Disqus - Friends of AramZS

Re: ANALYSIS – Heavy Rain

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 05 May 2010 17:21:53 -0000

Excellent breakdown, Mariam. I, too, am interested in reading your full paper - any chance you could send it along?

Heavy Rain's alternate camera angles struck me as a bit random, as well. As you point out, in the majority of the scenes they didn't have a point from either a gameplay or a directorial standpoint. I also agree with Krystian that the times when the game allowed for a more traditional over-the-shoulder view also seemed somewhat arbitrary. Also, seems worth noting that "The Butterfly" was, in my opinion, one of the most effective of the entire game.

I'm reminded of a similar technique used in the cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 4. I liked the "Press X for memories" prompts, but I thought that the L1 camera switches were even more interesting and quite effective, too.

A couple of scenes stood out in particular. In the first, Snake strips down and Naomi gives him an MRI. It's kind of a raw scene, since he's so wasted and old and Naomi's devastated to see him like that. As Snake goes into the machine, an L1 prompt allows players to switch to his perspective and experience it firsthand. I thought it quite effectively put me into his shoes, and made the whole sequence much more affecting.

At a similar point in the game, Snake pulls up against a wall while on the hunt for Laughing Octopus. L1 allows to switch from a wider shot of Snake against the wall to a narrow first-person view from behind his pistol. His breath comes close to the player's ears and the shot both illustrates how little Snake can see and heightens the tension as he rounds the corner.

There are plenty more, but those two pop to mind because they seemed to have been designed with a purpose that most of the alternate angles in Heavy Rain didn't have. Granted, they were far less frequent and also occurred during otherwise non-interactive cutscenes, but it still seems like an appropriate comparison.

Re: ANALYSIS – Heavy Rain

Kirk Hamilton — Thu, 06 May 2010 21:33:53 -0000

Cool! That email address is the one. I just got the paper - Thanks!

Upon re-reading my comment, I realized that the "less frequent" sentence was "less than clear." Heh. What I meant to say was that because the ability to switch camera-angles occurs far less frequently in MGS4 than in Heavy Rain, it is perhaps unsurprising that when it does occur, it's implemented more effectively.

Anyhow, this was the first time I've made the leap from Heavy Rain to MGS4, though I'm sure others have made it before me. Both games head in the "interactive film" direction, albeit in very different ways. If you ever do play the game, I'd be interested to know what you think. Gauging by what you're writing here (and no doubt elaborating upon in your paper, which I'm looking forward to checking out!), you might find it very interesting indeed.

Re: Summer Burn-Off 2010, Part 1

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:24:14 -0000

I should note that it's not lost on me that all four of the screenshots in this post are of... dudes. With guns. Or in the case of The Saboteur, who are about to whip out some guns.

Sigh. Fortunately, the games in part 2 are a little more diverse.

Re: Summer Burn-Off 2010, Part 1

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 18:10:10 -0000

Funny that our current playlists line up so well!

Rico seems pretty problematic to me for a number of reasons... like, I remember in a recent scene he was yelling about how he was going "1-8-7 on these motherfuckas!" Kind of a stereotype wrapped within a stereotype... he manages to make Cole Train seem even-handed and even likable by comparison.

I remember reading some developer interview somewhere where a designer from Guerrilla said that after reading the feedback on KZ2, the first thing they did for KZ3 was go through their script and remove 95% of the f-bombs. Ha. Good.

I'll really have to put some more time into The Saboteur - the game hits some great notes even though the gameplay itself misses pretty often. I also kinda like the ridiculous Doug Neidermeyer arch villain... he's a drag racer and a Nazi mastermind!

The AITD controls are taking quite a bit of getting used to on my end, as well. There's a lot to get one's head around, and some of the physical interactions don't quite feel right, but it's still cool to have so many options.

Re: Summer Burn-Off 2010, Part 1

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:41:07 -0000

I'm so glad to have hipped you to the AITD remake. I'd all but forgotten about it, too. It's kind of the perfect summer game.... you can get it cheap, it won't have that much to live up to, and it's such a cool game even despite its flaws.

I'm getting the sense that The Saboteur really got short shrift last year. It's not perfect, but like you point out, it's got a lot of nice surprises, too. I still haven't gotten the achievement for jumping off the Eiffel tower, and I really need to go and do that.

Jealous that you're playing through Shadow Complex for the first time. I loved the living pants off of that game; I think I've played through it at least three times now. It was easily one of my favorites of last year, including full on-disc releases.

Re: Summer Burn-Off 2010, Part 1

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:42:12 -0000

Yeah, I'm working out the kinks, thanks for bearing with me! I, too, wish Disqus offered blogger integration, but that said, the threading and massively improved moderation made the switch a pretty easy one... It was time to upgrade. Hopefully I'll be able to get FB Connect working soon, too.

Update: FB Connect is now fully operational.

Re: Summer Burn-Off 2010, Part 1

Kirk Hamilton — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 14:59:23 -0000

I'm trying to picture Rico as the nice quiet guy in the office whenever he turns up, and I can actually see it. I bet they all laugh their asses off whenever they play - God, he is just the suckiest character.

And yep, there is a NG+ in Shadow Complex, though I think you have to get 100% of items to unlock it. It unlocks a room near the beginning that has every type of gun. It's pretty fun to breeze through the game with the super-shotty.

Re: Journalism

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:24:58 -0000

It's been a trip following this whole thing, huh? That Lara Logan bit was galling... the "served his country" comment in particular. I thought it was a pretty revealing thing to say.

Barrett Brown wrote a great piece over at Vanity Fair that lined things up pretty nicely and gave Hastings's work some context. Not exactly unbiased, but a good read.

Considering how access has become such a problem for so many kinds of journalism, it's nice to see someone who was granted access actually use it to perform journalism.

Re: Journalism

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 02:38:11 -0000

God, that NRO blurb. By stupid Rich "Starbursts" Lowry, of COURSE. I think I just like to see people beat on that guy.

Unrelated but awesome: in Lowry's Corner post, there's an infolink inserted on the words "the poor" in the sentence "All of which underlines the poor judgment in giving this guy such access." The link leads to some pay-to-surf job site. Stay classy, National Review.

Re: To Diablo II, With Love

Kirk Hamilton — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:27:56 -0000

Is that Kratos in the bottom picture there? Was he like a guest of honor at the Diablo bonfire that night?

Re: Question of the Week: Sea of Regret

Kirk Hamilton — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:33:58 -0000

Funny - I did the same thing with the first Rearmed. I got all caught up in the nostalgic hype, and read the great reviews (written, no doubt, by hardcore folks who had mastered the original game), so I got it. Good lord, did I suck. Never made it very far. I'm sure I'll buy into the hype for the sequel, even though they've added the ability to jump. Here's hoping it's not as crazy hard as the first one!

Re: Question of the Week: Sea of Regret

Kirk Hamilton — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:38:03 -0000

I always regret it when I sell a game and then have to go and re-buy it because I realized I shouldn't have sold it in the first place. Happened recently with Far Cry 2 and GTA IV, which - what was I thinking? Glad to have them back in my library. Borderlands is pretty sweet, actually - which I'm sure you already know. Mordecai FTW!

Pretty sure I'm gonna work my way through TOMI as well, though after I play through the special edition of MI2. It's gonna be the "Summer of Guybrush" - I don't know whether to be excited or scared. Probably a little of both.

Re: Question of the Week: Sea of Regret

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:47:48 -0000

Man, if I ever do assemble a new PC gaming rig, Steam is going to bleed me dry. I really want to check out Metro, too - I've heard interesting things about that game. Those bundles are terrifying... like the Rockstar bundle. It's like 500 hours of gaming not counting sidequests. Good lord!

Re: 2010 Summer Burn-Off, Part 2

Kirk Hamilton — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 19:40:54 -0000

Totally with ya, Brian - I love how pulse-pounding and "First ten minutes of the Matrix"-y it gets when you're being chased; it only falls apart when you've no choice but to shoot/fight your way through the cops. And ha, I had literally that exact reaction when I was running and bullets rang off the wall in front of me - "omfgeee"

Best of all, in an effort to get off my ass and actually look something up, I confirmed what I thought I'd heard, that EA confirmed Mirror's Edge 2 a year ago. Maybe it'll have co-op and you and I can flee the law together.

Re: 2010 Summer Burn-Off, Part 2

Kirk Hamilton — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 13:37:02 -0000

Yeah, Blood Money is an honest-to-goodness Hitman game. It's pretty tough (if you're going for Silent Assassin), but really freakin' fun, and it does that thing that the early next-gen games did where there are some times when you can see them coming to grips with the new amounts of processor power at their disposal. So most of the game plays pretty old-school, but there are some crowd segments that feel unlike anything the series had done before (the aforementioned Mardi Gras level). Worth checking out, for sure.

Hey, since a fellow Hitman fan might remember - which was the Hitman game where 47 had to dress up as a ninja and hide under a truck to roll into a big ninja training compound? I think that might've been my favorite Hitman level of all time, and I can't remember which game it was from.

Leliana's song - ya, I'm gonna have to get it. I love Leliana. I didn't think I did, and then I realized that I totally did.

Alpha Protocol - ha, yeah, saw that you were playing that game last week. But actually, I certainly haven't prejudged it - I've been following it quite closely, actually, and though I doubt I'll find time to play it, I'm interested in what it could have been. I've heard that it takes a second playthrough to really get a sense of just how thoroughly your decisions affect the story? I guess they just announced that it didn't sell enough to merit a sequel, which is really too bad... like Mirror's Edge, Alpha Protocol strikes me as a (perhaps deeply) flawed game with a strong concept, and those can really make for good sequel-times. Oh, well.

Re: 2010 Summer Burn-Off, Part 2

Kirk Hamilton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:47:35 -0000

Hmm... it could indeed be an issue with the 360, though as you say, it could also be that since I missed the game when it first came out, it just doesn't have the same shine to it. That said, thank you for the tip on defeating those stupid birds - I will use that the next time I give the game a spin, which I'm sure will happen sooner or later.

I really enjoy the music for Mirror's Edge - so much so that I actually looked into it soon after I started the game. It was all done by a Swedish (shocker, heh) electronic musician named Magnus Birgersson, who goes under the name "Solar Fields." It sounds like writing the music was a pretty cool process and I will always appreciate when designers work their game's music into the actual design aesthetic, rather than just giving us another big-budget film OST knock-off. Something I thought Red Dead Redemption did quite well, too.

And yeah ha, grabbing an assault rifle and mowing down a half dozen police officers does indeed raise some intense questions about Faith's character. And while I'd say that those questions are so unintentional as to be irrelevant to any intention that DICE may have had, they do provide one more example of ludonarrative dissonance rearing its ugly, confusing head.

I hope that in ME2 (an unfortunate acronym, since that will always mean "Mass Effect 2" to me, similar to God of War/Gears of War GoW)... anyway, I hope that in ME2 they either drop or significantly improve the illustrated cutscenes. I'm not sure who it was who first pointed out that they look like those old Esurance commercials, but that person was right.

Re: Semantics, Shemantics

Kirk Hamilton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:06:23 -0000

Hey Lauren! I agree about the importance of the debate, despite my slightly wussy in-post apologies for bringing it up. Sometimes people say that "Oh pshaw, you're just arguing semantics," as though that is not a worthwhile thing to discuss. It is entirely worthwhile! It is the very essence of writing!

Being tied to a style guide is hard enough in day-to-day practice, but in a field as continually shifting as Video Game Discourse In The Early 21st Century, it's even harder. I'm gonna give "videogames" a go, anyway, and see where I end up. Then again, it's largely an editorial decision, so the more I write for other sites/publications, the more I'll be governed by their rules.

As an interesting side note, in the rest of that comment of Bogost's that I quoted he states his dislike of the term "interactive entertainment," and I gotta say I agree. It has more than a whiff of euphemism about it, and it's also restrictive, since after all, not all videogames are about entertainment per se.

Re: 2010 Summer Burn-Off, Part 2

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:45:15 -0000

Thanks so much, Johannes! Both for the kind words and all your ME insight. I'm still working my way through the game, and it really is such an interesting experience. I agree with all of what you said - considering how far DICE went to make the gameplay entirely immersive, HUD-free and first-person only, it's all the more baffling that they felt like the Esurance cutscenes were warranted. It's not like the story made any sense in the first place...

Anyhow, I thank you, sir. Down with the gun-wielding lumberers!

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:57:33 -0000

I agree, Sean. I can only imagine it comes from having such a strong background in PC gaming, but you'd think they would hire someone with a console UI background, put him in a room with their current UI team, and leave them there until they reconcile their differences. Then again, that appears to be what they're doing, so... baby steps.

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:28:02 -0000

Hi Lindsey! For starters, I am chagrined by my improper pronoun use w/r/t Shale. I corrected the post with a note.

To your other questions, since we're on pretty uncertain ground in general when it comes to prognosticating about the sequel, I can't come to any solid conclusions about what may or may not be in the game, especially from a story/characterization standpoint. In this post, at least, I was trying to focus a bit more on how the first game's systems worked on consoles, since they really can't help but be improved upon.

I share your hope that it doesn't turn out that everything I did in the first game was pointless - I had that problem with Awakening a bit. I wouldn't say it looks as though character creation is completely gone - it'll just be limited. I'm sure we'll be able to create our own character's look a la commander Shepard, though I agree that's not nearly as cool as playing through the origins in DA:O. The real drag for me will be not getting to see the sides of the other characters that the origin stories gave. Knowing Prince Behlen's full story made even my non-dwarf's time in Orzammar much more interesting, for example.

But then again, it would be a bit strange if we got another whole set of origin stories in the sequel to Origins, wouldn't it? I do like that the choices I made in the first game will carry over to the second, even though I'll play a different character. And who knows, maybe we'll get some small say over Hawke's origin story, like how ME gave those various background options. It's not the same, but it's something. Plus, the 10-year span of the story could lend it a pretty spectacular character-arc, making the entire thing feel like an origin story. And as for the possible retcon-ishness, the story sounds like it starts with a penniless Hawke fleeing Lothering, so it's conceivable that it is over the next ten years that he/she becomes the most important character in the Dragon Age universe.

But I hear your larger concerns about the limited choice when it comes to playable characters. I guess that all things considered, my pragmatism takes over. If technical and time constraints necessitate a trade-off between getting another deep set of protagonists and trying something new with a Shepard-esque speaking character, I'm willing to give the new approach the benefit of the doubt.

Which kind of sums up my feelings - I'm giving BioWare the benefit of the doubt. I have a hard time believing that the final game will truly alienate the Dragon Age fanbase (of which consider myself a member). It seems far more likely that even though it won't please everyone all the time, it'll still have much of what made Origins so good, or at least so enjoyable for me. And on top of that, the UI and combat system can only stand to be improved, at least on consoles. Like I said - here's hoping, anyway.

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:14:18 -0000

Hey there Eric! You know, I agree about choosing your character's exact words. It's not to say that I don't like the Shepard way of doing things (I do), but I also really like using my imagination to give voice to my character's words, just like you describe. It's one of the reasons that the criticism that "no matter what you say, most of the responses don't really change" doesn't hold water for me. It matters to me what my character said!

One does get the sense that as developers get better and better at creating things in-game, they are no longer engaging our imaginations in the same way that made earlier games so much fun. Jorge and Scott have written some really interesting stuff about that at Experience Points (I'm sure you've seen the posts I'm talking about).

So yeah, I feel you. But I would be surprised if the system doesn't mimic Mass Effect... if players select a phrase and have Hawke say that exact phrase... it would feel like such a throwback. When Guybrush does that in the Monkey Island, it feels a little silly, and I can't help but feel that if Hawke both had 1:1 dialogue matching AND he/she spoke the words aloud, it'd kind of be a compromise that wouldn't get the most out of either system. If it's either a bastardized version of spoken and 1:1 or a ME-style approximation, I think I'll take the approximation.

Side Note: Dragon Age is one of the the only games that makes me want to finally bite the bullet and build another gaming PC. It's been so long... but oh how I long to experience the game how it was meant to be played. Sigh. One day soon, when I'm makin' the big bucks. :)

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:19:02 -0000

No question - the mage was MADE for hotkeys. The PC version of the game is pretty much a necessity for magic users. As it stands, I just spam the same three or four spells. As I mentioned to Eric, it's enough to make me want to build a new gaming PC.

Also - dude, dark! I have a hard time going as dark as I know I can, but I LOVE that crap like that is an option in the game. My mage is kind of a dick, but he's not a full on blood-mage. I just can't bring myself to do stuff like that! I can't believe you can murder Wynne and everyone, fuckin a. That is rad. Sorta wish I'd done that... my guy is just too much of a pragmatist (sometimes talking about my BioWare characters winds up feeling kind of revealing). He wouldn't turn on Wynne because he wouldn't see the profit. That said, he did make a deal with a Demon to make Morrigan fall in love with him, which might be the absolute grossest thing I've ever done in a game. But still... that's hardcore, man.

Re: Semantics, Shemantics

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 14:29:15 -0000

Haaa, I have a feeling we could set that up - I would certainly pay to see you and Chris throw down. A "Video Game" vs. "Videogame" grudge match, the winner of which will set the standard for the entire internet! [Cue training montage.]

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:05:10 -0000

Yeah, it's funny - as big a part of Origins as the combat system is, it's such a small fraction of what actually made the first game so enjoyable. I think that's maybe why I decided to focus on it. They could indeed fix it all and give us a slick, rewarding gameplay experience while simultaneously stripping a lot of what made Origins so enjoyable. God, I hope that doesn't happen.

For some reason, though, I never felt that attached to my voiceless character in Origins. It's true that we'll only get one character to play in the sequel, but actually, in the origin stories, each character felt pre-set to me anyway. For example, the Dwarf Noble origin story made my Dwarf a noblewoman of the House Aeudcan - it was kind of an origin, but she was already a celebrated warrior with a surname and a family and everything. It actually made me feel similar to how I felt about Commander Shepard - a character who I controlled but whose identity had already been set.

Of course, the dialogue thing is another story - like Eric pointed out, I actually liked being able to imagine the voice of my character. Only time will tell if the spoken dialogue will still allow role-playing - I share your worry that it will appropriate Mass Effect's binary jerk/saint system. Then again, that system was different from Dragon Age so fundamentally that it makes me think that they won't change it... the fact that in Mass Effect you could only truly be a jerk if you had been a jerk before, for example. It's an obviously inferior approach to character development and I get the sense that the Dragon Age team feels the same way.

Since the first Origins allowed for so many branching paths and didn't align them to a binary morality system, it would surprise (and sadden) me if the sequel changed that. Perhaps more than any other single thing, the ability to make earth-shattering decisions at any step regardless of my game-dictated "morality" was the thing that I loved most about Origins.

And yeah, snaps to your pre-emptive worries about the marketing strategy. It's odd... as much as EA puts out cool games, they really don't seem to have the marketing thing worked out. Fortunately, I think we can all remember the "This is the new shit" ad for Origins that was just... egregious... and at least it didn't have much to do with the actual game they released. And who knows? Maybe they learned something from that. [does not hold breath. continues to breathe normally]

Re: Dragon Age 2 Can Only Be An Improvement

Kirk Hamilton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:12:07 -0000

I share your optimism, Duncan. BioWare hasn't let me down yet, and the Dragon Age team seems to be even more fundamentally in line with their design philosophies than the Mass Effect team. Here's hoping, anyway!

It's funny that you and Jay both mention the shitty UI actually causing narrative dissonance - that's very true! I honestly hadn't even thought to take it that far, but the idea of my badass ninja-mage needing to flip through his book of spells every three seconds is indeed pretty hilariously disconnected. Dang PC players. They get the best version of everything.