Popular Video Games For The Holiday Season

It’s approaching that time of year when gaming stores alike blow up with the many customers coming in shopping for the hottest games for their kids and other family members. So what are some of the hottest games of the season?

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the most popular game. 27% of the 5000 gamers surveyed said they were looking forward to this under their tree. CVG says that Zelda: The Skyward Sword for the Wii is to be a popular pick. And to top it off the anticipated wait of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is finally over and already many people have picked up their copy. I’m sure that Santa will still find many more copies is his big velvet bag.

Heavy Rain – A Review

These past couple of days I played Quantic Dream’s interactive psychological thriller, Heavy Rain. The game was released in 2010 and was highly anticipated. It tells the story of the hunt for the Origami Killer. A murderer who kills young boys by drowning them in rain water and then disposes of their bodies and leaves a origami in their hands. Ethan Mars’ son, Shaun, is one of the latest victims. He has only a certain amount of time to find his son before he will be killed. There are 3 other characters involved in the story, a photographer named Madison, an FBI agent named Norman Jayden, and a private investigator named Shelby. The game centers around Ethan’s search for his son, and how the other characters get involved in the story.

The game has overall, a very interesting story. One of the most intriguing stories in a game ever. While there are 4 different characters to play all their stories seem to go in sync with one another so there is never any confusion. As far as knowing what is going on that is. After completing one part of the story players will play as another character. When you return back to a certain character their story will fall inline from where the player last left off. During the loading process of the next part players will be shown a closeup of the character they are about to play.

The graphics in the game are amazing. The characters are all very well defined. My only complaint is that their facial emotions aren’t that distinct. The use of mocap was used for capturing facial movement, unlike L.A. Noire which used MotionScan. The environment is very well detailed. Throughout the game players will have to look at other objects in order to gain knowledge about the current quest, such as clocks, cabinets, dressers, and so forth.

The gameplay is interesting. It’s not the best gameplay in the history of gaming. The game makes you hit one to several different buttons at a time in order to do one action. In fact, while I was playing it seemed to remind me of another game that I had played years ago, Indigo Prophecy. Come to find out that Quantic Dream did both of that game and Heavy Rain. Throughout the whole game different buttons will appear in the screen that correspond to what the player has to push. In the beginning it seems like a cool concept, but after awhile it got kind of ridiculous. Sometimes 5 different buttons had to be pushed at once in order to get through the action. If the buttons are not hit in the right order and held down then the action is failed and has to start over. The one thing that makes video games interesting is the fact that the player can control the character. However, this is way too much control. Some of the actions seemed pretty pointless such as taking of the character’s coat, or opening a car door, starting it, putting it into gear, and driving away in it. Overall the game is pretty short. I was able to finish it in a 24 hour period of time with breaks. And I wasn’t slacking on sleep in order to play it. Initially it takes 8-10 hours to play. Of course, if someone is wanting to complete 100% then it will take longer to find everything and of course will take longer to play. If the developers had spent less time on the button commands and more time on other ways to explore a scene then I could see the game being better.

Overall the game was a good play. Something that everyone should play and complete to the max. I hope to purchase it to keep someday. I give Heavy Rain an 8/10.

Heavy Rain is rated M for Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs.

L.A. Noire and the technology of the future gaming

     This past week in gaming I’ve been playing Rockstar’s Games L.A. Noire. I haven’t finished the game yet, but I have played enough to have a pretty good opinion about it. The element that stuck out to me the most was the animation. A new form of technology was used to capture facial emotions and movement. 32 camera were set up around the actors to capture all of their scene.  It is so interesting to see the actor in the game and then see what they look like in real life. They look the exact same!

The technology used gives the characters much more depth and feeling as if they were real and they are real people. It is extremely interesting and adds so much more to the game play experience. Check out this behind the scenes video of the facial capture…

Catherine – A Review

This past week I indulged in the world of Catherine. An action-adventure puzzle based game from Atlus, Catherine was widely anticipated by many. This game tells the story of a man named Vincent. He is a 32-year old man who has been with his girlfriend, Katherine, for several years now. She is pressuring him to marry her, but he isn’t so sure if he’s ready to commit to her for the rest of his life. During one night at his favorite bar, The Stray Sheep, he meets a young woman with springy blonde hair named Catherine. From then on Vincent has an affair with Catherine and in result spends the next 8 nights living in a nightmare while he sleeps. In the nightmare Vincent meets a group of anthropomorphic sheep who are also living in the nightmare. Each sheep sees themselves as human, but others see them as sheep. In order to wake up from his nightmare, Vincent must climb a tower of blocks and make it through the door. If he dies in the dream then he dies in real life. When Vincent is awake he must deal with both Katherine, and Catherine, and decide who he loves the most.

The story for this game is a very interesting one. It’s almost like watching a soap opera. In fact the beginning of the game introduces a woman who is our “host” for a channel called Golden Playhouse, and she tells us to sit back and enjoy the “romantic horror” that is Catherine. The story is very twisted and shapes to how the player plays the game and answers questions. A feature in the game is whenever Vincent is in the bar he will be able to send and receive text messages. Players are able to shape the text message from several different options they can choose from. Players can also manipulate Vincent’s meter which will determine how the game will end. This is caused by what kind of text messages the player sends and how they answer questions that are given to them after each block level.

The graphics are excellent. Atlus is known for releasing games that have a Japanese anime style to it. The gameplay and some cutscenes have a 3-dimensional styles, and other cutscenes have a 2-dimensional anime style.

The overall gameplay is a hit or miss with people. Catherine for sure surprised me with the block levels. That is the only real gameplay in the level. Players are featured with a tower of blocks that Vincent must climb. Most of the blocks will have to be pulled and pushes in order to create a path for Vincent to climb up. Vincent can only climb one block at a time, and while he is climbing he will be faced with enemies, trap blocks, as well as the tower disintegrating from the bottom. Vincent must make it to the top and through the door in order to wake up alive. While he is awake players control who Vincent talks to in the bar, how to reply to text messages, and can make Vincent play an arcade game called “Rapunzel” that is similar to his nightmares. Throughout the game Vincent will discover that many of the people that are surrounding him will end up as sheep in his nightmare.

The sound and voice acting is decent. I have always like the music that is in Atlus games. It can be soft and it can also be rigid at the same time. It’s somewhat similar to elevator music, but I like to think of it as good elevator music. The voiceovers are good for the most part. I was able to recognize several voice actors that were in previous games released by Atlus.

Overall the game is worth playing at least once. For as big a deal as Atlus and gamers made it out to be it was a slight disappointment. I knew about the game’s storyline before I knew about the gameplay. Once I found out that it was basically about moving a bunch of blocks around I had an iffy feeling about it. It’s more fun to play with a group of friends who are also on the edge of their seats waiting to see what happens in the story next. My only true complaint is the length of cutscenes. I came across one cutscene towards the end that was probably a little under 30 minutes long. I’ve never experienced a cutscene that long before in gaming. And it turned out that it wasn’t even the ending cutscene so that upset me even more because I felt like I wasted time. Overall I would recommend this game to someone who wants a game to play. Catherine is different than any other game that Atlus has released and is worth playing through once.

Catherine was rated #14 on IGN’s Top 25 Playstation 3 Games.

I give it a 7/10.

Video Games as Art – Paintings and Exhibits

Aside from what is actually on the screen when playing and game, and gaming tattoos, paintings and drawings are also a big portion of the side of video games as art. Check out some of these amazing pieces from artists on deviantART.com…

Video games in art form is popular among pop culture. It’s on our tee shirts, in our books, and now it’s in museums. The Smithsonian American Art Museum will be displaying many pieces of video game related art in their gallery. The exhibition is called The Art of Video Games and it will begin showcasing on March 16, 2012 and last until September 30, 2012. There will be 80 games on display including Tomb Raider, Okami, Bioshock, DOOM II, Pac-Man, and many more. Chris Melissinos is the man in charge for the exhibit.

Video Games as Art – Tattoos

This week in blogging I’d like to focus on video games as more than just a game, but as art. People all over the world go to different lengths to create an artistic representation of games. Today the focus will be on video game tattoos in honor of receiving my first game based tattoo this past Monday.

This is my Organization XIII tattoo based of the video game, Kingdom Hearts (pardon my odd posture. It’s hard to take a photograph of your own ankle!).

Here are some other popular gaming tattoos…

So what do people think about the concept of video game tattoo? Some people think it’s lame. Some people think it’s awesome. People who find the idea of gaming tattoos to be ridiculous are usually not gamers themselves. They might not play video games at all, and think it’s “geeky”.  But what about that person’s tattoo of say, a unicorn? As with all tattoos it is up to the person getting it. What does it mean to them? To me, my tattoo is a representation of one of my favorite games. And there is a more personal underlying meaning behind why I favor the characters in the game. If someone wants to know, they should just ask me and I would happily tell the story.

WhatCulture! did a piece on the art of video gaming in tattoo form. They said in their article, “…each tattoo shows the players love for gaming and demonstrates the mediums power to communicate as an art form.”

Kotaku.com offers a few tips on committing to video game based tattoo:

1. Make sure the art is exactly what you want so that you’re favorite character isn’t inaccurately depicted.
2. Try it out first. There is such a thing as temporary inkjet tattoo paper so that you can make your own tattoos at home!
3. As with all tattoos, go somewhere that you trust. You don’t want your Mario tattoo to look like a stick figure mess.
4. It IS a tattoo and it is going to be there forever. Make SURE it’s what you want to see when you’re 50 years old. Personally I look forward to seeing my XIII tattoo when I’m old and have grandkids.

Is Changing a Video Game a Smart Idea?

That is a question that has boggled many gamers for a long time now. Now when I say changing people can interpret that many different ways. Some people might see it as updating the video game and giving it better higher quality graphics. That’s okay. But what I mean by changing is really changing it. Almost to the point of being unrecognizable and it upsets many gamers. Let’s look at an example…

This is Spyro the Dragon:

Spyro the Dragon debuted in September of 1998 and was developed by Insomniac and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. He was a small, cute purple dragon who was sent on an adventure to save the dragons from a spell cast by Gnasty Gnorc. Spyro was in the homes of many children during the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He had two more successful sequels released on the Playstation; Spyro the Dragon: Ripto’s Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. In 2002, Insomniac decided to let go of Spryo and develop more new games while Universal Interactive continued with the series. 10 games and too many publishers and developers later, Spyro the Dragon was a destroyed series. He seemed to have lost his touch after Insomniac gave him up.

This year it was announced that Spyro would come back to the more recent consoles in a brand new game, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. This video game introduces a new way of gaming. Players will have to buy different action figures of the characters, “Skylanders”, they want to play (there are 32 in all). Players will place the skylander on a dock and that character will show up on the screen and play.

Along with a brand new of playing comes brand new character design! Meet the new Spyro the Dragon:

So many people were upset with the new design. This new Spyro looks so much more ferocious than what 90’s kids grew up with. So why change the game? Why change something when it is already a known fact that the original worked? Perhaps it’s because developers and publishers want to try a new demographic. In the 90’s people that were playing this game were probably young, around the age of maybe 7-10. As the game went on further the original fans went along with it. When developers saw that the fans were not taking to the newer games for the PS2 and GBA, they decided a new tactic. Let’s add toys to our game. By adding collectible figures that are needed to get through the game it focuses it’s appeal on younger kids of this generation. Perhaps the developers are expecting to gain a whole new following of fans this way and there games will sell once again. I am 21 years old and a die hard Spyro fan. I am not impressed with the new concept. My brother, who is 8 years old, is super excited about this game because of the new action figures. See, it’s already working. This is just a theory. It has not been proven or researched even. There isn’t any article online where this comes from. This is just my straightforward opinion and observation. I guess for children of the 90’s it is time to let go of Spyro the Dragon. We had our fun with him and it’s time to let others have their turn.

There have been plenty of other video games that have went through a major character change. Not all have upset fans. Some were for the better (Cloud Strife), but some were for the worst. Examples include:

Dante from Devil May Cry

Ethan Thomas from the Condemned series

Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII

Lara Croft from Tomb Raider

A quick note about Lara Croft’s change. The one on the left is supposed to be her at a younger age therefore the game is set a bit of time before any of the other games. However, in the trailer Lara has a smartphone as well as Beats by Dr. Dre earbuds which were not sold until 2009. In this game Lara is supposed to be 21 years old. She was born in 1968 meaning that the year is at least 1989 when she is supposed to be in this game however she has a smartphone and technologically advanced earbuds. So this timeline has now been severely shattered.  If you’re going to change a game, at least try to do it in the right span of time…

Sony’s New “Michael” Ad Has Gamers Amazed

Several days ago Sony released a new ad that had tons of diehard PS3 fans in awe. A quick summary of the ad shows several different video game characters in an old tavern saluting a person by the name of “Michael”. It’s a great way of showing how much Sony appreciates their loyal customers. I have been a Sony user since I was 7 with my first video game console, the Playstation. Even with the recent PSN hacking Sony has kept millions of people using their products. Despite the fact that Sony offers the Playstation Network for free to millions of people they gave away a ton of freebies in a Welcome Back Program after the hacking was resolved. Seeing this ad is almost like a personal thank you to the players. It’s also fun to see how many video game characters you can spot? Go on ahead and give it a try. See this amazing ad below:

Extra Life gives lives to those who need it

Gamers will be happy to know that they can help the people around them by doing what they do best- playing video games. “Play Games. Heal Kids.” That is the tag like for Extra Life a website that every year in October hosts an event where people pledge to play games for 24 hours straight and others donate money during that time. Extra Life has raised money for 170 different children’s hospitals and in total has raised $440,000. Earlier this month, Xbox 360 held an event called Gaming and Giving for Good on Xbox Live to help raise money for Extra Life as well.

This year’s Extra Life event will be held on Saturday, October 15th beginning at 9 a.m. To register for the event is simple. You can register for free by signing up under the Extra Life Classic and your goal will be to raise $100. You must enter in your PSN, or Xbox LIVE Gamertag in order to participate. Participants will then be asked to recruit 4 sponsors who will donate $1 an hour during the marathon ($24 total). Participants will also be given a link to a page where they can ask for donations and a goal tracker will be displayed showing how much they’ve raised.

This year I will be trying my hand at raising money for this charity event. It only makes sense, right? The most I’ve played in a day was 15 hours. Can I make it to 24? If you’d like to help please visit my page to donate! I will be helping raise money for University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina. The gaming begins October 15th!!!

Sexualization in Video Game Characters

For many years now there has been a constant controversy with the sexualization of characters, and those characters that get caught in the fire are typically female characters. So how much sex is too much in a video game? There are many people that believe it fits in right with the story and gameplay, and then there are many people that find it to be completely pointless and degrading. Some of the earliest video games have introduced sexuality into gaming such as Duke Nukem and Tomb Raider. As time went on more games were developed that took it to a whole new level such as beach volleyball.

In 2008, Fox News did a report on how the popular video game, Mass Effect, depicted pornography. Talk show host, Cooper Lawrence said that it gave young boys the wrong idea about women and that it was, and that the video game showed full on nudity. Spike TV’s Geoff Keighly rebutted saying that it was nothing like that. Lawrence admitted that she had never played the game, but rather based her information off what someone told her just minutes before the show. Mass Effect in fact is not full of nudity and sex. There is barely any nudity at all and sex is just a small 30 second deal out of the whole game, and you can choose to not have your character engage in it.

Let’s look at a character that is widely criticized for her appearance: Lara Croft.

She has always wore the same style of outfit throughout her whole career; small shorts, a tank top, hiking boots, and her hair in a long, neat braid or ponytail. A lot of people feel that her outfit is a bit too revealing and that she is a disgrace to women. Because women don’t really climb mountains with no rope looking for treasure, and wield guns all while wearing comfortable clothing for such an occasion. The thing about Lara Croft is that she was never made to be over sexualized. She was created and portrayed to be a strong woman. How is it wrong for a woman to be able to defend herself while searching for the next big archeological find? She has always been one of my favorite female characters to play because she is so strong and smart. She doesn’t use her sexuality to get what she wants.

In 2007, a game came out with a female character that gave some women a small glimmer of hope for the portrayal of women in games. That game was Mirror’s Edge and the character was Faith Connors.

She wears a simple black tanktop with white pants that go to her ankles and red sneakers. People have described her as not being very attractive, but that was a positive. Then they compare her with Lara Croft and say that she is a much stronger character because she doesn’t dress like Lara. But look at these two characters; both are strong women fighting for what is right. Neither of them use sex in any way to advance in the game.

And then there are the bad game characters that do portray women incorrectly.

Personally I don’t judge these characters for looking this way. Mileena is my favorite fighter in the Mortal Kombat series. In Hollywood sex sells and gaming is no exception. Creators feel that they must create busty attractive characters in order to gain a profit by appealing the public masses. Since 60% of gamers are males then attractive female characters are going to be a high selling feature. It’s not wrong to give characters a strong role and if they are wearing a tank top and shorts what is the big deal? It’s probably hard to climb a mountain in jeans. But it is wrong to make them appear as submissive and not having minds of their own like most video games (Mileena is an exception of this since she is one of the top fighters).

So which side are you on?