Relationships in Games: The Loner, The Rebel

Image by Flickr user emalord
Image by Flickr user emalord

Sometimes the best relationships we have in games don’t involve other characters. Sometimes the road traveled alone is the best path, the most fulfilling path, the most sensible path.  For every game that offers plenty of opportunities for teamwork and romance, there are dozens of others where these choices don’t exist. Your character — the John Marstons, Nathan Drakes, Batmans, and Altaïrs – are alone in the world with nothing at their disposals except their wits and the person at the other end of the controller. Sure, you (the character) will interact with other characters during the game to various ends, but you (the player) don’t have a stake in those relationships. No matter what saintly or nefarious paths you follow, John Marston will always save his wife and son; Nathan Drake will always choose Elena; Batman will always save the city from the Joker; Altaïr will always make his kills. In all these cases your mind is set on whatever needs to be done for the game – the missions to complete, the puzzles to solve, the items to find. You don’t have to worry about finding favor with others because they are all programmed to like or dislike you from the start.

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The Duck Gets into Show Business

Not an Esper...
Not an Esper…

In case you haven’t been following me over at Duck of Indeed (which would be weird), I recently made my very first costume. I very badly wanted to cosplay as the most awesome Kefka from “Final Fantasy VI” at the upcoming comicon, but there were really no good costumes I could buy, leaving me with no choice but to make it myself. As a result, I decided that, if I was going to put so much effort into making a costume, I might as well show it off in a costume contest. And so I did. But, more on that later. Well, I am quite disappointed to say that the comicon is now over and done with, but it was a wonderful experience that I am most excited to share with all of you. Let’s start from the beginning, shall we? (And this post is going to be a long one, but there were so many details I didn’t want to leave out. This is also doubling as a bit of a journal entry, so I can remember it in my soul for all eternity.)

I got up early in the morning, as always, and what a busy morning it was. I played some hardcore “Final Fantasy IX”, ate some French toast and bacon, courtesy of my mom’s cooking, and then not long later, it was time to get ready. I was leaving at noon to give myself plenty of time to get there for the prejudging at 2, and so I began getting dressed at 10, which was good, considering it took me far longer to get ready than I was expecting. (Just imagine how long Kefka must take to get ready in the morning.) My hair took absolutely forever, as Kefka has a short ponytail, and since I have long hair and am currently unwilling to cut it, I had to work on kind of folding it in half to make it a bit closer to how it should be. (The feathers stayed in beautifully, though. I just put the ends through the hair bands, and they stayed in super securely.) Then, the makeup took a good deal of time (you need several layers to get the white really white, I found out), as well, and since I didn’t want to practice with the white too much ahead of time and risk running out before the comicon (as I need much more of it than the red), I didn’t know how difficult it was going to be putting the red on over the white (because the white kept flaking off when I did so). But, it still turned out pretty good, nevertheless, and now I just know I want much better quality body paint for next time, as I know there are types out there that are much cleaner and don’t dry out nearly as much. Continue reading The Duck Gets into Show Business

Game Hype and CG Trailers

Image By Flickr User: BagoGames (CC)

It’s hard not to get excited while watching game trailers isn’t it? Watching a trailer for a game you’re looking forward to feels a bit like looking into the future. It’s a glimpse of things to come, of what we might expect. How could it not be exciting?  Just look at this preview for Uncharted 4: A Theif’s End ! Continue reading Game Hype and CG Trailers

Taking a step back to look forward

Image by Flickr user Ian Muttoo
Image by Flickr user Ian Muttoo

As the summer gets rolling, my time with games grows thinner and thinner. Just this past weekend I turned on the ol’ 360 to play a little South Park: The Stick of Truth for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. I picked up a couple new games in Steam and put in a few minutes of gameplay, but I’ve no idea when I’ll next have any substantial time to become further frustrated with Guacamelee or return to whatever the heck I was doing in The Witcher. Summertime has been like that for me for awhile – gaming has to take a backseat to things like vacations, renovations, work, and life in general. I’m not complaining, I’m used to the cycle by now, and I’ve even come to welcome it, this time “off.” With summer generally being a time scant of new game releases, it’s sometimes spoken of as the time to get through the backlog. I’d say that’s about right – over the next couple months, when I do have opportunities to play, I’m not going to be seeking something new; rather I’m going to turn to that which I already have.

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Why Games Made From Movies Make Me Sad

Image from Flickr User: Pelikauppa Retrotunneli
Image from Flickr User: Pelikauppa Retrotunneli

Is it just me, or are video games made from movies and books usually not very good? I don’t know, maybe I just pick bad games, but I have learned over the years to never play a game based off of something else, and I have since placed nearly every game I own from this category into my to-sell pile. (I’m pretty much waiting for another Play & Trade to open up near me because Game Stop won’t take old games. There was one, and then it closed…. Frowny-faces.)

You see, what happened is, many years ago, when I was still naïve, I would sometimes buy games from movie series I enjoyed, and I was rarely ever happy with what I ended up with. I bought “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” quite some time ago (which I sold to Play & Trade when they were still around), and I was not a fan. It was just ridiculously hard, and all I could really do was button mash all over the place and watch as my character got beaten to a pulp by all manner of orcs and trolls and other freaky things. Not my idea of a good time, even if the orcs likely found my pain to be entertaining. And then I played “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” on the GameCube, which was largely frustrating and involved a bunch of challenges that didn’t actually relate to the game at all. And exploring Hogwarts was not nearly as cool as I thought it would be. I also didn’t have many happy thoughts on “The Hobbit” video game, which seemed to be well-liked, but it was just too difficult and, once again, involved a lot of unrelated challenges, so we hates it forever, precious. And “Jurassic Park” on the SNES was rather horrible, as well. And not just because there were no save points.

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Resonance: Metroid Prime Trilogy Intro Music

Image By Flicker User: Jorgen Haland

It’s been awhile since our last Resonance entry, so this time we’re doing not one, but three most excellent pieces of gaming music! Specifically the introductory themes from Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption! Continue reading Resonance: Metroid Prime Trilogy Intro Music

Relationships in Games: The Romance(s)

Image by Flickr user Ana Petree Garcia
Image by Flickr user Ana Petree Garcia

The forming (and breaking) of intimate relationships between characters has become something of a hallmark in modern games. We muddled about by ourselves in games for years prior, taking on the toughest of enemies either alone or with a ragtag group of new-found “friends” with vacant backstories. Enter in the likes of story-heavy games, such as those in the Final Fantasy series, and change happens. Even though you couldn’t actively court other characters in games like that, it was easy to develop vicarious relationships with and through them because they each had individual pasts that lain in wait, to be uncovered at the player’s discretion. And before the world was treated to the now –ubiquitous character development styles of firms like Bioware, plenty of games had introduced the complexities that accompany personal interactions into their ranks, such as games in the Zelda, Metroid, and Half-Life series.

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