these characters. Are they totally desensitized like so many other soldiers represented in videogames? No, they are human. In fact, they are some of the few humans left on Sera. This is conflict that the ad wishes to explore and develop.
As they descend underground they descend into themselves, the conflict surrounding them and the planet they are trying to save. Is Sera really worth all of this anguish and suffering on the part of the COGS? It really isn’t, but saving the people that you love, Maria Flores in Dom’s case, just might be. Dominic is one of the more conflicted characters in the series. Both his parents-in-law, his son and daughter were killed on Emergence Day. Four years later, Maria, who, at the time, was struggling with depression, left Dominic. Ever since, he’s been looking for his wife Maria and we see this desire in the “Last Day”.
Dominic is a tragic figure within the series and he contrasts with the other characters in the ad. Marcus Fenix has himself and Augustus Cole has his solitude, but Dominic only has his longing for his missing wife. The ad’s song, “How it Ends” by DeVotchKa really accompanies this theme of loss. “The song alone was an interesting piece,” said Sameeha “The various tones used, bent a nerve in me. It had an eerie, suspicious feel to it with the many instruments being used, for example: the various violins and drums. The singer’s voice had many highs and lows suggesting a change in emotions in the lyrics.” From a reading of the lyrics you can see that “How it Ends”, is about the inevitability of death and the façade we wear protecting ourselves from this realization. “The shaky voice of the singer may have represented fear and is emphasized in the lyrics of, ‘there is no escape’. The song has religious undertones, referring to the struggle with faith knowing what is right but still putting oneself through a struggle hoping to be saved by religion.”
When placed beside Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, this song and the ad have a powerful affect on their development as cultural icons. We see them as comrades facing down the Locust Horde. This conflict becomes the centre of both their development as characters and how they develop along side the players of the series. It is no longer Fenix running through the streets alone. He has comrades fighting alongside him and this develops his role as a leader. And this calling comes to a head in the final trailer for Gears of War 3.
Ashes to Ashes
“The beginning of the trailer brought thoughts of hopelessness and despair,” said Dinosha Ravichandra, a student. “As final destruction lingers only seconds away. It is at the 46-second mark where another comrade aids to your fall and shoots your enemy down. You begin to realize that the end is not too near, your comrades will fight to the very end, and that you're not alone.” In “Ashes to Ashes” we see a bedraggled Dominic running through a field of ash. This refers back to the first trailer “Mad World” where we see Marcus Fenix running alone through a deserted city. If we contrast the two trailers a few emerging themes seen in the first game become full fledge images in this trailer. It has gone from being alone to being surrounded by comrades.
“This song constricts feeling of an inevitable loss with images of killing and death,” said Dinosha. “The song writer states his emotions through his deeply thought lyrics in which he states, ‘Until the magic morning hour, like poison it succumbs her’”. ‘A breath of soot into her lungs; A life, a journeys end in one’ she dies, however, it is clear that her thoughts still linger in the writers head, and taunts him of her memory.” The song reflects a theme that compares to how Maria’s death affected Dominic. After he falls, Dominic looks up and sees a petrified woman with a child. Marcus saves him and shows that although he may have lost his family, his comrades are still with him and fighting. Even if he wanted to stop fighting because he's tired and alone, Dominic must fight because he's a COG and his comrades as counting on him to fight.
Over the period of the three trailers, Fenix and Dom have built up a visible brotherhood. Fenix is alone in the first trailer, they are together in the second, and in the third—although tired and beaten down—they remain together. It’s a hopeful sign for the COGS even if they are in full retreat and surrounded by their enemies. “This song has a negative undertone, yet elicits the want to win and conquer,” said Dinosha. “You'd want to remove this pain of some sort, by killing your enemies and conquering the battle. This song nicely ties the game together, and that gloomy melancholic vibe, makes you want to end it by destroying all that you can – virtual enemies.”
From a reading of the song’s lyrics themes of death, sleep and rebirth become apparent. This again contrasts to “Mad World”. Heron Blue’s lyrics:
Constricts and chokes like ruthless vines
To sleep she overtakes her?
To sleep she overtakes her?
Her room is painted Heron Blue
Lit by candlelight and chandelier
And from her headboard perched so high
A million dreams have passed her
Lit by candlelight and chandelier
And from her headboard perched so high
A million dreams have passed her
In “Mad World” the song is paired with the images of fading objects like the statue and the building surrounding Fenix, yet he is intact. The song’s lyrics speak about falling into a dream and dying. “Heron Blue” lyric’s are as though written from within the dream, as though the speaker’s subject has already died. If we analyse both trailers and see the comparisons between them we can see the development of themes in the game and in the series. The human dream on Sera is dying, if not already dead. Marcus, Dominic and the remaining members of Delta Squad are the last remnants of this dream who are now just fighting to survive. It’s no longer a matter of Fenix losing his father or Dominic losing his wife. This is the struggle of humanity against adversity and death’s inevitability.
What we see in this trailer is the development of Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago as cultural icons. We see the development of a brotherhood throughout the trailers and how they espouse humanity’s ideals. Never giving up, never leaving a brother or sister behind and defending what is right and good is all apart of the message these trailers help place onto the game series. "Last Day" solidifies their struggle for the public and for those who are unfamiliar to the series, but familiar with the ads. There is a general progression and a micro-narrative we can see here. They develop as characters both in the game and on your television screen.
So where does all this analysis take us? It’s going to be awhile (April next year) beforeGears of War 3 is released, and in less than a year from now all of this analysis might come in handy when trying to predict the series’ end. I can already make one prediction, though it is grave.
Marcus Fenix is going to die. Each song shares a common thread. Death. It's a theme present within each of these ads and Gears of War 3 marks the end of the series. From what we have seen and how well each of these characters have been built as cultural icons, they have to die.
Marcus Fenix is a heroic figure in the videogame world. He’s badass, courageous and he believes in his ideals, though I can see his leadership role conflicting with his mortality. If I could predict anything, Marcus will die protecting Dominic from the Locust horde.
This is all speculation, but can you really imagine a happy ending for these characters? When someone says Marcus Fenix, what is the first thought that comes to mind? Mad World, How It Ends, Heron Blue? He is a walking icon of death’s inevitability and as we saw in the first trailer he can’t keep running away from it. Though Fenix has his squad to back him up, as a leader and as the protagonist he will have to make a sacrifice. In what form this will come in is totally up to speculation.
What the Coffee Said
We all have rituals. Some roll out of bed just to one side, others put their left foot out the door first. It’s just one of those things we do as human beings. And as small as they may seem, these quirks make us subconsciously unique. Another example, did you know that how a person takes their coffee can say a lot about their personality? There are people who take their coffee black as the midnight on a moonless night, or as clear as a crisp spring morning. FBI Special agent Dale Cooper of Twin Peaks and FBI Special agent Francis York Morgan of Deadly Premonition are two of these people. At a glance, these slightly off-kilter, enigmatic and—frankly—weird characters have a lot in common, but as you deconstruct their common ties things start to unravel.
Back in 2007, Deadly Premonition appeared at Tokyo Game Show as Rainy Woods. Then the game’s inspiration was rather blatant. Two little guys sitting in lounge chairs talking to FBI Special agent David Young Henning (later renamed to York); the imagery was an obvious reference to Twin Peaks. This aside, people and critics noticed Rainy Woods. Whether it was for the game’s inspired take on a cult television series or its enigmatic presentation, we were intrigued. Something about it resonated with both the television buffs and videogame critics. Renamed and released in February of this year, Deadly Premonition saw mixed reviews. Two reviews in particular, one from Erik Brudvig from IGN and one from Jim Sterling of Destructoid, really caught my attention.
Both reviewer sat on opposite ends of the scoring spectrum, Brudvig giving Deadly Premonition a two out of ten and Sterling giving it a perfect score, respectively. Both reviews mention Greenvale's quirky inhabitants, the game's poor gameplay mechanics, agent York’s insane personality and the game’s resemblance to Twin Peaks. Deadly Premonition isn't a good experience, nor is it a bad one. It is a re-envisioning of Twin Peaks and it is an homage to the series, however, it is neither better nor worse than the source material. Deadly Premonition stands on its own. The reviews connect David Lynch’s television series to the game, but they miss out on another and far greater connection to the television series than agent York or seeking “FK” in your coffee.
To understand this game, we have to look at creator and director Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro of Access Games.
Obviously there’s something to be said for taking inspiration a little too far. Sure, Deadly Premonition can be equated with Twin Peaks—York with Cooper and so on—but in 2001, Swery worked on Extermination, a survival-horror title for the PS2. The best way to describe the game is if you took John Carpenter, gave him an entire team of programmers and told him to make a game a la The Thing and Resident Evil 2. The result would have been Extermination, which, by the way, is a cinematic gem. It might have been a little underrated by critics, but it still held its own against the larger, big budget titles at the time. Extermination worked because it adopted gameplay fundamentals and thematic devices from its source materials. As an auteur, Swery has made himself known as an inspired game designer. When I say “inspired”, I mean he has good ideas, but he lifts themes from other games and integrates them into his own. Just look at Spy Fiction (2004). It has a clear ties to Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, yet the game cannot be called flawed just uninspired. The difference with Deadly Premonition is that Swery has lifted his inspiration from an entirely different medium. He has integrated television into his game.
As soon as we recognize, “Hey that’s just Twin Peaks” we stumble into the first problem when analyzing this game. Right about now the normal critic would say something to the tune of “You’re stuck in a cultural fallacy and you have to remain objective when experiencing a game.” This is true, but can we objectivity experience a videogame? Acknowledging that the game is indeed inspired by Lynch’s television series is the problematic first step in gaining an understanding of the game, but what aspects should you be comparing? Characters are a good place to start. Agent York, Agent Cooper; Anna Graham, Laura Palmer; Pot Lady, Log Lady; there are similarities here; however, the characters begin to contradict one another as the game progresses. Saying, "Hey that's Twin Peaks because York likes coffee" is a shallow interpretation of the game's take on the television series. In fact, York and Cooper couldn’t be more different. Sure there’s the coffee business, but that only appears once or twice in the game. Lynch makes use of the coffee on several occasions throughout the show. We have to look at the themes, the substance of the auteur.
Deadly Premonition is like Twin Peaks because imitation and adoration is a part of Swery’s inspiration. Try to say that sentence five times fast. To put it simply, directors of films use certain themes in their work. David Lynch often uses auditory imagery to fool his viewers. Characters in Twin Peaks will often hear sounds, but they will be unable to interpret them. The most notable example of this is Cooper’s dream. He sits there looking at the Dwarf, Laura Palmer’s clone and his surroundings with a completely dumbfounded look. What they say (in a kind of backwards, forwards semi-langauge) in this dream sequence does not sync up with what Cooper senses. This is why there are subtitles in the sequence. Lynch has a visible style and direction to his themes.
David Lynch is an auteur.
Swery is a developer who has studied genre conventions closely. Swery knows what works and what doesn’t. He also has the task of taking into account what works for the active player as well as his audience. Deadly Premonition combines survival-horror, free-roaming and shooting sections. It is a good example of the post-modern pastiche, not that in a negative connotation, but in a positive and interesting way. Games like Extermination, Spy Fiction and Deadly Premonition (all coincidentally ending with “tion”) are part of Swery’s iauteurism. He is known for making games that are inspired by other works. This may seen like a loose bit of reasoning, however, it is a theme present in many of his other games. This indicates that he does have a style and direction to his themes.
Swery is an auteur.
We don’t see videogames in the same light as a film. Gamers often invalidate the themes used by videogame designers in favour of their own subjective understanding of gameplay and aesthetics. Only when Hideo Kojima forces us to sit through an hour-and-a-half-long cinematic do we consider him a director. Unlike a film, unlike a book, poem, speech or play; a videogame must first jar gamers out of their “It’s just a game” mentality. There are a few recognized auteurs in videogame land. Kojima, Shigeru, Carmack, Shafer, Mikami, Suda and so on, but how often do we consciously ask, “I wonder what the guys who made Peggle were thinking? Is there an underlying metaphor in the game?” This is a reflection of the gamer mindset and not the gamer himself or herself. This is what makes Deadly Premonition such an exciting game. It puts an onus on the player to experience both the game and the source material. It engages the audience on a deeper level. It's a self-conscious experience in this way because it adheres so well to Swery's auteurism.
There’s a misunderstanding about videogames that should be cleared up. Some say that they are too reliant on the subjective experience of the gamer for analysis. According to Roland Barthes, a French structuralist and philosopher, our experiences with the material is the only way to understand literature. Roland Barthes argues in The Death of the Author that if readers rely on the author as a point of origin then the text is flawed. The problem lies in the reader limiting their ability to explore a text through the inclusion of the author’s disposition, mannerisms and their identity as the story’s point of origin. He wrote:
The image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is tyrannically centered on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passions, while criticism still consists for the most part in saying that Baudelaire’s work is the failure of Baudelaire the man, Van Gogh’s his madness, Tchaikovsky’s his vice. The explanation of a work is always sought in the man or woman who produced it, as if it were always in the end, through the more or less transparent allegory of the fiction, the voice of a single person, the author ‘confiding’ in us.
If we do look at Deadly Premonition without knowledge of Swery’s auteurism or that it is an homage to Twin Peaks, the game loses a fair amount of detail. We can't make a correct analysis of the game without pouring in our own subjective understanding of the experience. The game becomes nothing more than a work of fiction derived from an author we cannot know and a television series most are unable to fully comprehend. Then videogames, as understood by many as a completely subjective experience, are the ultimate medium in this respect. What other medium gives the audience the same level of freewill as a videogame? Everything is open to interpretation, of course, but how often are they open to the will of the viewer? This is what makes the game so fascinating.
In the paragraph above, Barthes argues that the author can mislead the reader to false conclusions. Now, following that logic, if one were to take a stance whereby Swery and Twin Peaks were used as markers for predisposing themselves to Deadly Premonition, then the initial judgment of the game would prevent players from having an open experience. By focusing on the game’s inspiration, we take away from the true subjective game experience that is derived from us. We subconsciously sabotage ourselves. Now we see an underlying contradiction to this form of logic. On the one hand our subjectivism allows us to place a cultural connotation onto our game experience. This allows us to fully grasp what the game is all about, and, according to Barthes, this is the freest form of interpretation. However, if we place a cultural connotation onto our experience we taint our understanding of the game as a stand-alone experience.
This is getting complicated.
When it comes to videogames, one has to look at them with a kind of cultural significance. Hell, owning a console is enough of a status symbol as it is an artifact of our culture. To understand Barthes, one has to realize that he was a literary critic in constant transformation. Often I wonder what Barthes would have thought about videogames, and I’m sure he would have embraced them.
Can we understand videogames objectively? No, probably not. Can a novel, poem or play be understood objectively, or be understood objectively. According to Barthes, not really. A videogame comes with a set of assumptions as we engage with the medium. What console? Who made it? What kind of game is it? What score did the game receive? These are just some of the questions that we ask as gamers when we engage a videogame. Deadly Premonition goes against these conventions and attacks the player on a different level of cultural understanding.
One aspect of this article that has to be made clear is that auteur and author are interchangeable, at least in my mind. The role of the auteur is to have a vision, an overall set of themes that they pursue through film. It’s a theory proposed back in 1948 by Alexandre Astruc. He said that film had evolved to a point where a director’s body of work could be analyzed and trends in visual style could be found. This seems like an obvious observation, why wouldn’t there be a study of this in the first place? Similarly an author—like Bradbury—will use similar themes and images throughout his or her work. Whether or not this is done to reach a grand vision is entirely up to speculation.
I have a theory about Agent York. In the game he makes tons of references to old films like Tremors, Back to the Future and—funnily enough—Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. These films were all apart of an 80’s mindset and tradition. They were fun and starred prolific actors who now dominate our feelings of nostalgia. Some of that is lost on me (born 1991). Twin Peaks was a cult television show that received international acclaim, and it wasn't just a Western/localized phenomena either. It’s my theory that Agent York, with his strange mannerisms and similarities, watched the show and used Agent Cooper as an example of how a FBI Special agent should act. It’s all speculation, but characters like York who often mirror their creators, is a big film and television buff. It would make sense that as the son of a FBI Agent he would look up to similar figures, so Agent Cooper with his enigmas and contradictions would seem like the perfect analogue, a perfect source mateiral to imitate. Much like Twin Peaks and David Lynch are to Swery.
Is Deadly Premonition a copy of Twin Peaks, an homage or is it something more? It is difficult to make definite assumptions in a medium as young as videogames. They are an open field for critics of all dispositions. Swery, and developers like him, represent an evolution in the development community. Certainly there are other games based on various mediums and forms of literature, but can we classify this experience? Like Barthes’ theories, videogames are a constantly evolving phenomena. The medium has its auteur, its classifications and its limitations, but there’s such potential in them. Whether you take your coffee black, with two sugars or with a splash of crème, how you create that perfect cup of joe is entirely your subjective preference. It can make you happy, calm, moody or jumpy, but when you get that kick start to your day, it feels good. We all have rituals. I take my tea black, one sugar and with a teaspoon of two per cent milk. Coffee stunts your growth, you know.
13 Thumbs Up!
Super Solvers: Gizmos and Gadgets!
There are a few games out there that are universally recognized for their educational content. Reader Rabbit, Carmen Sandiego, The Tree House and the Trail series; however, there’s one left, and it’s probably the biggest. The Super Solver Series. These are the games that most of us grew up with and helped us learn. Education and videogames are a strange mix, but Gizmos and Gadgets shows that it can be pulled off really well.
The Learning Company’s Super Solver Series debuted in 1989 with Midnight Rescue, but it was Gizmos and Gadgets that got me hooked. The phrases: “Connect the wires to complete the circuit” and “Use the gears to turn on the switches” will always be engrained somewhere in my thick, computer-playing skull. The puzzles were simple, the Chimps were scary, the wheel baboon/gorilla things were a little weird, but overall the game still stands as an education-filled masterpiece.
Well, maybe it seemed like a masterpiece when you were a kid when fulcrums, electricity and weight differentials were a bit of a mystery. Going back to the games now, I got a wave of nostalgia and ten minutes later a wave of boredom. Back in the day, I played the games feverishly to become the Ultimate Super Solver. There’s a ranking system in the game and the more times you play through, the more vehicles you construct and the more times you foil Morty, the better the Super Solver you become.
I’ll say that for someone of my physical age Gizmos and Gadgets seems a little boring. For someone of my mental age, this game remains a nostalgic throwback. The Super Solver Series has to be looked upon as a period piece. There are seven games in total the latest, Mission T.H.I.N.K., released in 1999. These was made in a specific time, place and setting, for a certain kind of child and parent looking for an educational alternative. Look at this it’s the text from the back of the game’s cover:
How do we do it? Enchanting characters. Challenging situations. Rich game environments. State-of-the-art graphics and sound. Progressive skill levels and game segments that can be customized to meet your child's individual needs. Every program from The Learning Company undergoes extensive research and testing, with input from education professionals, parents and children. As an integral part of The Learning System (TM), each of our products addresses a specific age group and subject area with appropriate themes to heighten your child's interesting in learning. So your child has fun while learning!
This is why the education elements in Gizmos and Gadgets are done so well. They consulted teachers, students and parents to find out what made games good. Whatever input they had on the game something about it really appealed to me when I first played. Creating, building, throwing bananas all seemed like natural things for me to do. Actually, I turned off the Chimps. They put way too much pressure on me and they freaked me out a bit. Think about it: blue, robotic, Chimps. Who the hell thought up that, oh wait.
The entire series’ plot can be broken down into one lab coat-wearing evil scientist: Morty Maxwell. Known the world over for his moustache and irrational hatred of Shady Glens, Morty is an evil freaking genius. The bastard has stolen magic wands, polluted the ocean, taken over robots and now he’s targeting the world of transportation technology. You think he’d be able to thwart a bunch of kids, but the Super Solvers always come out on top. He must have been held back a few grades in school. Just look at that blueprint he’s using there. That’s amateur hour stuff. Their struggle is something essential to the series being such a success.
It’s the eternal struggle of the Super Solver and the Master of Mischief. Undoubtedly there were better games, but few have kept its charm as Gizmos and Gadgets! Something about the game just seems to work. You create a car, a blimp or a plane all with their own custom colours, decals and parts. This kind of thing appeals to the completist instinct of players. We want to get the best stuff and our favourite colours, so we’ll play to all hours into the night to get them. Luckily, a level only takes five or six minutes.Other games in the series like Midnight Rescue, Mission T.H.I.N.K. and Math Storm, have a similar style, but not the design. There's also a slight narrative in each of the games, but you never really get to stick it to Morty. Gizmos and Gadgets allows you to not only be better than him, but humiliate his attempt at creating a better vehicle than you.
You have to wonder, do educational games work?
Educational games can be broken down into three categories: quizzers, puzzlers and solvers. I kind of made those up, but I’ve got examples of each. Quizzers, like Brain Age, just ask you questions. Games like those haven’t been proven to have any real educational value. It turns out Brain Age has an educational value less than a crossword puzzle. Check it: http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/article5587314.ece. Puzzlers like Dr. Brain, which was built using the Unreal Engine, challenges you with logic puzzles. Instead of just asking you simple questions, Dr. Brain engages you on a deeper level. Solvers like Super Solvers: Gizmos and Gadgets engage you on all three levels. It asks question, tests you with involved logic puzzles and challenges your skills as a player.
Educational games work, definitely, but there are recommended ages and, if your anything like me, you’re probably a few times over that limit. Super Solvers are an elite group of problem solving masters. I would do anything to join their ranks, just look at the sweet house the guy in Super Solver: Operation Neptune has. He’s got a vacation home on a beautiful tropical island, and all he has to do is deal with Morty Maxwell every once in a while. Who wouldn’t want to be a Super Solver? Maybe one day The Learning Company'll make a new game in the series, something next-gen. They would make for an awesome and gritty reboot
New Game+ is LevelFortyTwo.com's blog not just looking back at older games, but also the effort and work that was put into them, as well as the joy of reliving old gaming experiences. Read more about the goal of this blog here.
