Gaming Stories, Thoughts, and Other Ramblings

As an avid gamer, writer, and sophomoric thinker, I wanted a way to make use of my love of doing all three

[eddiemauldin]

One of my favorite games of all time is back and better than ever so I had to give it a mashup worthy of the reboot. I’m calling this one‬ “Back in the Groove and Rising.”

Available now in my shop!

'Back in the Groove and Rising' T-Shirt by Eddie Mauldin

A mashup for fans of dope games and dope music. • Millions of unique designs by independent artists. Find your thing.

[thinkingaboutgames]

As a gamer and hip hop head

I’m emebarsssing

But this is my everything

[thinkingaboutgames]

WHAT’S YOUR FOREVER GAME: or, that...THIS new game is really THAT old game, and I’m cool with that...game.

(random thoughts and video that kinda really sums up five hundred percent what I end up loving so much about a “game” / archetype / franchise I’ve been playing and enjoying for 10 years plus)

So, for whatever reason I’ve decided to write / ramble about something that keeps coming back for my brother and I every few years in our respective / mutual gaming cycles...

That...going / crawling on your knees back to your…“forever game”…

Which, the more I think about it…I’m mostly curious about defining / dissecting the idea of this kind of game…

As well, because we’re in this golden age of video games as “video games as a service”...so I get the feeling that people WANT these games to exist for us…and I kind of think they already do, but...what are they? Are they made, born, or just effectively “sold” to us?

And what has me wondering the most on this topic...most surprisingly...is how the game I’m thinking of for all this...isn’t what I would’ve originally put on my “must play” or “desert island” games lists...

If anything, it would probably be on the “games I keeeeep playing and would never tell anyone about BECAUSE I keeeeeep playing IT!” game list…now that I really think about it…

Which brings me to Everybody’s Golf…

(which is the 7th? I think? Game in the Hot Shots Golf Franchise...but, really, is just the newest in a long line of golf sim off shoots of, what was really FIRST for me personally, (despite 1990s Golf on the game boy technically being the first I played and did love) 1999’s Mario Golf for the N64 (which really had its hooks in me for years, and with every new incarnation, to come…))

Which is a brand new MMO (wooo, the chance to play a live round with my brother...where we can chat and watch shots and shoot the shit while we drink a beer ALMOST like real golf!) with microtransactions…

(...has there ever been a ship you actually helped make float?)

BUT...at it’s core...this, in part, “forever game” of mine, is ALSO the most bloated version of the simplest thing I love...

(and what’s funny to me when I really break down what the “game” is, and how this “game”, through all it’s versions, has been able to feel / be the same “game” because it’s ALSO felt so...formulaicly similar?)

Which is just...hit A to “start swing”….hit A to stop “top swing” (power guage)...hit A again for follow through contact (to stop “accuracy guage”)...

Which is so mechanically simple that it was able to be made on the game boy...and, as well, because it’s part one of what only has to be a two part system of game mechanics who’s formula add up to “re-creating” / making a simulation of what “golf” is.

“aim” mini game + “club swing” mini game = golf

(though, to be fair, the new MMO lets me drive a cart around, explore a little...fish...all on a live course with other players...and it’s all sooo seamless and lag free that I can do other things AND this OR play my own round and fly through it while completely forgetting everyone else and the entire world is there if I wanted to (...until the crazy created characters / bear suit people show up and start spinning around and I can’t forget them...))

the way that...

player controlled “paddle” + player controlled “paddle” + computer controller “ball” = table tennis (Pong)

So, really, my earliest thoughts on this were of me marveling at how a game that...when it stays simple...gets to also feel easy and familiar over the long haul…

(...and how and why I think people jump from top / newest competitive shooter to the next...chasing the technological edge, latest philosophy on “feel”, AND the competition...perhaps more than other genres, while games like madden or fifa can do nothing different until the end of time and will always have a strong player base)

But that’s what brought me to my next thoughts on what makes this possible…

Feeeeel...

Which is easy enough to understand in the close up and most immediate sense with…

How do my hands think and feel about this game?

(...and how do they get to remember...to build up and into being a part of this game?)

(...am I learning to move, then punch, then combo, and fight...adding things up over incarnations until I’m dancing...)(...or seeing an initially arbitrary, but, later on, very important, score climb as my bare bones understanding of a few simple arcade game concepts turn into muscle memory and late game meta strategies?)(...do new game plus runs give me just a little more to see and explore as meters get higher and my hands get more confident, like in shadow of the colossus, or just darker dungeons and toughter fights, like in final fantasty remakes on 3DS / mobile?)(or am I just getting more chicken dinners and or seeing better KD ratios?)

...but, this always becomes interesting, over time, because video games are also, in part, technology...so what we play on can change out from under us...from handheld, to 64 controller, to the gamecube’s cushy cloud (in the case of me playing Golf, then Mario Golf, then Mario Golf Toadstool tour)…

So the game itself (or it’s goals (goal line) and objectives (touchdowns)) can feel familiar…

But how we play...what we play for, and why…can change, add up and be wholly re-interpreted out from under us too...with us learning, borrowing, and abandoning a lot at times even...

(the easiest and quickest example to tie up all those esoteric questions about “what’s it all about”, can be made out of...skateboarding games...and how it’s main contributor / trunk game of the genre, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, evolved from high scores and timed runs on a controller...to a plastic skateboard peripheral (for a second)...and, in a different but still similar sense, from the arcadey, combo chain, game style of Tony Hawk to the trick specificity, unique goal, flow and feel approach to skating that was EA’s Skate franchise)

But that “feel” of everything...as a whole experience, despite some reuse of more simple “parts”...is really about the entirety of that equation adding up into something that can be remembered as “different”…and it’s what makes a game, potentially, infinitely replayable (because it’s worth is always there for it being / feeling so unique).

As another example...there are all kinds of snow boarding games to play (technically, not necessarily within the newest generation of consoles), but, really what that means is that, snowboarding games as a genre, only saw so many incarnations over the years (surfing games has it worse), but...to name a few...

1080 snowboarding (N64), Snowboard kids (N64), Cool boarders (PS), SSX (PS2), Amped (Xbox), Shaun White Snowboarding (PS3), Steep (PS4)...

But each, is wildly different in terms of single player / multiplayer objectives / intent, story mode or competitive replayability, and, yes, though each sees a swell of content, console power and so, depth, breadth, and newness all it’s own, really, they each, ultimately “feel” unique, I feel, and warrant their own specific attention because each is such a different “game”, in terms of what you play for, on, and how...

And each of those games “feels” different because each tries something different for specific reasons…

It’s not quite like golf games, who’s simple idea has been more or less repeated, and kept similar, yet slowly built up and stacked upon with bells and whistles until we swell into a crescendo (like with Everybody’s Golf)…

Sooo...maybe each of those snowboarding games could be seen as having their own “forever game” potential, or any from the genre itself BECAUSE the genre, from game to game, can end up with so much variation in “feel”?

...it all makes me think and ramble in a bunch of different directions lol.

But I’ve only really looked at things from within the realm of sports games, more or less, so far...as well because they are games who’s controls, or “hand feel” (to be most? Specific), are at the forefront of their core experience...

BUT...is this similar to how and where match three games like candy crush, or light and simple puzzle games, number games, or physics games can offer simplicity and immediate return, consistently and conveniently?

OR even beautiful giants like “Threes” can offer a streamlined, brain heavy mountain to climb?

OR the way that real Donkey Kong folks need a standing arcade cabinet to really complete the experience, AND be serious about a record?

Is that how people end up begrudgingly jumping on board with the most modern fighter, and yet...

Some will always end up back at the arcades that are closing down, and hunting down gamecube controller parts, even if no one else is?

Is it allllllll…

What makes a forever game…

“feel”? And NOTHING else, maybe?

...rhythm...pattern...flow of “feelings” and “rewards” to a game?

Why chess, Tekken, and poker are always going to exist in some form, somewhere?

It all makes me wonder...and feel kinda sad and embarrassed for “games” too, because...

Everybody’s golf is a game that ALSO...FAILS...SO much at what it’s ALSO trying to do…

Which is...make itself into THAT game that gets me to hand out more money, but...honestly, they’re in a bind because...why would I?

They’re throwing new clothes, purchasable with COINS, and club upgrades, purchasable with GEMS and TICKETS, at me like nobodies business, but...

(quick aside...I hate microtransactions...it’s why I can’t and don’t wanna play Overwatch anymore...because I don’t have enough friends to enjoy it competitively, and it’s too miserable to end up actually “wanting” anything in the game...because, then, once I do, I have to be miserable and sad and only, on a timed grind to get it...OR, I waste money on slot machine boxes and end up skipping meals and over-drinking to deal with my sadness...in part, because I feel hurt and let down for letting myself depend on / trust a game for some enjoyment...which was a place I used to think was safe for wanting things...)

FINALLY – WHY I POSTED THE VIDEO

THIS, what this video shows, ultimately, maybe...is what ends up being the MOST magical of moments in these mostly “the same” slogs through a very samey kind of game, like these golf franchises...

Wild moments of physics-made chance that turn into something I can send my brother a replay of via my phone, just so we can laugh together, and get excited to send another one back because NOW we have a machine for MAKING these moments between us…

It’s not a scripted event, an achievement, an unlockable…

It’s not a well written plot or bit of story that connected to me more to my soul…

...it’s just...a surreal, or silly...emergent...moment from playing hundreds and hundreds of holes WITHOUT skipping a beat, until…

...I absolutely HAVE to pull the car over from this smoooooth ride to marvel at something that’s spectacular...

It’s something that feels mine...and, sadly, MAYBE couldn’t even be pre-programmed to mean more, or even as much...

And that, really, is I think what’s magical for these games…and what makes a “forever” game different than the games you put on display, in your library, on your desert island...

These are the games who’s moments you don’t brag to everyone about…

Just your closest family, who might have the same itch, and get the same enjoyment out of this little slice of...hundreds of hours…

For those thirty second clips, and two minute laughs...

...it’s JUST a game that let’s me just “play” it, and enjoy the play of it, until I MYSELF make something happen?

And, again, what’s sad, I feel...is that they could add a hundred courses over time, and ask me to buy each one, or season pass, or something, but I don’t know if I’d shell out a time, because...can’t I just keep playing the old ones? Wouldn’t I be fine with it, because, as well, maybe I could afford the DLC this month, but, if my brother can’t...why would I want to send him a clip or something he can’t enjoy, as much, too?

(This led me to another thought / example...Shadow of the collossus...one of my favorite games with FEEL to it...but...if they added monsters and different story scenarios...on and on, forever...I’d probably never touch any of it past the main story because...how and WHY it ends is really one of the most beautiful things about it...same with metal gear solid 3, and other games I could probably think of…

but, the truth is...adding more of that “in between” isn’t gonna help an already great game be better, or even good forever…

and, MAYBE they could keep coming up with meaningful ways to show new / different stories in / through that same original world / game / vessel…

like, I’m sure someone could turn out fantastic dead pan comedy arc using the shadow of the colossus’ game engine, but… just make a new tv show!

...why are they trying to turn each new game (or new tv series), INTO the NEW television set?? as if THIS will be the new vessel through which all stories can / SHOULD flow...)

So...I really don’t know how to help “games” as an industry, with doing the impossible (being both worthwhile, finite AND infinite money machines)…

Because the game I’m currently expecting to play forever...probably won’t get any more money out of me any time soon...

But I’m curious about thinking about it…

Those games you’ll always jump back on board with…

You might not tell EVERYONE to get on that horse with you…

But you’ll ALWAYS put a quarter into the Galaga machine when you’re waiting for your slice of pizza…

...and maybe you’re gonna get the new Red Dead game just to enjoy more horse with your nature...

THOSE forever slices of something...be it a whole, or little bit of who knows what or why, that becomes your “forever game”…

Maybe it’s all feel…

...but is it? I don’t know...but, whatever it is, it’s perfect…

So…once again, and always and forever…

Games...thank you

Love, me

(...rant over...for now...)

[thinkingaboutgames]

CLASSIC SYSTEMS: or...educational time machines? for closing the mechanical literacy gap? (random thoughts) So, personally...I LOVE these classic / mini systems, a la, NES and Snes Classic ...but I’m finding myself sad over the potentially limited release of them? Or, well...the idea that hardcore fans will get and benefit from them... (and sure, it’s been announced we’ll get more in production...and i’m not sad / worried over the idea that I MYSELF won’t get one...) BUT... ...what about the people who won’t ever get the chance to realize what it could expose them to?

(in part, because it won’t be “easy” to get these systems when available, and there’s no guarantee we’ll get legacy runs / repros in the future...which means SOME people might not ever get the chance to capitalize on them) As in... ...I feel kinda bummed the classic consoles won’t be the kinda thing that gets to / is meant to reach EVERYONE, and continue to be a place / practice kept up with...because, if they could, maybe they could... ...help showcase the classics to a younger gaming generation, which can open them up to to old school games / concepts / vocabulary / history?  ...expose the general public to MORE kinds of games...OR games in general, as old school ones can be simpler, “retro-cool” now, and COULD BE the more accessible version of something that gets them into more modern / complex games? I mean...to me, what’s so exciting about these systems are their educational value They represent a reprinting of a slice of history! And I mean that with no exaggeration or hyperbole because games ARE an interesting media, in that... The nes / snes classics, to me...ARE a bit like, but not so much... ...the re-selling / packaging of an old book? (who’s words STILL exist elsewhere in the world, in some form, sure)

BUT...really, I think it’s more like art house / classic film theaters that work to bring back and show old movies in 35mm?

Which...yeah, now that i’m thinking about it...i love and get excited about personally...but, these theaters are still pretty niche, and haven’t changed the tastes of the movie going public, by and large, just by existing? i don’t think? So, yeah, maybe it’s kinda like getting blue ray copies of 70s movies and getting to re-enjoy / remember that the original Alien IS as good as it’s always been? But i DO think it’s a little more than that... ...as in, maybe it’s like bringing back and selling 10 movies, built into a betamax player? BUT think of it this way... The “video games” equivalent of this scenario is a world where the general population hasn’t seen or heard of The Godfather, Jaws, A Clockwork Orange, or Star Wars: A New Hope... ...as in, those movies never existed OFF of betamax ...so they don’t exist for most people / the media / academia? ...and SO...most people still think “movies” are nothing but The Transformers... ..and so the people who are into "that media” are disenfranchised accordingly aaaaand sure, this is kind of a silly scenario because...we’ve had emulators and the virtual console for a while... ...yeeeeeah, sure... BUT, to me, those are mostly meant for people who already know what exists, AND know that they are already into it THAT is what THIS really is to me... THE GENERAL PUBLIC getting something polished and pretty, with all the thought already being done for them

(as in, a product that is already telling you what games from that generation are phenomenal, whether you know about them or not) (...shout out to Kirby Dream Course...) and yeah...i’m a fanboy who...sincerely...DOES want more of what i KNOW already is good...but in a sleek, and pretty, and licensed package... (yup, still a child) BUT... ...I think, of late, I’ve been thinking of these consoles as an important system for GAMES in general as in, my biggest problem with the virtual console is the same beef I have with libraries... they’re huge and intimidating and that’s not me saying that we SHOULDN’T have large depositories / repositories for books and video games (holy SHIT we need games preserved...but...what does that look like? do i sign up and donate to my local game library? is that not gonna be as easy of an idea as with books, because books are simpler to operate / maintain / teach someone how to use in a manner that continues to preserve them?) bleh I’M JUST SAYING... I like and looooove the idea of a a “curated”, shipped and boxable, “console” ...cause it’s like an educational time machine ...but...damn, wait...aren’t ALL time machines educational? Probably, right? ...get on it Nintendo!!! ************************************************************** 9/31 THOUGHTS ADDED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ..really not sure at all if i hit on everything i wanted to with this i’m also mainly SOOOOO curious about whether legacy systems could even be possible with anyone BUT nintendo (who owns their own IPs) ...i’d looooooooooooooove for the world to get a playstation classic, a ps2 classic, gamecube classic, xbox classic i mean...why would anyone BUT nintendo, who owns these properties / continues their franchises, have a vested interest in supporting the history / legacy of games? i mean...really, logistically...the industry is about forward no one OWES us a means to return but THIS is also really why i love / find games so fascinating ...i actually OWN all those old systems and my whole library still works... and i’m also the type of guy who STILL loves to find classics i never played on these “outdated” systems  (played power stone for dreamcast and God Hand for ps2 and alan wake for xbox 360 late...i suggest we all play / learn from / LOVE with these) ..but even still for the younger and younger generations... will games be a medium that lives more in the present / modern mode? more than other mediums BECAUSE it’s technology dependent?? ...are people, years from now, going to have to read about Eternal Darkness:Sanity’s Requim (for the gamecube) in history books? And we’ll only have the chance to read about 90s / 200s,  “disc era”, because computerss have stopped using ALL drives / physical media for 50 years?! ...aka, we’re gonna have to go back to relying on the oral tradition to share Viewtiful Joe with people :( :( :(

[thinkingaboutgames]

Friday the 13th...THE GAME: or...  ...the game that movie franchises and horror fans have deserved... ...albeit in a distinctly 3 numbered experience... ...And I do mean that seriously. This is one of the first times I've really felt three distinct numbers about a game (totally get you now Famitsu), but, honestly... Friday the 13th is a...6, an 8, and a 10!!!!!! A six...because I'm frustrated and angry at some things that are broken...some things that make me really really want the game to be working better, that much more badly, because it is, simultaneously... An 8!      (but, so...a 6...because, my first night playing, it took 35 minutes to find a realizable session, which, in "playing games" time, and with constant google searches, wondering if IM the problem...was almost forever...halfway to forever, which did make me worry if forever (hour and ten minute long waits) did exist...and if this was it...so, a 6...but...) ...I SWEAR to you it's at least an 8...because, sure, there's some tank-ness to the controls...      (took me a few days to get up the nerve to entering “fight mode” to combat jason or a counselor (and i rarely saw people doing it because “fighting” is a bit rigid (but juuust a bit) without a way to lock onto a target...but honestly, i didn’t want it too much because it’s fun to size someone up sans-system helping the fight) ...the animations on faces can look silly (second pic feels accurate though tbh), and sometimes axe swing or stumbling animations break, and look buggy when you clip through rocks or small pieces or brush... but...BUT...holy shit this game gets what’s fun.  And, case and point was, for me, even if / when you get killed... You can spectate the match...witch turns into it’s own little horror movie that you can watch and laugh with friends! It REALLY feels like you're watching a horror movie!...AND I GET IT PLAY IT! BE IN THIS WORLD! That is honestly so magical to me because i love horror movies, and can’t get nearly anyone to watch them with me... ...BUT, it was so easy for my roommates who hate anything scary, to STILL be on board with watching what is essentially a dressed up / unscripted game of cat and mouse. I mean, yeah, maybe I'm like a loving papa with games, and so I feel a great deal of pride because the developers, it feels like, really really tried to get ALL the right fun stuff in...ALL the things I didn't know I wanted and loved both as a gamer, AND a fan of the movies / genre in general Fear affects hud / map visibility Stamina is is sooo quantifiable and precious      (aka, You have to run and take breaks every hundred feet or so like the most terrifying game of survival red light green light) Company with other counselors or turning music can decrease fear ...and, admittedly...I'm a grind fiend, so constant perk rolls and counselors to unlock is fantastic Ugh, there’s so much great GAME in this game! They really tried to quantify and make constantly at play, elements that work WITH this franchise / theme / horror in general. And it makes me even more proud because the team really WENT for it... Making games is tough, let alone with small / new teams, but they nailed the license, did some funding (and yeah, bleh, preorder bonus (makes the game a 6 cause i want that skiiiin, but... ( come on, it’s an 8...they gotta make money, I get it...you DO have to stranglehold US cause you really really do need money...people don't get how bad you need it even if you do everything right game developers...so i’m not mad at you) And soo...10 This game is a a damn TEN and you know it Because I really think the team has created something soooooo fun and successful and and wonderful I'm a fan of the movies, and a fanboy of horror so any rated m horror game with some meat on it, I'm into (even if it is multiplayer only lol), even just for how niche that genre can be, and how hard / scary a sell it can be for any company to commit to But daaaaamn... As much as a long series of stories and campaigns going though the movies would be cool... This is right at the meat of what's also fun! Just the game of it... Gore and gratuity aside, its the PERFECT cat and mouse game with lovingly convoluted mousetrap esque escapes and...possible kill plans (I try not to spoil endings for myself...) So, I admit as a fan... I was excited to see  the opening logo... The pre-game camp cinematics are fun for me every time And I swear to you...the movie scenario-esque escapades play out beautifully when 5 people are fighting themselves, and Jason, and bear traps, and stamina degrade, over ONE car that's been crashed five times People build poker hands beneath the radio chatter and behind other player’s backs Trump knives are played There are upsets and escapes... The caribou DOES get away... ...but you'll have to look away when he doesn't ha So...it’s a 10 ..it’s a ten... ...but... ...and I swear... ...in the time since I started playing and before finishing writing this...I haven't got to play Jason yet ha...been playing two nights and one afternoon, (and even in a 8 person room with a friend for hours (he was Jason 3 times...)), so, so far only...8-12 hours maybe? So...that, yeah, just sucks. Maybe just a character flaw and the math of it...but it sucks watching everyone be Jason, and never getting to be the bell of the murder ball, so...6 ...it’s a 6... ...but... ...buuuuut...

...it REALLY has been fun without him, and even waiting for him! Yeah, the counselor motus operandie is similar each game, and there's too much out of our control as counselors, and too many mini games to fail, and a lack of coordination and mic use that work to hamstring / make impossible every game for us... (...just a thought, but I would love it if car keys / crucial items that can be dropped when you die...would show up on the map for counselors, just so that, if someone spawns with the keys, and dies in the woods ten feet from the car...then they’re not entirely lost to the whole group still planning / trying to get gas and a battery and escape, thus pre-emptively ruining their strategy whole game...because we can’t KNOW they’re gone until you’ve literally checked every drawer in camp...and then you call the police but there was only 4 minutes left in the game (takes them 5 to get there), but we had no idea we could’ve never won and that we’d run out of time...because we didn’t know the keys were lost, nor how much time we had left to play, until the end of the game) ...And, yeah, ALL Jason has to do (I imagine) is wait for skills to unlock and cool downs to burn, and then chase and execute, by rote, effectively simply by NOT giving up... ...but, all the same... 8... ...because, damnit I'm just so happy this is here at all... And getting to see Games...maybe not improving on the “movie going experience”... ...but standing up there on its own... it feels great. ...and yeah, the game satisfies a “i get to keep playing” itch that watching the scripted counselor / Jason interaction I've seen again and again, can't. And maybe it never could? Movies become “seen” once you watch them... And THIS gets to be new-ish every time, right? So, in summation... Why can't we have GOOD movie games? Games that GET the movie... ...and movies that would really make me wanna play that game!!!!!! Isn't THAT the dream? Why we're allllllll here? Lol so... Yeah, i think this game does that So...10 Definitely a 10, definitely a 10... ...just, also an 8 ...and a 6...but only sometimes (...but still... ...a 10, damnit...) (OH - two week plus of playing update - servers work way better...been jason soooo many times :) ...game still has “getting kicked from game” because the host lost first and got sad and quit, so nobody gets xp, problems...but still... TEN TEN TEN TEN TEN)

[thinkingaboutgames]

I was wondering how often do you post?

i will try to be posting more especially if anyone wants me to!i have so much unfinished stuff that I never put anywhere so...poke me or ask and i’ll put out something asap i promise!

[thinkingaboutgames]

NieR: Automata thoughts…

Cause, if games, at least in part, can be dissected and piecemeal understood to some degree from just a screenshot…

(in the vein of wondering what kind of game this is) What am I looking at, in this picture? Where are my eyes? What am I, as the player, even doing? What’s it all add up to?

(Brief clarification…I’m the android, sitting-ish on a rock, fishing with a tinier robot, in a river, next to a ruined city…) …am I even actively fishing? Do I need to be? Does it make me?

(4th wall clarification…the game isn’t “re-inforcing” me to fish very hard…I took this picture and wrote all this while playing, didn’t I?)

So…

…am I staring at the bushes, trying to remember where the boar in my periphery went? Stuck, suddenly, my eyes in the skyline, the sky, the leaves, the gray, the fog and rain? Or noticing how my character stands while fishing, for the first time; really seeing pose? Or is it the soundtrack? Can you hear where it is in this picture?

Well…I think the best games (being a player driven experience) can engage, enable, and open us up to a lot (as ing, empowering us to feel MORE, from being MORE in control than in other kinds of media)… Some Games know how to railroad us into the best weirdness (killer 7), dial up the weird (killer 7), and keep the curve balls coming (I’ve been replaying killer 7 lately for some reason)

And others…give us so much ROOM…

And I really mean a distance to feel, deal, and process a lot…

As in…as well, from this picture, taken by me, on my phone…could you guess, or see, or feel any sense of me…dealing with the loss of a close family member?

No, it’s really ok, really really it is…you’re not supposed to know and I don’t need everyone to know and I don’t need everything to be about it…

(4th wall side note…why the bad picture? Well, I’m lying on my back on the floor with my dog and don’t feel like taking better ones on my phone…not closing blinds, not moving an inch…In some ways to just say, meh, don’t worry about it, you wouldn’t get more if it was perfect, you’re not really supposed to guess, to see THAT…But I even started playing cause fishing felt nice, I’ve barely played at all and just bam, fell in…)

Because, anyway, everything I’m kind of feeling, at least most immediately, is that, honestly…

It means so much just to…have music, and robots, and boars, and fishing…not asking me to need any of them, but…just being there in small, “not loud”, interconntected but completely, quietly removed at the same time pieces…all together…all at once silent, warm, welcoming, and waiting…nothing, and everything mysterious, pleasant, and wonderful at once… Thank you NieR…because I’m dealing with a lot right now…and you, quietly, as warmly as your music, let me feel a lot.

See a lot.

And experience a lot…slowly, gently…when I didn’t think I was up to much.

So, thank you NieR, thank you

(Full disclosure, I maybe felt like writing and rambling something (maybe connecting with people too) so thanks for empowering me there too, Platinum, square, everyone everyone everyone, thank you, even just for listening)  Love, A fan 

[thinkingaboutgames]

Why We Remember Bioshock's Fort Frolic | Game Maker's Toolkit

The level "Fort Frolic" is often cited as one of the best parts of the original Bioshock - if not the entire Bioshock series. In this episode I return to the...

YES ...games, at their best, are well choreographed, and meant to elicit / lead the player to "THIS" idea or "that" one, intentionally, through it's staging "Players did pick up on the joke...recognizing that they were being asked to dance" giving good art, a good stage, with good character, and a competent brain underneath though... it's what good games do / need to do, because it's a media that requires and benefits from "play", and "wanting to be played" in a completely different way as if, if books are about getting to have a conversation... then games are about getting to go dancing

[thinkingaboutgames]

POKEMON GO: or, “Now us local nerds and the local deer got something in common!”, or,  “OUR world IS the POKEMON world!!!!!!!”, and i’m feelin fine... (a short video game article by John P Mauldin) The more and more i think about it, the more i think Pokemon Go is the best / ultimate / finally complete iteration of the “Pokemon” “formula” ...and, i know, i know, i know...we’ve all wanted an MMO or a AAA console release of this “series” for forever, and have ALL been bummed because we’ve been, in some ways, relegated to the “kid’s system”... (aka, the “handheld”, aka, the “gameboy”, aka, the “game that only gets to be SO big”) But...let’s be honest and objective and aware about what has, in part, been WHY pokemon has become such a tour de nerd force... Way back when red and blue came onto the scene, it was apparent that Game Freak KNEW what they were doing (and hoping to encourage / support for it’s players) from the get go, in that... Two versions of the same game (that you might not be able to afford a “second” copy of”, that also had this new fancy “link cable” to connect us kids on the playground...literally...like, by the blood in our very gameboys... I mean...wasn’t that WHY the console version of something was so much better? because it was BIG enough to let us all in on the experience?? AND SO, now (then) with pokemon, we suddenly had what was once JUST a portable, but very “solo” system, turned into the MULTI-PLAYER system THAT WAS ALSO PORTABLE?!?! ...holy shit, game / our young lives changed forever... Because we suddenly had a way to take our games / nerdy lives, carry them with us, AND connect with the other nerds who we didn’t know yet, or who might never have made it to our house / consoles to share in the gaming... SO...OG pokemon...it was amazing and beautiful and fun BECAUSE it connected us all in ways that was so unknown, AND perfectly supported mechanically... (HOWEVER...does that mean the game would get stale over the years IF, as a player, you lost the “playground” of people to play with? For me...yes, the games grew flat and stale because i no longer cared about “all the pokemon” (because THAT became such an impossible / technically expensive mountain to climb), AND because i grew up, my life changed, and there was, all of the sudden, no longer an “entire world” of “trainers” to “play along” with...what was once a world / playground FULL of pokemon / trainers...was now an empty / lonely void of peter pan / adult nerd-dom, where everyone else grew up, and you too...but you still kinda wished we could STILL play pokemon like the good old days?)) BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOW...with Pokemon Go... I feel as if we’ve shed the real uninspired / tired “weight” of the games (simple battles that felt too easy or “not complex enough”, and yet bloated at opposite ends of its own poles; house decorating; berry blending / fashion show / breeding number crunch minutia; only “kinda fun” if “hyper competitive” hell) in favor of giving us another piece of the whole, “how the game affects / influences our LIVES, mechanically” puzzle... As in, if OG pokemon helped / encouraged us to interact with other people... THIS pokemon NOW let’s us interact / explore the REAL WORLD...as if THAT world WAS the POKEMON world!!!!!!!!!! So! Not only do we NO LONGER have tiny / constrained / digital / top down maps / overworlds that ultimately “limit” the “pokemon world”, and, thus, TRAP us gamers into a space that WILL get old and become FULLY EXPLORED over a relatively short time...

NOW......OUR world IS the POKEMON world!!!!!!! And so, what we have, and what is ultimately SOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful to me... Is that a “game” in “digital space” has helped to re-convince us that the real world IS worth exploring and experiencing :) :) :) (which...isn’t that what “games” have classically done so well? convinced us that going outside is SOOOOOOOO much less fun than staying in? Fellow indoor kids where you at!? lol)

AND it just so happens that we get to feel this way with SO many other people...because Pokemon WAS ALREADY / FROM THE START a game about the power of connecting US as people because, for whatever reason, we could NOW be “trainers” together...instead of JUST having to be people (ha)...

...and what other game or even digital / techno anything has been able to give so many people such similar feelings / drives like this?? ...so, yes, the micro transactions make me sad / terrified of the future... (...getting bullied by rich kids is never fun on the playground Game Freak lol) But, for now...you go and get it Pokemon Go :) :) :) (....and GO TEAM BLUE DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!) (Oh, and quick explanation on the attached pic...i was exploring a cemetery (literally, of ALL places?? I’ve visited family at a cemetery once...and suddenly, now i have “real” reasons cause of pokemon?!?! (...are all our dead friends in graveyard super stoked to have so many visitors now??)))... when i found some deer chilling...and i got curious if they’d gotten into the game too...(because i’d ALSO seen so many people running around the same place exploring the cemetery)...because it’s not like animals have EVER had any reason to enjoy the same nature we’ve been given...so i was like, oh cool, dope...now us and the deer got something in common to appreciate...)

[thinkingaboutgames]

GIANT ROBOT WRECKAGE: or the power of quiet, visual story telling, and the  joy of slower moments in the action gaming sea (a short video game article by John P Mauldin) In case you ended up missing it, one of the best, “knee deep in nostalgia” titles of this year has been “Hyper Light Drifter” from Heart Machine, a game self described by it’s creator as a cross between “A link to the past” and “Diablo” And while I think summing up Hyper Light Drifter this way, mechanically speaking, is pretty spot on... (just to be real quick about it...the game plays fantastically! this game is definitely for those who like classic / minimalist controls, hud, help...people who might be ok with frustration, challenge, and cheese...but want to dig in deeper, player harder, and come out the end of the tunnel, into the sun, to feel grateful for the journey, and having hit all the “landmarks” (in terms of locale, AND boss battles)) HLD is HUGELY different than Zelda or Diablo in some key ways that i think are important to note and talk about, in that... Zelda and Diablo ALSO have large over worlds to become enamored in “the exploring” and top down combat with lots of smart, small variations...but each has, whether there’s a lot of text or a little, a “story” that the game is moving us through with it’s loud and resounding “anchor” points, acts, and even side personalities within the world to make the WHOLE universe feel as full, expansive, and juicy to dive into AS the colorful / living “world” that we “have” to explore, to “get through”, SO to see the story end.. HLD, on the other hand, plays things a LOT more quietly...more so than I think zelda or diablo could have been back then, even?

(And by quieter, i mean...

An opening movie that’s completely “silent”, in that there’s no text or words said...we just see things “happen”, and then, from there there’s often repetition of “events” or slight “deepening” or intensifying of “the same thing happening” as we “beat more bosses”, in a sense... And the NPC’s in game don’t speak “English”, or anything at all really They have the same kinda “not our language” thing going on that Animal Crossing did But, and at best, “talking” to some NPC’s will yield a few still frame, wonderfully animated pictures to be shown, one at a time, in a “short story” kind of sense that is 100% visual, and spectacular, giving you back story on a boss, or of some other character “in the story”)

So while I really don’t want to compare these games as if one style is better than the other, the point is “using a lot, or even a small amount of words to tell your story”, is a creative choice! And one that you DO NOT have to follow, with HLD being a clear example of “using NO words” the extreme And I think another piece of HLD that ends up supporting this silent / creative choice in the end, and ends up surpassing Diablo and Zelda in a large way, for me, is the games scenic, easy, quiet...yet powerful, disturbing, and engaging “visual story telling” The clearest examples, even, being the massive amount of detail into the “backgrounds” of our game... So, literally the most “silent” part of the game...in that we can’t ever even interact with the pieces of the game! And yet... I was honestly MORE excited to stumble upon this GIANT ROBOT WRECKAGE than I was to see one of the game’s four, “big bosses”...(and that has me sooooo fascinated...) in part, because... There’s NO difficulty expectation associated with “experiencing” or “enjoying” the background visuals! It’s not like I get to this BEAUTIFUL picture, and DON’T get to enjoy it because I can’t “play well enough” (which is what CAN happen / be deflating with bosses) And so, in a game who’s MAIN source of “fun” and engagement IS it’s action, difficulty and solid mechanics... I was so happy, and moved, by these quiet moments that asked the complete opposite of what the whole REST of the game did... I hate to spoil anything for people who haven’t played, but i’m telling you... Go buy it, fight your way uphill... And then stop , and soak in that visual brick wall, like I did. (Seriously, seeing the “top half” of a giant, bleeding robot in a quiet, blue reflecting pool made me stop playing...and just sit and watch...as OFTEN as it terrified me (i seriously kept thinking that, at ANY moment, or if i waited around too long, that that robot would “spring to life” and eat me), and i think that’s fucking incredible for a video game)

[thinkingaboutgames]

Overwatch works: Cause it makes us all easier to understand, like, and cooperate  (...are older FPSes like treadmills who’s lowest setting wasn’t 0?)

I played plenty of (nothing but) games growing up, but the kind of gaming i’m “not really up for” anymore...is the overly competitive type?

(i’m not even trying to say first person shooters...that’s what i’m leaning towards, but i don’t play any hardcore RTSes like Starcraft anymore either, so i really think the identifying point isn’t specifically the genre OR even the heated communities you find in that genre...but the kinds of games who’s weight is reliant on putting you in a room with other people, and making you want to keep playing with them... ((weird sidenote...i still love fighting games? is something competitive easier to take if it’s simpler to have “a fight”? might have to go back to this...)) BUT, NOT playing those games anymore, or, trying to avoid them because they become too “intense” and “unfun”, too quickly because “i’m not playing enough to be good enough to have fun” also sucks, because THAT is sometimes where EVERYONE wants to be, and if YOU wanna be with THEM, YOU gotta get off your ass and get gud again... And i actually used to think about this problem when i was younger and loving counter strike, then halo and etc... Because I myself COULD have fun, but i was bummed my older brother, who’d been off games for a bit and couldn’t ever quite jump back...

He’d left college, started work, and it’s not that he suddenly LOST all his old skills...

(although, yeah...that’s kinda it)

But it was ALL so immediately unfamiliar...the buttons, the maps, the loadouts (like ALL the small things that add up to “competency” in a game that REALLY demands it)

And i would get upset because he’d jump in every few months to try again with us...but he could never get that stride back...

He’d try to keep pace with us, but would jump on a grenade or hit the wrong button at the wrong time, and fall flat on his face And the problem? Well...it’s kinda simple?

Or at least it’s been feeling simpler since i started thinking about it as if games were a treadmill...

Or, as if games were treadmills that came with different default speeds?

As in...YOU wanna go running, but some of them don’t start at 0

Dark souls...as a silly / meme-ee example, comes with a default speed of 7...and, so, for a lot of people, it’s not “so easy” to jump onto a treadmill that’s already moving so much faster than you (and / or, requiring YOU to return equal movement to keep pace / stay upright)

And sure, default Arkham Batman is 3, and can only, ultimately, get ramped up to a 7, whereas old school Ghouls and Ghosts STARTS at 8 and never, never lets up...

But here’s something else...because those old fps games always nagged me in another way, in that...team matches felt stupid! like...philosophically

No one was playing “like a team” or as if we even could

The matches, simply, “could be played” and even won, because 8 different people could ALL, more or less, silently agree on ONE piece of the whole objective pie...trying to be the one who ”kills the most people”

So, even back then, I always thought the “team” mechanic was silly, IF just because it was a facade in the grandest sense! It’s a mechanic that was all “dressing”, but made NO moves to actually endorse / support / demand “team” play...

Aka, it was a weak / underutalized if not completely ignored piece of the greater puzzle / mechanic

So, YES, THIS is where Team Fortress 2 came in, and simplified things for us in a lot of ways by...

CLEARLY DEFINING and DELINEATING ROLES

Instead of everyone clamoring around the map for their own weapons (within a shared, finite pool of them), or working their way up the same upgrade / power up tree, so to speak...

We LET players CHOOSE, and “lock in” how they wanted to play by identifying THAT style with...A CHARACTER!!!!!!!

Ohhhhhhhh was it amazing and wonderful and how happy / miserable have we all been over hats again, over the recent years?

Basically, INSTEAD OF having to fight / wait long enough to make your way into a “groove” or loadoat or game so devoid of skill that it made you so beastly that the fun oozed out your salivary glands, (which, yeah, i’ll miss duel wielding a map’s only sniper rifle and shot gun...) we ended up with an established, balanced, baseline!

If you liked “moving fast” and popping off shotgun shells, you could pick Scout, and could have that immediately, and forever! No one could take THAT most “immediate” GAME away from you so, good round our bad, THAT could be consistent!

But, then...what becomes maybe the smallest, most immediate / biggest over time problem?

Well...stuff get’s kinda boring in the “pieces are always the same” kinda way? And granted, team variation helps alleviate this and so that’s ALSO why TF2 has been around so long and still IS so good...

I’m just saying ALL games hit a wall eventually, and you can hit that wall sooner if there’s too many “limitations” on variation?

(granted, those limitations HELP maintain the balance we neeeed with our juicy, juicy steak too, and we hit limitations, naturally, because a game itself is constructed upon “being” a “box”, and building the right walls for itself, to be itself to begin with, but...)

In TF2′s case, i mean limited in the sense that...it become fairly straight forward after not long? Each character has their “roles” and moments and the game grows and continues because those “lines of utility” are so quickly / easily / smoothly established...

But there’s only so many “lines of travel”, or “correct directions” ONE class can eventually take, in a way? As in, maybe the “road” a Scout can go down will only take me in one or two directions (playing aggressive close up, or drawing attention by dancing around? ((i’m also oversimplifying to great degree just illustrate the idea of a limited, or eventually exhaustible “meta”)) )

And i’m not saying TF2 is checkers and Overwatch, FINALLY, is chess, i’m just saying ALL things will eventually feel MORE simple “like checkers” eventually, BUT, what i ALSO think makes Overwatch SO good is that the treadmills / roads feel a bit...wider (in terms of how much, within our own “play style” that we can “stretch our legs”)? AND have varied variable “correct directions” to head in...

As in, in the case of Overwatch, our characters have SO many more ways to “be effective” in “a game”, because, not only is there attention to “variable ways to kill an opponent”, BUT ALSO attention to “the variable ways you AND a team mate can kill an opponent” OR “support the team as a whole”, AND making all those concepts more immediately understandable / relevant to a player, new or old

WHICH IS AMAAAAAAAAAAZING

And attributed directly to smart design decisions that i THINK were outright and optimistic in addressing that “team facade” problem AND the “older bro with rustier skills” problem i mentioned earlier!

Because, somewhere within that vertical slice of “game”, it really feels like Overwatch really turned itself into the next logical step FROM TF2 in all the right ways...

(like, were they just sitting around when someone said...’idk, but what if all those “loadoats” who were actually “characters” had ONE super impressive / awesome / orgasmicly powerful super move that could feel moment / match / plateau of fun defining?”)

...and i think that, if THAT’S where we are now, then THAT’S exactly how we got.to this perfect, three way intersection crash of EVERYTHING working so well that i’ve been rambling about and, ultimately, amounts to...

EVERYONE playing better together because we have wonderful, colorful, and diverse cast to identify / signpost deep levels of meta and truly different “ways to play”.

(AND, let’s be honest...i don’t “know” this stranger, but is that person off to a better start with “me” BECAUSE i can also, by chance, LOVE that stranger’s “character” so much?? I think so...)

And so...is THIS really ALL of what Overwatch is? An answer / larger response to all those older games that COULD ONLY be “so much fun”, IF you could be on the “get gud” treadmill?

Or if you could, over time, find yourself able to “be effective” because you “could run as ‘fast’ as ‘that game’ needed you to”? and / or, became able to get on board with getting to be / becoming / “being fast”?

Is Overwatch a “different” kind of game / shooter that’s figured out that you can have fun in OTHER ways than “just being / having to be a steam rolling, grim reaper of K/D ruining misery”...

AND maybe...MAYBE...MORE people could have fun overall if FUN wasn’t JUST about ONE thing / ONE notion of “effectiveness”, aka, in the most general, treadmill having a limited scope of ‘running better’ because a runner can only affect “speed”, in a sense?

Soooooooooo...

I don’t know ha

But I do feel, in a way, some of our oldest favorites (and even US as gamers, and our “hardcore only” root ways to play) were ALWAYS doomed to be “too niche”, and “paved over”, BECAUSE they were too limited to people who could / want to “hit the ground running”, competitively / collectively?

AND, ULTIMATELY...

Overwatch, and the game theory questions it answers and raises, really leads us to explore / expand that idea of (and THAT’S why I, personally, love Overwatch)...

HOW could we / WHAT if we could give players different treadmills that were ALL equally “effective” in the “team” sense...while being able to head in different directions / change directions on the fly...but also be handled / tuned to different speeds?? Is that even possible?!?!

...is THAT what Overwatch is, and WHY we love it?

[thinkingaboutgames]

Why i love games? Cause some days i needs em?

This might be an odd / sad / personal-ish type rant so forgive me for speaking a bit generally and for being a bit evasive even? But lets just start with this connection / thought that’s been with me... “Damn do i love games...and DAMN am i grateful they’re games” And what i’m really trying to explore with this is...I feel really grateful for games as a medium when it comes to wrestling with “the bad days” and “the REALLY bad days”... Now, i’m certainly as thankful for AMAZING books, movies, shows, art galleries, food, smokes, conversations...

YES, a lot of other things are great for depression and pulling you out of it. Being able to LOVE stuff is amazing.. (really not trying to sound bitchy / over obvious with that haha)

But lately i’ve been putting together why Games themselves do so much for me at some of my worst times

For one...i have a problem obsessing and overthinking, to the point where, sometimes, a show or book is impossible...

If it’s JUST text, and i can’t “read” with a voice in my head that’s louder than the others...then i can’t read

And, embarrassingly enough, but, honestly, a lot of times I can’t watch a show or movie or anything with a leading lady in it because...one girl might get me to start / unable to stop thinking about another, so...yeah, sometimes I can’t / don’t want to “watch” anything, despite WANTING and NEEDING to “unwind” and relax and “not think” (aka, be passive) which is what shows, and especially cartoons are great for!

(like seriously, i’ve also lately realized how much i love cartoons for that softening edge that let’s me “check out” and “disassociate” a little easier? i’ll need to rant about that some other time...) BUT ANYWAY... Here comes Games...wonderful, beautiful games into this equation...

And what i LOVE so much about games is, because it’s interactive, it’s SO much more immediately engaging and deep in terms of how it can, silently, in a way, pull you in...

And i mean “silently”, as in...no story, no talk, to pictures / suggestions of anything If i were to go to an arcade and spend ten bucks on Galaga...it just tunes me out and helps reset me...

BECAUSE playing requires attention, focus, and being pulled in...even to a “pacifying” state to where everything else faaaades away because i’m so “lightly focused” on playing “some chill Galaga”

AND...AAAAAAAAAAND...

Games are remarkable because it feels like someone is playing with you?

Yes, i also love books and etc because it’s like talking through things with another author / person in such an intimate way...

But games...think of it this way...

Dressing up as Sonic the hedgehog for a bit gives me an easier “boss” to deal with than the “enemies...” (personal demons) “...in my way” in real life? ha

...and so...do i end up feeling a bit grateful for Dr. Robotnik? Yes I do.

And not for beating up Sonic...just for trying to give me a different hurdle to focus on?

I mean, i know Dr. Robotnik isn’t really there...he’s just an AI...a lightly there, child-like antagonist saying, “ha ha, you can’t beat ME!” over, and over, and over again, for forever...

But, in that way...he’s a bit like a kid brother, goading me into caring MORE about a game than what’s really getting to me

And damnit...you know what??

I really, really need that some days ha

So thank you games...for being a bully to me when i need a friend? HA

[thinkingaboutgames]

Cosplay = Who are you?

To be transparent, I've never cosplayed and I'm not part of the scene unfortunately :(

So what I'm really trying to say / preface is that, admittedly, I feel a like an uniformed, outside observer (if we're establishing expertise here), so apologies in advance if this is useless, generic rambling that’s not useful / over-obvious to everyone already...

But I've always been blown away by the craftiness involved in Cosplaying, and I deeply respect it as an art, and a piece of fan culture that, as well, i feel we, as fans, have the RIGHT to engage in...

But maybe my closest experience / exposure to it, outside cons and admiring the great photography posted places, is my love of Halloween and theme parties? I mean, the root love of this practice isn't crazy right? Maybe the “scene” and exposure is new, but the “idea” feels a bit ubiquitous...THIS incarnation of it is just the "do it yourself" Olympics version of it in a way, right?

But anyway...my point is... Lately I've been cruising through a new show (an anime to be honest) and I'm a bit awed at how much attention there is to such a broad cast of characters in this show, to the point where, and this is even why I'm writing this to begin with, I wondered, "if I HAD to dress up as a person from the show, who would it be?"

And after slowly falling for / personally relating to so many characters, it feels like the show itself, of course, and like all great art really, is, in part, a character study...

And after seeing so much of myself in these characters...to be honest, it really felt like, because I COULD relate to them...that I was on that journey WITH them...

(and yes, this is just the magic of media / entertainment, and we’re aware of it when we leave the “experience” feeling connected to those characters)

But...answering the question “who would I dress up as?”...IS a lot like asking me, "who am I?", or "who would I be...if I had to be one of THESE, OTHER people.”

And these questions, oddly / funnily enough, end up turning fandom into a nuanced, existential / introspective game about being able to BETTER answer that underlying / most general question, “WHO are YOU?”

And I mean yeah, maybe it's just dressing up and it'll always be stupid and silly...

But my eyes still get wide and teary at times when I see some good parent / kid costumes (like the parent who dressed up as the power loader from alien, with his kid as Ridley), and married couples dressing as older Han and Lea...

And those pics get to me because, for whatever reason, they make me feel like, even if the “characters” aren’t real, it’s those “invented” connections being MADE real and personified in / through us, that touches me...

Like...even if Han and Lea aren’t real...MAYBE that love is because WE already made it real?

But...wherever we land with in our opinion of it, truth is, what I love so much about Cosplaying is really how it forces / starts / helps us have that conversation much as anything...

It’s like exaggerated practice to HELP us get more used to reflecting, and diving deeper personally...

It’s freedom and an excuse to wonder who we could embody, personify, or adapt into, and why...

And it’s taking a love for something we don’t normally get to engage with, and it pulls it into reality with / through us!

...if we HAD to play a game of dress up haha

(so yeah, if you were wondering why a ramble about cosplay is on a "games" place...its cause dress up is a game...isn’t it??)

[thinkingaboutgames]

Gamers get guilty with games

I mean, maybe it’s just me and i’m just feeling too much, and too loudly, over too obvious things... But maybe I just feel like rambling...and doing some laughing at what I see staring into / back at me in the mirror.

I mean, after all...

We’re the super fans! The fanboys and fangirls who stand loudly and proudly to champion our love for what we know is lovely! We’re the last line of defense and the physical embodiment of a niche fiscal hope and consumerist positivity; we’re on the front lines, in full force with our fandom - there to tell the companies how crazy we both are, to eek out an inkling of culture to sway the uninitiated at a distance, and, in part, and in truth, to draw a slightly savage, albeit personal, line in the sand to dictate what / who is “truest” to us...maybe just to intimidate away any casual comparison? I mean...WE are the ones who make what we LOVE as forthcoming and as MUCH of what we ARE as other people who wholeheartedly, and openly, culturally, endorse the hyper-love of surfing, yoga, sports teams, food, vinyl, and etc...

(and nothing is wrong with any of these / people things! Not hating on foodies, surf bums, or even the hipsters...please, i’m not trying to act snarky)

I’m just saying, OUR kind of fanaticism, or, “fandom”, has always, classically, to an extent, been met with negative assumptions / stereotypes that either force us underground, or to face ridicule and unfair characterization / classification...

(and hey...maybe the people who rock climb and love polka music feel as similarly stigmatized by society! Maybe think about that next time you wanna bash someone into...whatever)

So, if a bit of what’s at the core of our gamer love is that fiery, brazen and forward self assurance that is, in some ways, a call to defend...in that, by wearing that Zelda shirt YOU are also trying to tell that shy kid who isn’t wearing a Zelda shirt that...hey, it’s ok you love Zelda :)

Then i think it’s funny, that, yet...

I missed paper mario 3 on the wii entirely...

I also never finished Final Fantasy X-2, XII, OR XIII...and squaresoft games helped teach me to read back on the super nintendo... 

And...way back when...I went, on a lark, to buy Demon Souls at a gamestop cause I’d heard rumblings of good things. It was sold out of the “two copies they got” (said the clerk), so i, the vindictively nerdy nerd that i was / am, went to the neighboring best buy, bought it, got the art book that came with it, fell in looooooooooove (hard) over and over again (real hard)...but i still haven’t bought dark souls 3 and it’s been out for weeks :( And hey, i also really don’t think it’s wrong at all that I missed those games, or others! I still wanna go back and play em.. But...I just think it’s funny that I feel guilty for calling myself a “fan”, and yet...not playing what i SHOULD have by now? lol ...and, just rambling now, but maybe that guilt ALSO has something to do with giving perfectly glowing / stellar reviews and making endless recommendations to franchises we’ve already kinda played to death? I mean...people can, comfortably, NOT stand the hangover sequels out loud...

BUT...if you got ANY shit to say about Uncharted 4 then you’re “against the cause”? Even though you can’t figure out what / how to say anything MORE about the series / the latest installment BEYOND what you’ve been saying about every single installment so far? Just hilarious to me...just me?

As well cause i kinda love everything i play to some extent ha

...and am only now starting to hate myself for “letting down the elitism”, with my “fanboy” double standards? ha

[thinkingaboutgames]

Minecraft: Like the real world with training wheels

By John Mauldin

                I started playing The Sims way back when it first came out, and ate it up (and every expansion that came out afterwards) with it. I had families that I raised from the ground up, ones I took seriously and invested countless hours in raising pointless skills instead of learning some of my own and micro managing time spent sleeping and going to the bathroom more efficiently than I did in real life. Every once in a while I would cheat, get butt loads of cash and end up building a house that looked like an 80s diner crossed with Dracula’s castle with a robot living inside. And yes, I made more than one poor bastard drown in a pool by taking out the diving board, and countless others starve on their feet in a one square, asphalt lined, urine soaked death room just because I wanted the Johnsons to have an interesting tool shed.

                I, of course, got bored of The Sims for one reason or another, grew up, moved on and so forth, devoting countless more hours to raising real skill points at other things that probably mattered just as little, and after many, many Sim free years, I played Minecraft. As soon as I did, I got the sudden thought that The Sims is to a business degree what Minecraft is to living in the 21st century.

                What I think Minecraft does so beautifully, and it’s an experience that one can only get with a video game, is that teaches us how to really play it actively. And by that I mean the game simply drops the player into its world, and the game’s own internal mechanisms are what relate to the player what the next step to solving the puzzle is. Just like the classic minimalism seen in Mario, you move right, and enemies are moving left in an effort to kill you, so you learn to jump, and learn to stomp on heads, and get bigger so to take an extra hit.

                In Minecraft, though some initial outside building tips will help, the player wakes up in a blocky and easy to understand world where he quickly learns what will kill him, and, almost instinctively, that his only defense from the oncoming night is to hide...and yet, better yet, to build! So the player learns that they don’t want to die, and then they learn how to not die, and after that, you feel confident in your death skirting/ignoring capabilities to step out into a world that wants to eat you, but a world that, at the same time, you feel confident in conquering.

                When it comes to the build your own sandbox type of games, games like Little Big Planet, I’ve never found myself that excited because, ironically, I never wanted to take the time it took to be creative within a video game. I felt like such games would be boring because there really is no game to it beyond what you make of it for yourself, I bought the game to give me something already made, and if the game that you’re playing doesn’t give you a good enough reason to play it other than offering a near infinite span of possibilities…well, that’s kinda off putting for me seeing as the real world and my writing and everything like that has always been enough when it came to endless expanses of space for me to tinker with, explore, and pontificate over.

                So, while playing Minecraft, I found it equally astonishing that a game that has all those elements would be so enthralling, but I think it is because it is so much like the real world. The key, from a developer’s standpoint, is that the aspect of survival is really the only gameplay element that makes Minecraft a “game”. It gets the gamer in me hooked from get go by getting my right in my meaty ego that gets very angry at some stupid box art that says “here’s a mountain you can’t climb.” But the total head spin with Minecraft, was that the mountain was really a very, very small hill, and at the top of said hill, was an endless plateu.

                 In short, Minecraft is like a training guide for the 21st century. For all the spoiled kids in the world (myself included) with the everything at their feet and no direction to go in, Minecraft is like the real world with training wheels.

                For me, playing Minecraft spilled from survival into creativity so fluidly that I hardly even noticed. I started playing without any real idea or direction as to where I was going, why I wanted to go there, and what I would do once I arrived (much like the real world, which plops you out of its womb and then tells you to start living before you realize breathing is done for you, but almost everything else isn’t). There was no rhyme or reason as to why I ended up where I did to begin with, it was as simple as, “It’s getting dark, gotta hide in a cave or monsters will eat me.” Simple, right?

                From there, I figured out how to build tools and mine deeper, and I started building a fortress for survival before getting killed by a damn spider. The real bitch of it was though, was that I had spent so long digging underground, that when I respawned, I had no idea how to get back to where I was. I didn’t make a landmark when I had first dug into the mountain to escape the creeps, and I couldn’t even remember which way I had started walking to begin with. So I spent a little while looking and looking for the fortress and underground tunnel system I had built, but no luck.

                So, after begrudgingly deciding to start again (rebuilding my whole damn empire which totally had a door and everything!), I figured, “Start again someplace close, so it’s easy to get back to.”

                That, right there! That’s the genius of this game.

                Much in the way that things are built block by block in this virtual world, so is one’s reasons for acting built from small flashes of practical inspiration. From there, survival became easy, if I died again it didn’t matter, when I spawned I’d be close to home this time, so slowly but surely, I began building something.

                (Can you see the mystic type conclusion I’ve been foreshadowing throughout this the whole thing? Please don’t make me spell it out for you…)

                Sounds a lot like life, huh?

                So anyway, I pretty much built another square fortress, but continued to think, “Hey, it’d be cool if it had a long ass terrace stretching out over the water, and my initials in glass in the ceiling, and a stairway to a roof that had a bridge to another island.”

                Survival ingenuity gave way to the fact that, now, with endless possibilities, I was still playing and I might as well go ahead and do whatever the hell I wanted. Creativity grew from within in a world almost as limitless as our own. This, is the beauty of Minecraft to me.

                Minecraft feels like one of the best, or maybe closest video games have come to having a practical depth to it. It’s easy to feel like you’ve grown after reading a book or watching a movie, and it’s not from knowing the plot from A to B but in the journey one takes to get to the end of said work. Books can take a while, and that’s where movies stepped in, and then television, but for video games it’s never been easy simulating that question, “Should I walk across the street, or take the bus,” and making the player feel that there’s a difference between the two.

                Oh, and I found my underground fortress some time later by accident, but instead of building in it, I flooded it with lava to kill all the spiders.

[thinkingaboutgames]

Street Fighter X Mega Man: A lot like like free range chickens, never frozen beef and not from concentrate orange juice

A Video Game article By John Mauldin

Too often it seems that “the big guys” are missing the big picture, and it’s us, “the little people” who are screaming up at the heavens trying to get them to see the good idea right in front of the everyone’s faces, or at least that’s how a majority of us video game “fans” feel when companies waste their IP’s in a way that only serves to every so often rein kindle the feeling of a disappointing Christmas.

Give us another Half-life! Bring back Mega Man Legends! Take Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon off of the handhelds and put them onto our consoles! Man up and give us some fatalities! And for the love of God give us another Half Life!

And gamers shout because sometimes we know what we’re talking about, and then other times, more fantastical times, the little guys will MAKE the game, and do it in a way that shouts “for the people, by the people” in a way that shocks nearly everyone else entirely.

Games like Minecraft, Braid, and Spy Party (I’m really enjoying Spy Party), where one capable little guy will prove of there being such thing as a “know-how” in video games by doing everything single handedly, thereby taking the total creative control needed to see a singular vision through to the core of every detail, and others like Super Meat Boy and Castle Crashers, where the small team prevailed in the shadow of their AAA competitors with style and A+ fundamentals, and even still with fan projects like those that gave us Defense of the Ancients and a translation of Mother 3! God bless those capable men and women…

But sometimes the fans must admit when their appetites have grown insatiable and their hunger hedonistic then for things like orgies and crack cocaine (M.U.G.E.N., the smash bros lover’s attempt at taking a small but sturdy box and dumping a pile of bodies, the more obscure the better, on top, and State of Emergency, the game in which the firing the mini-gun sounds too good for me to properly in this article).

And other times, we’re pleasantly surprised by both the people, AND the company…and I would say this is one of those times.

Street Fighter X Mega Man sounds like a game concept only a fan would conceive of first from knowing and loving Capcom, a company still making good Mega Man and Street Fighter games, and there’s a preciousness towards the games’ IPs, like it was built and put together with awe and careful detail, within the artwork, music, and dare I say level design, that makes me think that maybe only a fan could have pulled it off.

But especially beyond what a cool idea the mash up is, it makes a lot of smart choices with respect to gameplay, originality, economy, and is damn good game as it is a thing for some damn good reasons!

From the get go, it feels like the standard old school Mega-Man affair in that the player picks his boss and moves ever rightward through a series of boards before facing off, mono-e-mono, with said boss fighter from the street, though the game does have that watered down vibe in lacking an opening cut scene, or options or password functionality, and in that sense the game is a little bear bones, but with it being a labor of love (or at least that’s what I’m treating it as to some degree, because no free games have to get made), I’d just as soon write off the lacks as purposeful, and chock it up to economy because of how much variety this game seems to cram into itself.

Naturally, the background art changes to match the Street Fighter boss of that level, but there’s also a different level of variety, be it in the linearity of the level layout or the addition of an elevator or mounted flying section, those very Mega Man, “character driven”, level distinguishing sections, that tries to make each of the levels feel unique in some way, and maybe it’s just the Street Fightery-ness of it all that that’s making all the details pop so justifiably, but maybe that’s some of the better idea to begin with?

 In Chun Li’s Chinese city-esqe level there’s “traffic” type enemies that simply speed from one end of the screen to another and break the board into a safe or unsafe top and bottom half, and Dhalsim has his frustrating, teleporting enemies, but also a twisting treasure filled level map with multiple paths and an, “oh, I can see the finish on this board, but I can’t get there yet,” kind of windiness to remind one of Indian Mysticism. Blanka’s level has some light water action and eels to go with his Congo jungle theme, Ryu’s has projectile throwing samurai and stoic swordsmen in a dojo type atmosphere, and Rolento has falling scaffolding and an enemy expensive elevator section to make one think of a military industrial complex.

But beyond the subtle variations in each level’s map and board design, not just within the grand scheme of things like enemy type and background mechanics, such as with Rolento and Urien’s levels having falling floors and Dhalsim’s moving carpet platforms and the like, I also have to also applaud the levels that occasionally force new kinds of lateral thinking, either in teaching the player a new way to play or leading them into a trap via a mechanic of the engine’s own design, which this game also has in spades.

Two of my favorite boards happened to be one on Blanka’s level (pictured above first) and Urien’s level (pictured above second).

In Blanka’s, what seems like an easy board is really quite the beautiful, minimalist trap. The top part of the level sets the player up for failure on the bottom by being twice as high on the top, and once a player shoots kills the enemy at a distance and with plenty of room to jump on top, he moves to the bottom to try and do the same thing. But upon killing the enemy, and seeing the health that’s soon to expire, if the player reacts impetuously and jumps over the spike gaps as he did up top too hastily (which is a method of plat forming the player been nearly indoctrinated with since the 80s), then there’s a solid chance of dying for fear of losing the extra health. But if the player simply runs straight across the one square wide gap…

And in Urien’s level, another similarly simple board is designed to set the player up for failure in another unique way. Much in the way that the health in Blanka’s board serves as timer and suddenly forces the player to react, the element of a falling platform forces the player to drop down to avoid the upper spikes, and then to avoid falling onto the lower spikes, slide kick into a hidden line of fire from an obstacle on the board that, from the beginning, wasn’t even on your radar because it was a floor first!

But one of the large improvements to the mega man formula, and where the Street Fighter element really shines, is in the boss battles, in that now a boss can answer back within their preset patterns (which are themselves surprisingly similar to their fighter’s actual Street Fighter Move List, a la Bison and his aerial trickery) with the inclusion of a damage filling ultra-meter (a la street fighter IV), which lets the bosses fire off a special attack (Blanka electrifies the ground, forcing the player to jump quick, before tossing melons, AND charging at Mega-Man in an all-out attack fashion), and offer up a rebuttal in a fight that now feels more like a conversation, with some call and response, between combatants.

But no, you can’t save….

And I suppose that’s a large enough gripe for some people, but to me it feels like this game merely has a purposeful lack of certain mechanics, and in my mind  if this was a game that had to leave some things out, at least it knew how to make up for it as best it could.

Sure, passwords would make the game feel a little more forgiving in that you could pick it up and continue from where you left off, but things feel economically sound enough when coupled with certain other mechanics who’s consistency lend aid to the save-less design.

The fact that, upon revival, all of the player’s weapons are refilled makes boss fights easier, but it further allows a player to save all their E-tanks for the final set of levels because their necessity is no longer in refueling weapons and health, but now only just health.  And because a player can grab an e-tank from each level, and there’s no consequences for dying in said level and having to restart at the boss select screen, a player could conceivably, if ever so slowly, trudge their way through the game three lives at a time and find themselves well prepared by the end rather comfortably in this manner.

So, in my opinion, rather than viewing the game as lacking in certain areas, I rather see it as a tightly wrapped, arcade style package that solves its own issues of unforgivingness by committing and dressing itself up one hundred percent to be the type of old school game whose completion is dependent upon doing it in one sitting. They help you out as much as they hurt you, and I won’t spoil anything, but offering up a secret fight for four perfect victories against any of the bosses further encourages the rise to said level of skill, and it’s just the Street Fightery touch to properly support and reward the player that aspires to play well.

In the end, the game feels near perfect for me, but only because of so much of what the game is as a whole, and not just what’s within the gameplay experience.

It’s near perfect to me because, beyond all the things I found within it to enjoy, it’s also an interesting labor of love, in that it was MADE by a fan developer, and SUPPORTED by Capcom, and released to the fellow fans for free…and I think there should be as much love for THAT as nearly anything.

This game wasn’t just a baby I grew to love, but a baby whose existence I’ve endorsed from the first to last the detail. From the parents, to its the conception, and eventual release out into the world to stand on its own two legs and do good things, this is a game that feels a lot like free range chickens, never frozen beef and not from concentrate orange juice.

This game is, in at least a few interesting ways, a step forward beyond the limitations of its own game space, and I really, really, really enjoyed playing it.

[thinkingaboutgames]

Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage? - Enough for an Adventure, not the best of Times

By John Mauldin

How many times have, or will we say, “Sweet lord that would make the best game ever?” the first time we hear of a game that either promises a widely unique experience (Mister Mosquito? Anyone but me?)…OR foray into a universe that we’re already familiar enough with to drool at the thought of finally having some kind of stake in? Granted, we all love the surprises that come to us full on and are for a time completely brand new (Bioshock, Demon Souls, Katamari Damacy, Shadow of the Colossus), but who amongst us didn’t find a new love for the sandbox with the first Spiderman game, another reason to fly with Snoopy Flying Ace, or another reason to have faith in the Star Wars Gods again when they broke the mold with Battlefront? Hell, I’ll go so far as to admit that, yes, I liked Dante’s Inferno, which in my eyes made Hell more interesting than God of War did with Hades.

Kingdom Hearts was probably one of the first games that did that to me (which made its eventual non-return-to-consoles that much more heartbreaking), but for as many of the few successes that we’ve gotten over the years, there’s also the heartbreaking let downs that take what we love and make us angry and confused…

Your Superman 64’s, Dragon Ball Z: Legacy of Goku’s, or pretty much any game that coincides with a major blockbuster release.

However, and though the new Adventure Time game on 3DS seems to be one of the most recent games to fit this particular bill, it walks that semi-regrettable line of being slightly underwhelming (in part because of the unbelievable game we want, and not necessarily what’s there) but still enjoyable.

The game itself is like a call to the forth wall in that it has a strong sense of what the player wants, but delivers what amounts to a meager helping of the feast we’ve all been waiting for.

Though the game does fulfill the two most necessary aspects of what we’d want in an Adventure Time Video Game: fighting cartoony bad guys in some mono-e-mono close quarters combat and adventuring around the land of Ooo while the world and people in it crack their silly jokes, I feel the formula meant to give the game some strength is what ultimately made the meal meager.

Any gamer worth his salt can tell you Adventure Time’s mechanics were modeled after The Legend of Zelda II, in that it combines the freeing experience of exploring an open world with the intimacy that comes with side scrolling action, and in that vein then, it’s no surprise that the Zelda II formula fits the Adventure Time formula like a glove. As I said it does provide us with the base pieces of what we want from such a game, but what we have to remember is that Zelda II is a classic, OLD SCHOOL GAME.

Zelda II gave its players a shit load back when the technology for giving was very limited, and the game had a lot within the little, because the little, though the simplified version of the grander mechanic, was balanced to taste with difficulty.

Since then we’ve developed the power to build expansive and dynamic 3D worlds for the player to suspend their disbelief nearly entirely (Elder Scrolls, Dragon Quest, Skies of Arcadia), but the grander scope hasn’t overshadowed the fact that every mechanic meant to incense a player’s wants, will likewise create within the player another need. Video Game’s, in that sense, become a grand kind of balancing act where if you give the player somewhere to go, you better give him a way to get there, and if you give them something to see and do, you better give them a motivation for doing it.

This is where, in the end, we have games that do a better job of showcasing one idea rather than the grander whole. Some games you can sometimes nitpick at (Metal Gear Solid 4, with its minute for minute ratio of cut scenes to gameplay) and others chastise entirely for only getting one piece of the puzzle right (Enter the Matrix, for its bullet time and not much else), but in the end the result is most often caused by excessive attention to one thing, and not enough on attention all the things.

Adventure Time is a game fundamentally designed to scratch every itch, but it doesn’t have the strength needed for said scratches to feel very satisfying.

Sure, there are inventory items to use and food stuffs to combine, but they are never in short enough supply (the way Resident Evil had its elements of ammo conservation to make the player feel more terrified) nor do they ever feel that necessary when the effect is mostly just a numbers bump, using them can be a hassle to begin with, and the enemy’s themselves don’t require much to kill on their own anyway.

And yes, I can fight enemies better once leveled up, but when leveling up depends on finding specific chests with stat points in them, and not how many enemies you defeat yourself, what motivation do I really have to fight any monsters at all when it’s easier and no less punitive to just run right pass?

It’s like they remembered to gives us what we wanted, but in the end, neglected to consider how the underdeveloped pieces would poorly jell with the other aspects of the game. They certainly knew I wanted to level up, explore an open world, and fight bad guys, but when it’s easier to explore without fighting, and fighting is even wholly ancillary to leveling up, what’s left are three nearly independent mechanics that do nothing to bolster one another in the slightest.

However, though the holes in the fabric mean you won’t have the best experience, there’s enough seems sewed up for everything to come together well enough, and, if anything, I found that there is some definite redemption in how everything does come together in the end.

Jake, being my favorite example of this with his map-broadening abilities that are contextually doled out throughout the game, fulfills a small mechanic that has to be one of my favorite parts of the game, which is simply him diving into Fin’s backpack on the top screen whenever the player wants to manipulate the items on the bottom screen (see above picture finally).

And for some reason I can’t stress my love for this tiny mechanic enough. Honestly, how sick is that small touch? It’s almost like being the main character, and having a small minigame that involves you literally looking around in your backpack to pick out what item you want. Sure, having control and a visual conception over what you’re carrying is a very small part of the larger simulated experience, but that feeling of realism, that small detail that does its best when slipped in between the cracks, can be compounded and built upon with hundreds of other smart game design decisions like it until the larger experience is made that much better for it.

So…in the end, Adventure Time: Hey Ice King! Why'd You Steal Our Garbage? is a fair enough testament to enough done well.  It’s enough for an Adventure, not the best of Times, and can be breezed through rather quickly, which in the end is almost a good thing, with the player finding enough from both within the world and the writing to feel like finishing, but it is an experience that will ultimately leave you wanting, both from the game itself, and the industry that’s continuously content with shelling out C- games with the A+ IPs that turn our insides all fuzzy…and gives us a reason to have faith in humanity again.

[thinkingaboutgames]

Fatal Frame II: Why shoot from behind a lens instead of a scope? This is why.

          There’s no denying that I tend to be a bit of a bitch when it comes to playing horror games. It took me around six years and more than four complete retries in order to finally get the stomach to finish Resident Evil 1 and it’s scary, albeit silly shark level (yes, I played the remake first), but I feel this in and of itself speaks wonders to video games and their immersive capabilities, so, being the academic that I am (or try to be), I always have a scary game or two on my must play list simply because they showcase something that video games tend to do very well on their own, immerse the player.

Any game’s immersive experience, or, when it comes to having to compare and dissect it, can sometimes be hard to scale and easy to overlook when it seems like every game should/does possess an immersion “get outa jail free card”, simply because it’s a game. However, since my goals involve narrowing down what games do and deciphering which games do it better, I feel that survival horror games work well to weigh a little or a lot. Some games will frighten you whereas others will replicate the chilling feeling one might get when an icy drill is quietly and slowly drilling into your spine. And when you’re looking for ways to gauge how scared you are, it’s always hard to ignore when a game makes you pause, open the blinds, and throw on a Disney movie in the background just to walk around the next corner. Not saying I’ve needed to do this…but anyway, on to Fatal Frame II.

Irrelevant Fun Fact – I’m fearless when listening to “I Can Go the Distance”.

Fatal Frame II tells the chilling story of twin sisters who decide to visit a spot they used to play at as children, which resonates almost immediately with the player because hey, who hasn’t ventured back to Disneyland to discover that the cake is a lie. Tragically, and as fate would have it, one sister can run faster than the other (that’s the one you play as, untragically), but the real crux involves following some crimson butterflies into a village shrouded in fog (the best kind of village). While it seems abandoned, the twins soon realize that the tortured souls of the dead roam, forever reliving the day of the failed ceremony that trapped them in this state. The crippled twin, who I will from heron refer to as Crips, is lured by the crimson butterflies and leads her sister deeper into the Japanese equivalent of a haunted pioneer village. Can you tell which sentence I pasted from Wikipedia?

The story unfolds as the player chases Crips like a carrot on the stick (which shouldn’t be hard because she’s crippled right?), and discovers the village’s Wicker Man-esque past by means of creepy, conveniently censored diary entries and a radio that uses stones to play staticy sound clips of Asian  ghosts whose English doesn’t once flow like sentence should. I poke fun at the story, but really, this game is scary, and makes a lot of really smart design choices, the most unique of which is what actually attracted me to the game in the first place.

Most survival horror games give you guns or other weaponlike defenses because you can’t kill zombies with love, sucking up ghosts with anything less than a proton pack (which is a laser beam and therefore more bad ass than a gun anyway) is for pussies, and, or at least I’ve always hoped, it dials up the tension even further when you have a 12 gauge shotgun and still feel scared and useless. I mean, what more of a weapon could the average guy hope for than a god damned 12 gauge? You might say rocket launcher, but, in the real world, I’d be more afraid of blowing myself up than whatever’s attacking me, so the shotgun fits in that nice “not too much and not too little” spot on the practicality spectrum. But I digress…most games give you guns, fatal frame gives you a camera.

Pretend you subscribe to whatever culture believes that your soul gets stolen when someone takes your picture, that’s basically how Fatal Frame forces you to deal with the haunted souls wandering through the village. The player must look through the camera’s lens, wait until the ghost is close enough, and then take its picture, which I’ve always felt is genius. Sure, looking through a scope might sound similar, but how much damage you do with your limited film (unless you wanna blast away with the unlimited weak film they give you) depends on how good of a photo you take. This means that, not only do you have to stare down the thing that’s actively making you crap your pants (in theory), but you have to let it get close enough to almost attack, and make sure you’re staring directly at it.

This simple mechanic, while it’s not wholly original (like I said, a scope is similar), is fantastic because it (and a few other things I’ll get into in a bit) fits so well with the game contextually. This is an example bending or shaping every aspect of a game to work hand and hand with not only the story, but the overall atmosphere and believability of the environment around you.

Much in the way that a movie’s level of complexity increases up because it has to deal with the visual elements that books don’t, so too do Video Games add another layer to the equation with gameplay. This means that more hands need to shake, more dots have to be connected, and so on. This is really what I think Fatal Frame II does so well, and what any game needs to in order to match its level of cohesion. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Fatal Frame II is perfect, but there are a few other examples I’m referring to that help showcase what I’m referring to.