Thoughts on Writing in Games
Writing in games has gotten more and more important to the experience. We’ve come a long way from ‘Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the President?’ As the ‘games as art’ debate (and I use the term ‘debate’ loosely; most of it seems to amount to a slap fight between people who didn’t grow up with the medium, and people who feel a pointless need to justify their pastime) goes on, a lot of the emphasis on how games can be judged is placed on the writing, plot and dialogue. In his essay that every game blogger and their mother loves to quote, Roger Ebert described Braid’s story as ‘prose on the level of a wordy fortune cookie’, and I’d be inclined to agree.
However, that doesn’t mean that Braid’s story doesn’t add to the game. When done right, a video game’s story can add to the experience and enhance the game, rather than just being a movie to watch while you wait to play more of the game. However, they often fall short. The main problem is that these stories are just tacked on to the game without much thought, rather than functioning as a part of it. Even when game designers understand the purpose of story in games, the writers make fundamental errors that appear far too often. These include things like simplistic ‘moral choices’, taking itself too seriously, or not seriously enough, or placing the player’s actions at the centre of the universe. Ebert’s quote aside, video game storytelling, at its best, can really add to the game’s experience.
One of the bigger problems is making the story relate to the game, and vice versa. Either you might end up with a story that’s completely segregated or irrelevant to the plot, or worse, you’ll have a game which has pointless twists or elements because it’s ‘for a videogame.’ Two good examples of how not to do this are in Madworld and Batman: Arkham Asylum. The former’s story is really interesting, with witty dialogue, interesting characters and a little social commentary too. It is also completely irrelevant to the main gameplay. At one point, Jack, the protagonist, destroys an earpiece with which he kept in contact with a character who gives tutorial advice early on. But in the very next area, and until the end of the game, this character continues to give advice and input throughout. The plot barely relates to what goes on; the only character seen in both cutscenes and in the game is Jack himself; all the bosses and enemies you fight aren’t even mentioned. (more…)
Continue →Play 20 Minutes of The Secret of Monkey Island Browser Edition. Right Here!
Fire... fox?
LucasArts and Instant Action have created a browser version of last summer’s The Secret of Monkey Island. Twenty minutes can be played above for free (you’ll need to install/update Java if you don’t have it) and if you like what you see then head over to Instant Action where the entire game can be bought for $10.00 (about €7.55). Once you’ve paid you can play the game via InstantAction’s site or anywhere it’s embedded through any browser. Trouble is it can’t be downloaded to play offline so if you’re going to be on the move then I’d suggest buying it from Steam. It’s a little more expensive at €8.99 but worth it if you’re on a laptop with no mobile internet.
Continue →Perfecting Just Cause 2
If you read my review or listened to last week’s podcast then you’ve probably figured I quite like Just Cause 2. But the sandbox on steroids has flaws, mainly to do with annoying little things that could easily be fixed and thanks to some clever PC mods already have been. I figured I’d write something in the hope that my ideas will be stolen and implemented everywhere. I’m also not the first to think of some of these, Chris Livingston and Tom Francis have also written their thoughts.
Lately I’ve been playing the PC version with a load of mods installed most of which can be found at www.justcause2mods.com. So I’ll start with the stuff that can actually be changed by these:
The Unbreakable Rope
Half Life has the Gravity Gun just as Just Cause 2 has the grappling hook. Amongst it’s many fine features is the ability to tether things together. People to trucks, planes to cars, bikes to windmills, that sort of thing. Trouble is the rope snaps if too much force is put on it, this is not fun. If I want to grapple an ice cream truck to a passenger airliner then damn it I should be able to and thankfully can with the excellent BOLO patch (or the BOLOLOLOLOL patch, as my head pronounces it.)
Many Unbreakable Ropes
Whats more fun than tying an ice-cream van to a plane? Tying two ice-cream vans to a plane… and ice cream men to the van. Also possible with the BOLO patch are multiple ropes. This one isn’t perfect, the aiming reticule breaks a bit and the game feels a bit glitchy when it’s turned on but for the most part it works. It removes the ability to undo ropes which means you can’t drop things from the helicopters like you can normally.
Faster Vehicle Spawn
Some genius decided that whenever Rico wants a vehicle air lifted to him he must watch two cutscenes and scroll through an annoying menu system every single time. This is stupid.
Thats about it for what I’ve managed to get from the mods that’s worth being fully implemented. there’s plenty more fun ones, such as the 3 kilometre long grappling hook but these are really just fun cheats rather than gameplay improvements. Here’s a couple of things I’d like to see:
Take the Wheel!
One of Just Cause 2′s best features is the vehicle combat. But it’s not enough! First of all jumping onto the roof of your car is great but control is lost too easily. In one of the very first missions an AI companion drives while you stand on the roof, this means you can zip from car to car and always have a safe spot to jump back to. I’d suggest a combination of these. Occasionally Rico drives with friendly passengers, whenever he jumps on the roof he should shout something along the lines of “Take the Wheel!” Rico can now focus on the combat and not have to worry about the car smacking into a forest, he can resume control of the car at any moment leaving his companion free to fire out the window. If needed Rico can hijack another vehicle and split, creating a decoy. He then has a certain amount of time to catch up with his passenger if they need to be kept alive.
Instant Black Market
Removing those cut scenes is not enough! Vehicles and weapons should instantly parachute down when Rico calls them in. On PC they should be binded to keys, removing the menus altogether. Custom drops can be created and binded allowing Rico to drop vehicles containing weapons. If Rico is driving, his jet can be called in on auto-pilot to hover above the car, he can then smoothly transition between the two. If Rico is escaping from enemies then this could be balanced by putting a timer on the spawns. Once called in Rico must stay alive for thirty seconds or so before the jet arrives and he can escape. Also once vehicles and weapons are unlocked they should cost nothing to spawn. The ridiculous cost of some vehicles means you can only rarely use them when its far more fun to have them all the time.
Destructible Trees or No Trees at All
Trees look pretty, but they get in the way. The best place to be in Just Cause 2 is the desert because it has very few trees or big rocks meaning off road driving fun is an option. In the desert you can get far more creative, especially in the driving off cliffs area of things. Everywhere else vehicles are useless off road because they simple can’t be driven through forests. Some trees can be knocked over but most can’t, this should be the other way around. Off road handling could be better too, even in the lovely empty desert it’s way too easy to over-steer.
Red Faction Style Destruction
A few months ago Chris and I said that more games must now use Red Faction’s amazing destructible building physic. Seeing as how to progress in Just Cause 2 you need to blow stuff up, its the perfect game to implement this system. Thanks to it’s size the whole “what if the player blows his way out of the game world?” problem isn’t even an issue.
The Mouse and Left Stick are for looking and aiming, not moving
When skydiving for some silly reason looking with the mouse rotates Rico, sending him off course from where you want to go. This denies us from some spectacular views of one of the prettiest games ever made. If we don’t need to aim something then let us look around. We’re allowed to do it in planes so why not while sky diving? Also on the subject of skydiving Rico should be able to fly forwards a bit more than he can, a hell of a lot more base jumps could then be pulled off.
And finally:
JETPACK!!!
All games need jet packs.
Continue →New Steam Interface: Exclusive First Look
I’ve been testing out the new Steam UI recently and I have to say its very simple to use. Valve have thrown out the fancy graphics and transitions that seem to be so popular today, in favour of a more back to basics design. Click the image above for a closer look.
I think its a triumph.
// Chronic Authors
Stephen Colfer (141)
Neil Fitzpatrick (13)
Chris Slack (10)
Ruairi Burns (6)
Paddy Dunne (6)
// Latest Comments