Getting Fit
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Personal on October 30th, 2009
It may surprise some of you but I used to be a rather fit fellow (what with Sailing and Martial Arts every week) but seem to have fallen into a bit of a rut since moving down to Sydney and its starting to bug me. My main problem is that generic exercise has the tendency to bore me and I have no idea where to get started with a new Martial Art (they don’t teach Arakan down here). But I have resolved to give it a go at the least so am going to force myself to start jogging at lunch time at work. Hopefully some up beat jazz will keep me going (I have recently become a big fan of a number of jazz bands thanks to a particular member of Co-Opp.)
If anyone has any better ideas then jogging please for the love of god let me know.
I promise to keep you all posted (If I do actually have any readers out there)
Tokyo Magnitude 8.0
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Anime on October 30th, 2009
So I have been watching this particular anime recently on my PSP on my way to and from work, and normally I mostly go for the action oriented stuff (Baccano, Ghost In The Shell, Etc) but surprisingly this one has really drawn me in.
Tokyo Magnitude 8 is the story based around the 70% chance that a major earthquake will hit Tokyo within the next 30 years and the story of a small group of people as they return to there home through ravaged Tokyo.
This isn’t a story of magnificent heroes it is set in a disaster zone amid a myriad of horrors it is full of hope and the better side of human nature as the three protagonists make their way back to their home. For all that it doesn’t show people as paragons of virtue but what they are; rash, unpredictable but generally trying to the best for each other. Its a representation of what defines civilisation, not the technology nor the infrastructure but the people and the way they act. It is a breath of fresh air for me in an entertainment world which so often is concerned with the darker sides of our world and human nature.
A lot of the character based anime around has really turned me off because of Japan’s tendency to try to shoehorn those awkward relationships in and be rather heavy handed with their messages. This one surprised me it doesn’t try and force a moral down your throat and has some of the most endearing and realistic characters I have ever seen, I am particularly fond of the unreasonably up beat Yuuki (The main characters little brother), from his fascination with robot’s and his desire to impress his big sister to his naivety (not to be mistaken for the common representation of naive characters as moronic.) he is the perfect picture of a young boy growing up in a world that fascinates and delights him.
The other characters are also very realistic, they have their faults their hopes and concerns and even Mirai who annoyed me a tad at the start emerged as a likable if somewhat frustrating character with the real care she shows she has for her brother and others around her.
One of the things that impressed me the most was the work they put into the other characters with what would be considered small parts in the story, I won’t go into the specifics but they did their best to make everyone as realistic and nuanced as possible
Is it for everybody? probably not, the animation and sound isn’t anything special, It’s not a revolutionary piece of work but it is poignant, thought provoking without being depressing as these things so often are and is in my opinion a superb piece of work.
Gaming Journalisim and Modern Warfare 2
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Video Games on October 21st, 2009
Gaming Journalism is often pretty damn awful, Admittedly the guys over at Destructoid and Rock Paper Shotgun generally do a good job.
In any event, what I am talking about in this particular case is this article over at gameinformer, As many of you have no doubt heard Infinity Ward have decided to eschew dedicated servers in favor of a p2p system similar to many Xbox live games (we will get to my opinion on that little tidbit later in the article), Adam Biessener managed to score an interview with the guys over at Infinity Ward about the whole incident but appears to have put together a article more reminiscent of the tabloid trash than Times Magazine, I’m not sure why a respectable website would pay this man to write for them..
Now I don’t pretend to be a journalist but I thought the idea was to investigate a situation and present a fair and balanced depiction of the situation, otherwise its just an opinion column, even the articles title radiates contempt for the people disappointed by IW’s decision, nor does he seem to have asked any of the questions on the communities mind or even fact checked the statistics he was given. The article appears like its missing half its content and is pandering to the developer (I expect that was the only way he managed to get the interview) while doing its best to piss on and insult the community.
There are certainly some benefits to the IWNet approach but they have been brought into play by ripping out parts of normal PC gameplay for no apparent reason, I would gratefully accept an automatic match making system so I can jump into a game quickly when I want to if it did not come at the cost of the dedicated servers which provide the player base with flexibility, stability and a degree of control. Not to mention the limitations P2P hosting puts on game size and performance.
The decision for P2P based hosting causes some unique issues for those of us here in Australia, while I could probably host a server with similar capabilities (power and bandwidth wise) to those currently run for gamers I am in the minority and with a completely impenetrable match making system I am just as likely to end up playing on an incredibly laggy game hosted by an American. I have trouble finding games with a solid connection in the 2 player turn based Blood Bowl, I am not looking forward to trying to play with 16 other people on some kids core 2 duo with a 256k upload speed.
Not only that it kills the communities that build up around servers, as most of my current readers know I am a member of the Australian gaming community over at www.co-opp.net with players ranging from the casual to the incredibly Hardcore. We sprang from the GameArena Counter-Strike Source community and now are a conglomeration of four separate clans playing games from Team Fortress 2 to Aion. I have met some great friends in this community and we now run a LAN every six months among a myriad of other social events, without the dedicated servers to base that community around I would not have gotten to know any of these people and would be a poorer person for it (no matter how soppy and lame that sounds)
What I am saying is: Infinity Ward, please don’t try to take away the factors that make the gaming community what it is today because you have a want to lock down the experience and force DLC down our throats, Don’t take away the very reason we still play games on the PC rather than the consoles.
Disclaimer: I have nothing against Console gaming or gamers, I own every home and handheld console on the market and play a number of offline games on them, they just don’t provide what I want in an online experience.
Game companies need to stop gouging us
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Video Games on October 17th, 2009
Cheap on Steam
So I went out and bought the Dragon Age: Origins Digital Deluxe Edition off steam for US$55 yesterday and I just went and had a look at the retail price at JB Hi-Fi is nearly double that. Even taking into account the reduced sales base and the distance for shipping (assuming they can’t stamp the DVD’s out here in Australia) that kind of difference is criminal.
The gaming community needs to get it through to the industry that this kind of thing is completely unacceptable, If I can import a game from the other side of the world and make a significant saving on retail something is horribly wrong.
So gaming Industry if you can give me one reasonable reason for gouging your Australian customer base like a stuck pig I will start to be sympathetic when you and the retailers complain about how difficult it is to turn a buck in an industry which is booming during a recession. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if more and more of the brick and mortar business is lost to places like CDWOW and steam as they become more well known. When they start hemorrhaging customers because they dont give a shit I won’t shed a tear.
Games with Soul
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Video Games on September 28th, 2009
The folks over at NetGameRadio had a bit of a discussion about what games we are playing today will be considered classics ten years from now. I think if we were to fast forward to then we may be surprised by what shows up. I think the classics of the future will be the games with a soul, the ones that shine in spite of their imperfections and draw the player into the game world.
We get told that many games are fantastic because they have gritty and photo-realistic graphics or some while often they are fun for a while (Gears Of War, Any Halo after the original.) they are not the kind of games that I will ever come back to or most likely even remember years from now.
Then we have games like Valkyria Chronicles, Bioshock, Baldur’s Gate 2 and Okami which draw a player in and take hold of them so that ten years from now you will be able to talk to another gamer and reminisce about them and even go back and enjoy playing them out of something other than pure nostalgia. Zelda Ocraina of Time is a perfect example of this from the past.
This “Soul” that games can have is the true reason some great games between a true classic and some are just considered good games. The makings of a true classic come from a few areas, The Graphics, The Gameplay and The Writing. While having all three is spades is not a requirement for a truly great game it certainly helps.
The Graphics
It’s all about style and implementation in this arena, Okami and Valkyria Chronicles are two of the best examples of this recently. These aren’t the most technically impressive products but the way the artists have used the engines to produce an endearing and enjoyable art style which help make the game world something you can just spend time looking at it and enjoy yourself. Not that games have to be as stylistic as those two to have what I would consider great graphics. Photo-realism or a mix of the two implemented correctly can be used in the same way, Bioshock and CoD4 proved this with a game worlds that drag you into the story and almost make you believe you are there.
Crysis is a prime example of failure to do this because while it had the engine to do an amazing job it did not provide a game would that you truly felt part of. Some parts were truly amazing (The frozen ocean) but others failed to evict an emotional response from the player.
The Gameplay
I suppose this section is pretty self evident to players; poor controls, unnecessary obstacles (Damn you Quick time Events) and lazy level design are the big detractors in this area and its pretty obvious when games fail at them.
The Writing
Unfortunately this is the area when so many games fall flat on their face and lose a lot of their luster. Even some truly amazing games are kind of disappointing in this area (I’m looking at you Final Fantasy 7).
There’s a reason for this because it is a truly difficult task to write for a game. There is the temptation to overly verbose without actually saying anything (MGS4) and I expect a general lack of resources being devoted to it. Intelligent characterisation and depth of storytelling is sparse in the gaming world. Baldur’s Gate 2 did this very well by spending a lot of time on the characters other than the PC, I think you will hard pressed to find a player who wasn’t charmed by the antics of the valiant Minsc and his hamster Boo.
I expect many developers think of story as a means to an end saying give me an excuse for the player to be doing this rather than “why would this character do this? and how would he go about it? What motivates him to act this way?” As technology advances I am of the opinion that this kind of sloppy thinking becomes less and less excusable and it makes me cringe to see a character who is calm and collected throughout the rest of the game something completely irrational with no justification just because it is easier.
Not to say a games story has to be deep and thought provoking as much simpler stories can be a lot of fun (de Blob, Mario, Banjo Kazooie etc) as long as the writers realise it and write them that way. I cringed all through the story of Gears of War 2 as they tried to take the story much more serious than it was capable of supporting.
In addition and intermixed with these three areas is the sound, careful selection of music so it is suited to the gameplay and storyline currently going on in game but without breaking from the style of the game is something I could write a whole other article on.
So that’s my opinion on what helps put together a true classic, let me know what you think in comments if you disagree.
Moody Protagonist Syndrome
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Annoyances on September 24th, 2009
I don’t know about you but while many people are annoyed with the proliferation of the Space Marine archetype the one that gets to me the most is the Moody Protagonist usually with a side order of whiny and self loathing, these are the Cloud’s and Squall’s of the gaming world.
These characters forgo having charm and intelligence to seem “brooding” and “deep” but to me they just appear shallow and self obsessed. They also usually come with one or more “will they/wont they” love interests my most hated of all cliche’s. (admittedly these have been done well a few times but I haven’t seen one in a while).
I wish we had more main characters with a bit of charm and style, the kind that have interesting and witty conversations and banter and who act with confidence and panache. These characters are the Balthier’s and the Joshua Calvert’s (for those who have read the wonderful Nights Dawn Trilogy)
Unfortunately these characters actually take a bit of skill to write for and not have them come off as egotistical and self-obsessed (I expect this is how I come off sometimes in real life)
So please, writers and designers don’t treat me to any more overly verbose monologues of self doubt and inner torment just to cover up your inability to write a proper plot and interesting characterisation. It may be easy but its not going to get you the best character.
Edit: I’m currently Playing the newest Prince of Persia and I am really liking the Prince. I think he has some serious style. Additionally, Batman is the exception that proves the rule.
Hello world!
Posted by Rhys Aronson in Misc on September 17th, 2009
Hello World! indeed, I suppose the first post should be something to show how funny witty and incredibly handsome I am but I honestly can’t be bothered.
I don’t know how much use this blog is going to actually get but I expect people who stumble upon it will find a few things here and there.
Cheers
Rhys