Pseudo Visionaries
I recently read a magazine article referring to 'quasi-visionaries'. It was not used as a derogatory term, rather to simplify refer to the type of wannabe game designers who create their own animations and generally try to impress with their multimedia computing expertise. I have met a lot of these people and sadly, without sounding negative in every post ;-) I think they are (A) A thing of the past and (B) Partially mistaken about the demands of a game designer.
The stereotype video gamer is still a spotty young man who never leaves his room, and whose only friend is his PC and/or game console. Every year, thousands upon thousands of these people try to break into the video games industry. I can't see any reason why these people should make good designers...
As recently as 6 or 7 years ago, the trend for becoming a designer was to get your hands dirty with programming, etc and then graduate to design concepts. This trend has changed somewhat. Design and coding really are separate disciplines and require different types of individual.
Writers are rapidly becoming more involved with the whole development process, rather than being brought in late to piece together some dialogue for action heavy titles. The work of the designer overlaps with the work of the writer, while the coders do their actual job! Neither position is better than the other, but I'm just tired of being a clever, rounded individual, well travelled (fairly), athletic, experienced having had many hobbies and interests (and upheavals). NEVERTHELESS being told that I wouldn't make a good game designer because I am not very good with Adobe software...!!!!
Metal Gear Solid 4 - My 180 degree turn around
After completing
MGS 4 a few days ago, I have to admit that I was a little hasty about praising it. This blog is going to represent my complete change of heart about
MGS 4.
I really was mesmerised by it after about the half way point, and was expecting much more to come. progressing through the game, drawing towards a dramatic conclusion, hopefully with a number interesting plot twists. Guns Of The Patriots did not deliver at all.
My first point I'd like to mention, I imagine to the surprise of no one, is the fact that there is more
cutscene than game (well, almost). Many gamers see
cutscenes as a thing of the past - I am not included. I'm not against set pieces, but these cinematic sequences in
MGS 4 were a little mind numbing to say the least. The problem the series has had in general, is that it talks its way through the story, as opposed to acting it out. This is largely down to the complexity of the plot. But I think it'd be better if the game lost the ego trip and just simplified matters.
The ending was actually terrible. An hour and a half of reminiscing, and of course Meryl's wedding... Apparently, there were 'answers' in this game. I didn't see too many. I feel that they could have done far more with the story.
On the note of the wedding, it was preceded by a ridiculous
cutscene during the final chapter - A romantic fire fight starring Meryl and husband to be Johnny, against a continuous stream of enemies. He proposed to her in between shooting the bad guys. I won't say any more...
In terms of
gameplay, it was good but not great. The
octocamo was very cool, but each short section between
cutscene felt like a chore, rather than a challenge to be enjoyed.
In many ways, modern action adventure games are falling into the trap of trying to attract gamers with many bells and whistles, while forgetting intuitive
gameplay. I'll give you an example:
MGS 4 features a plethora of weapons - rifles,
SMGs, rocket launchers, explosives, etc as you would expect. Each with a detailed 3D model and description. The problem is that it is easier to simply run through the game with one automatic weapon. In fact, there are many situations where any other approach is suicidal!
The game boasts all this potential choice but never really lets you choose. I would rather a game featured only 5 weapons, but encouraged the player to use all of them in elaborate & varied ways.
If you remember the original Metal Gear Solid, every item was required at some point in the game. The C4 explosive charge was needed to destroy the walls. The Nikita remote controlled missile launcher was also called upon. These are simple examples, yet this basic creativity is not seen in Guns of the Patriots.
There are many
gameplay elements that could have been included - an underwater section anyone?
I just wonder why the review scores are all so high? The reviewers must be seeing something I'm not...
Shadow Moses Island
I'm playing Guns of the Patriots right now. I've just crossed a snowfield and arrived at the Heliport from MGS 1! This came as a surprise to say the least, although with Kojima anything can happen. I love it when sequels revisit old haunts. This game is absolutely incredible...
Low, Mid, High
A basic principle of the offensive techniques with respect to one-on-one fighting games is the differing attack heights - low, mid and high. This fairly sensible and indeed obvious gameplay system is really the building blocks of the genre. It allows for the depth and diversity the players crave, and in turn allows for the many play styles along with their individual strengths and weaknesses.
It's strange that this should be the foundation of the fighting genre, as it's a basic concept within Shotokai Karate and indeed all martial arts. (They are all the same to me...! Maybe I'll explain that later!) During certain training drills, attacks are aimed at 3 heights: The area above the groin (ouch) or belt height, referred to as gedan, The solar plexus, referred to as chudan, and the throat or face, referred to as jodan.
Do not misunderstand the simplicity of this! This is a very simplified mechanic, and for the purposes of training only. Naturally, an assailant in the street is never going to attack obviously gedan, chudan, or jodan, but practicing with this basic system gives you the dexterity and skills to deal with a more realistic confrontation. It's a generic mechanism and was developed over many years and must not be taken at face value. Shotokai requires a great deal of spirit and use of the imagination, which allows the practitioner to see beyond the raw, simplistic seeming methods. There are many other skills within the martial arts which work off similar principles.
I'm once again relating video games to the martial arts, and it's very apparent here. Okay, so a game shows the mechanism in its raw form, and could never truly include the mind, body, spirit idea of Shotokai (well, maybe...) but there's a very good reason the low, mid, high system works - it is Karate...
