Well, what does all this fancy lawyer speak mean?  This is a major principle of criminal law that was asserted long ago known as “actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea“, or “an act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is guilty.”[ii] It is a principle that is still held true today in most developed criminal justice systems, and helps us to separate a real crime from an unfortunate accident.  This is a simplification to be sure, as the concept is expanded upon much more in the facets of law that employ it, but the root message is still there.  A person is not guilty of a crime if they had no actual intention to commit the crime.  It may not be evident, but this concept’s relation to the video game industry is very intriguing.

There has been no lack of studies in the academic world seeking to link violence to video games.  It is not my intent within this article to make any such distinction that violence in the real world is incited by way of the virtual one; I’ll leave that to the scholars in their ivory towers.  However, I am curious as to whether or not we as gamers commit crime with an “evil intent” in the interactive medium, and if this is a compelling motivation in our purchase and play of such games.  Do we buy certain games with a favorable disposition knowing that we get to rob a bank, purchase an evening with a woman of ill repute, or kill a person?  Is the ability to commit crime without repercussion the reason we play a game?

I chose, in my collegiate career to study the inner workings of the criminal justice community.  Essentially, I wanted to be Sherlock Holmes, or as Jeffery Anderson so eloquently put it, I was studying to be Batman.[iii] As such I’ve managed to develop a unique knowledge of the criminal justice world that one, with ample time and patience, could obtain by watching enough CSI or Law and Order.  Well, I’m being a bit harsh on myself as I do believe that the apprehension of law I’ve gained is a bit more actualized than the example I just provided, but the concept of intent should still be fairly easy to grasp by any well reasoning adult regardless of their experience with the criminal world.  Thus it is “evil intent” that we shall focus upon throughout this look at the video game industry.  The aspect of crime in games, and our ability to commit it, has been present for some time in the medium.  During the course of this article we will focus on multiple games/series, be they good or bad, that have the ability to lead the player toward the commission of crime, and as the title of this article suggests mens rea as a possible motivational factor for playing them.

Hitman: Codename 47 was released on November 19, 2000 by Eidos Interactive [iv], and while many like to exclude this entry when they discuss the series, the game birthed three popular sequels with a fourth on the way, and a feature film to boot.  In the series you play as Agent 47, the world’s most proficient assassin.  It is the job of the player to use the tools and skills at their disposal to eliminate intended targets.  The main focus of the game is the act of assassination, and while the protagonist is set up as a hero of sorts you can’t deny the fact that he is a killer.  It is the player’s means to kill regardless of the intended end.  The Hitman series is one that people play because it allows us to assassinate, and to do so in a manner that is both exciting and fun.

The next series is from the evil and twisted mind of Peter Molyneux.  With its beautiful settings and great game play Fable has become a fan favorite despite the disappointment it has managed to generate in those who hang on the claims made by Molyneux.  One of the major draws of the series is the ability to progress through the story in the manner befitting the player.  You can either choose to be a beacon of hope for those you cross paths with in the game, or you can steal, destroy, and kill everything in sight.  There is even a certain temple in both games, where if you lead unsuspecting villagers to it, you can sacrifice the innocent for your own gains.  It is certainly a pleasure to act out your super villain fantasies as the tale progresses, and Fable is able to perform well above par when letting us know sometimes it’s just plain fun to play the role of the bad guy.

We now come to the series everyone has been thinking of since they began reading this article.  Grand Theft Auto has been the target of the main stream media, and political ire since its release into the video game market.  With controversies such as “Hot Coffee” and the ability to drink and drive in the fourth iteration it is no surprise that the series garners a great deal of attention from those who don’t regularly participate in the medium.[v] The series is also the guiding light of the sandbox genre and has achieved over 70 million in sales earning it a spot on the top ten list of bestselling video game franchises.[vi] The crime capable of being committed in the games ranges from carjacking to murder.  Players could simply spend hours just killing people and not feel as though they have wasted a moment of their time.  It is a series that has perked our evil interests while managing to keep us coming back with great game play and massive worlds to explore.

Looking at these three games, one who isn’t deeply involved in the video game community could assume that crime sells.  Well, wait a minute.  The games that have been thus far presented in this article represent the upper Escalon of the gaming community, and if not they are certainly near it.  What about the games that don’t do so well in the market?  What about the titles that fans and developers alike would have vanish from our plane of existence?

This leads us to games such as Narc which was updated in 2005 from the original arcade game released in 1988.  The major controversy concerning Narc is the ability of the player to use and sell drugs that are confiscated from criminals during the course of play.  The game provides the player with a number of narcotics including speed, acid, and crack.  Narc received unfavorable reviews due to repetitive game play and a number of bugs.[vii] Overall the game just wasn’t worth playing, and despite the drug use that it allows players to partake in, it has been passed over by the gaming community.

Following in that same vein is Crime Life: Gang Wars, and if you haven’t played it count yourself among a lucky majority that has never suffered from the figurative bullet that the game fires through your temple.  Excluding my issues with the game, Crime Life puts the player in the position of a gang member tasked with regaining the former glory of his crew, and taking out rival street gangs.  The game offers a number of crimes to commit such as robberies and murders.[viii] Just like Narc, even though the game offers a number of ways to be bad it is regarded as not being worth the time it takes to put the disk in the tray.

Finally we come to the last game we shall discuss in this article.  Some of us have played it, and some of us haven’t, and if you haven’t maybe that’s a good thing for more than a few reasons.  Super Columbine Massacre RPG is not without controversy, and I’m ashamed to say that when I first read about it I thought that’s horrible, I have to check it out.  Regardless of the social message that the developers of the game were trying to convey, does a game like this draw us in because of the desire to play as two real life killers?  I have played the game, though not to fruition, and I have no trouble in saying that I wasn’t impressed by any aspect of my experience with it.  However, even though many didn’t like Super Columbine Massacre RPG was the initial draw to the game the ability to relive the Columbine High School tragedy from the point of view of those perpetrated the offense?  This is a question that each person who has played the game has to answer for themselves.

Our “guilty mind” is a factor.  It is present when we make our way to the local video game peddler to purchase our latest pixilated distraction, but just how much of a factor is it?  It would seem that while so-called “evil intent” is there with us when we play a game such as Grand Theft Auto or Fable, it is not the chief reason behind our love for them, it is a secondary motive at best.  Despite all of the horrible things that we are capable of with our virtual avatars it’s not why we hand over our hard won tenure to developers.  We do it because they make great games.  I don’t care if my motivation in a game is to slaughter innocent civilians or save the world, if the graphics are bad, the camera is horrible, and the controls are atrocious, I’m not going to play.  Yea, you can kill cops and rob prostitutes in Grand Theft Auto, so what?  There are many clones of the series in which you can do the same thing. Why don’t we play them?  It’s simple, they’re bad games.  Being bad is a lot of fun, playing a good game is better.   Mens rea for most of us is not as important as the grounded concept of a good game.

Nicholas J. Abbate

I urge everyone to comment, contribute, and disagree.  If you think I’m wrong let me know, if you think I’m right let me know why, and if your thinking of something completely different I want to know about that too. I am interested in your opinions and in hearing what you have to say.

[ii] Anderson, Gardner, Criminal Law

[iii] Clerks 2

[iv] Gamespot

[v] Wikipedia

[vi] Wikipedia

[vii] Gamespot

[viii] Gamespot

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When the game was released, did you hear anything about that in gaming news? They were unarmed civilians, and they didn’t have any clue what was going on. Chances are, you didn’t know about it until you’re awesome enough to terrorize polygons. So, why was “No Russian” so special? It’s special because you’re idiots. By “you”, I don’t necessarily mean “you”, mighty you who is a God send to lions and the anathema to bears. You devilishly handsome man or dashingly beautiful woman, you! Punch your mirror in its face; it’s trying to steal your damn good looks. I’m just kidding, you’re ugly.

Not you.

If you haven’t heard about “No Russian”, then you’re really far behind. In case you haven’t heard of it though, this Youtube video shows you everything and gives you some appropriate music to this controversial scene. The story behind it is that you play some kind of undercover agent in some Russian terrorist organization, and the people you’re killing are just doing their daily shit and hanging out at the local StarRusks or whatever. You can choose to gun them all down, or you can choose to not gun them all down. Man, these are tough moral choices. Why was this an issue again?

You are an asshole.

Personally, I don’t care who I gun down in a video game. I don’t have any sort of emotion or feelings towards these pixilated faggots who are just bullet magnets to my full metal jacket. Why should I? They’re not real. Sure, they represent real people (last I’ve heard, Russia is a real place and is located somewhere on the world map), but they’re not.

You're welcome.

It was even more of a “big deal” to everyone (read: blog sites related to video games/the news) that Visceral Games’ Dante’s Inferno had dead babies. Honestly, I can’t stand babies, so this didn’t bother me at all, once again, because they’re just pixels on my TV screen. The Hell-babies didn’t help either since they looked pissed off, attacked you in packs, had their guts out and had Scyther like blades on their arms. Baby or not, something charges at me like that and they’re getting wasted.

I am a pro at Paint.

After we (girlfriend and I) beat the game, I listened to some of the developer’s interviews. Surprise, surprise, there was an entire thing for these fucking dead babies. In it, they talked about the art and shit, but that was boring. It finally got to where the guy mentioned what you would feel being attacked by them. The developer guy wanted you to feel something. This isn’t grapes in a bowl at Halloween, it’s an already touted “edgy” game, and this doesn’t make it any worse. For fuck’s sake, there were chicks with vaginal tentacles and nipple tongues. Fuck you, Visceral Games.

I guess I’m a heartless, sadistic bastard since I advocate killing babies and unarmed civilians (disclaimer: in video games). I can understand if you were forced to kill outside of a video game, as I’m pretty sure that brings up a lot of emotion (unless you’re a badass). Really though, these are games, and the only people who get upset about this bullshit would be idiots, or websites/blogs trying to be first on Google search. Search for this game in 2012: Unarmed Baby Killer, you’ll be glad you did. I used a lot of pictures in this.

Don’t agree? Leave a comment, or you can e-mail me at raptor_jesus_vs_the_police@yahoo.com and I’ll make sure to copy/paste “Fuck you” at least thirty times.

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The term Nostalgia describes the yearning for something from the past, often in idolized form, and this description is perfect for those games you used to play as a child and became to idolize. The type of game where the sheer mention of the game title can bring a lengthy conversation about the games you played back in the day.

But, the question I find myself asking is Nostalgia always a good thing, or should it belong in the past itself?

The reason I find myself asking this question is because me and my friends were discussing about games we played in our childhood, with the typical titles like Sonic, Mario, Zelda, Streets of Rage, and Street Fighter making the grade. Bringing up the notion that they don’t make games like they used to, but this brought up the thought of times change, and games moved on with the times. By this statement I do not mean in regards to technology, but in the sense of consumers needs. As, in my childhood the idea of playing games was seen by many as a child’s activity, but as the gaming industry has grown, so has the main age group of the gaming generation.

With this in mind, do you personally think the game you played in your childhood, would keep your interest at the level it did when you played it originally?

Personally I find that games that kept my attention in the past would no longer keep me wanting to play more, even my personal favourites. Some of which I have had the chance to revisit using the likes of the Xbox Live Arcade, ROM’s, and released of collection of classic games across the past generations of both consoles and handheld systems.

The best example I could give on a personal level is Sonic the Hedgehog. Now this game is the ultimate example of the description I gave you of Nostalgia at the beginning of this piece. Just the mention of Sonic has memories of my childhood gaming years flooding back, and the hours sat trying to complete it at a time due to the lack of the save feature, so widely used today. Although the cheat remembered off by heart by many gamers to this day (up, down, left, right, A + start together) could always be used in place of the unavailable save feature, as this was used to skip the levels.

With Nostalgia in place Sonic the Hedgehog was this first purchase I made off of the Xbox Live Arcade. With the thought in mind that as soon as I got it the current 360 titles I owned would be put aside until I finished it, as I now had a classic to take their place. How wrong I was, I still have not completed Sonic the Hedgehog on my 360 to this date, even with the save feature now being available. But, that’s not where the Sonic Nostalgia ends unfortunately, I still even find myself buying the new Sonic games, just for the fact it includes Sonic the Hedgehog in the title, and that makes the Nostalgia set in. Even though I got the first Sonic title for the Xbox 360, and found it didn’t even live up to what I expected. I still found myself going out when Sonic Unleashed was released, my heart opened up to the Nostalgia, and I ended buying another game I found hugely disappointing.

With all this taken into account on how Nostalgia has effected my decision making, and each time leaving me with the a bad taste in my mouth I still find myself thinking it will always be the case with the Sonic the Hedgehog name. Meaning that even with these bad experiences I will still find myself spending money of the recent Sonic episodes recently released as announcements of the Project Needlemouse unveiling.

Don’t get me wrong, Nostalgia isn’t always the cause of bad things though. Some companies do make a good use out of Nostalgia, and make a game worthy of the ones you can remember playing as a child (unfortunately after a number of tries normally). The most recent example of this being Capcom and the ever popular fighting game Street Fighter, with the return of form for this franchise in 2009’s release of Street Fighter IV (after the disappointing Street Fighter 3 and Alpha).

Although I found myself having issues getting into the version I played as child in Street Fighter II’s re-release via the Xbox Live Arcade, the Nostalgia set in when they announced Street Fighter IV. I instantly had to have a copy of the game. So day of release I went into the game shop and left with a copy of [blippr]Street Fighter IV[/blippr], and got home from work and straight away booted up my 360. From the minute I started playing, until hours later when I turned it off I enjoyed every single second of it. Even to this day I still find myself being drawn to it, and playing it for hours when I do put it on.

So going back to my original question of ‘is Nostalgia always a good thing, or should it belong in the past itself?’, I find myself thinking although in some case it can be a good thing, that in most cases it most likely will screw you  over.

But, even with this thought on it, I believe I would still be drawn into buying something due to Nostalgia never mind how much I try not let it. Unfortunately Nostalgia is something that will always be around, even if we don’t like the decisions it can make us take, it’s not going away.

This is by no means an experience that was unique to me alone.  In fact, I would wager that most of the global population has felt this way at one time or another, and there have always been avenues of escape for such thoughts.  For a long time it was the spoken word, and as society became more literate it was the written word that reigned supreme. As we progressed in technology eventually devices such as the radio and the television made their way into the majority of homes.  Then along came the computer and with that the eventual advent of interactive games.  These forms of escape help to define us, they represent worlds that for a moment we are able to glimpse through pages and frames-per-second.  They grow with us and help to shape our view of the world.

This same growth has been seen more recently in the culture of video games.  We’ve gone from saving princesses to fighting wars, and on into the more adult themes that the medium now demands.  Despite the relative youth of the video game industry it has grown up, and has done so more in a way that a person grows from adolescence to adulthood.  It is quite unique in that the kids these products were originally aimed at have been able to take the medium and develop it with them as they grew.  From the fantasies of children, to the awkward teenage years where none of us quite knew what to do with ourselves, into maturity video games have managed to progress.  Thus in this unique form of entertainment we find a unique type of video game, the “grown-up” one.

The idea of “The Grown-Up Video Game” can mean many different things to many different people.  It could mean excessive violence, nudity, or difficulty.  I like to believe that while examples such as those in the previous sentence make a game adult oriented it takes something a bit more to make a game “grown-up”.  Well what do I mean by this?  The human experience is one that is made up of great hardship, pain, loss, death, and a multitude of experiences seemingly designed to destroy a person.  However, that same experience is also filled with joy, love, laughter, family and friends.  It is from these experiences that we begin to question, “Why?”.  What is the motivation behind a person’s actions?  How did their life culminate in the experience that we bear witness to now?  Is there a good reason to be waging war on this particular nation?  Why did he just blow that guy’s head off with a shotgun?  It is this sort of thinking that is beginning to make its way into our beloved interactive games, and I believe that it is a very good thing.

There are many themes used in video games in order to create this sense of maturity, and while revenge is probably the most common there are developers out there that are exploring other facets of life.  In late 2005, a game called Shadow of the Colossus was released to much critical fanfare.  Not only did the game feature stunning visuals and innovative game play, but it also delved into some of the more basic human emotions.  Both the themes of love and loneliness are explored in a ten-hour (give or take) journey throughout a vast world.  With very little dialogue, Shadow of the Colossus was able to aptly convey emotions that shape so much of who we are as people.  During the game, we follow the journey of a young man known as Wander on a quest to wake the woman he loves Mono.  One of the first things that strikes you in this game is the concept that you are alone.  In fact the feeling of uneasiness that you grapple with at times can be quite surprising, and will have you calling out for your horse Agro, just to have something living and breathing by your side.  Ultimately, Wander faces some of the largest foes that could be imagined in order to save the women he loves, and is even willing to sacrifice himself for the goal.  The game is a great representation of these themes and carries them well through the tale.

These so called “grown-up” games need not be relegated to the category of niche gaming.  In fact, at times we find that these video games are capable of reaching mass popularity among the gaming community.  It is here that we find one of our generation’s outlets for the expression of conflict.   The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series is one that has been able to provide a great social commentary on the conduct of war.  Why is a country willing to sacrifice so many of its young men and women in order to achieve a goal that is unclearly stated?  While Modern Warfare doesn’t seek to point out possible inherent flaws with international policy and aggressive military action, the parallels it traces between its virtual world and our reality are strikingly similar, and intentionally so.  In the second iteration of the series, I found myself defending America on the streets of Washington D.C., and while I wouldn’t consider myself a flag waving, activist marching American, I will say that on more than one occasion I found myself yelling, “Get the hell out of my country,” at the screen.  There is a political and more so nationalist message to take into account.

Now we come to Heavy Rain, a title that has been anticipated heavily within the gaming community for some time.  It is of particular importance to this category of games because from what we’ve seen and heard so far it is willing to take a real look at what truly motivates the characters on screen.  At the core of the game is the investigation of a serial killer known as the Origami Killer.  You play as four very different individuals all with their own reasons for being drawn into the investigation, a distraught father seeking to save his son to redeem the loss of another, a woman who struggles only for a bit a rest and reprieve, a FBI profiler dealing with resentment from his coworkers and desperate to solve the case before another person is killed, and a jaded, beaten down private investigator on the trail of the killer.  It is the experiences and the decisions of these people when they are desperate that so realistically seem to mirror many of the ordeals in our own lives.

The games highlighted above are by no means the only ones with any sense of maturity to them.  There are many other games and developers behind them seeking to place more of the human experience into the industry.   Video games represent a form of entertainment which is just now coming of age.  What the future of “The Grown-Up Video Game” is I’m not sure, but it is a category of the gaming culture that I am interested in and expecting great things from.  They may not be the most popular or profitable games, but I hope that developers continue to explore the depths that are possible when making a game of mature caliber.  The industry may have grown up, but it is also still growing and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

Nicholas J. Abbate

I urge everyone to comment, contribute, and disagree.  If you think I’m wrong let me know, if you think I’m right let me know why, and if your thinking of something completely different I want to know about that too. I am interested in your opinions and in hearing what you have to say.

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I first took notice of this trend way back in 2005 when DICE released their immensely popular Battlefield 2. In this example we have a game that not only changed its franchise forever, but made a huge splash with other developers and gamers alike. Battlefield 2 combined elements of several genres, and perhaps more than any other aspect, this made it exceedingly interesting. Here is a game that is no more than the sum of its parts, yet it remains undeniably brilliant. It took bits from real-time strategy and blended them with intense infantry and vehicle action, and for the first time in the history of the franchise, it took a page from the RPG. Battlefield 2 didn’t berate us with perks and skill points, but it did introduce us to the idea that time could translate into new gear in the form of unlockable weapons.

It’s hard (for me) to say if Battlefield 2 was better or worse for introducing this concept to its fan-base. Other games in other genres have since attempted the same thing, and with limited success. One example that comes to mind is Namco’s Soul Calibur, which has had a “special” game mode since its third entry. In this mode, gamers can equip their custom characters with a variety of weapons, armor, and items that change how their character performs. This inherently breaks the base game balance, and as such has been largely rejected by the hardcore audience that still follows 3D fighters. It’s hardly surprising that they would attempt to broaden their audience, since it’s no secret that fighters have faded in popularity, but it’s an important distinction that they did not alter the core experience. Like Soul Calibur fans, the most hardcore Battlefield 2 players also rejected this model, opting to use a modified version of the games base weapons in competition. Likewise, almost every new competitive FPS title has been stripped down and modified for competition, favoring a more simple approach to game balance.

This is the area, that in my opinion, warrants concern. There’s nothing wrong with adopting elements from massively multiplayer online role playing games where it most fits, but when you venture into the realm of competition gaming you’re treading into dangerous waters. Some games have handled these elements more competently than others, but I’m not convinced that they belong in truly competitive games at all. Fans of games like Team Fortress 2 will tell you that it’s brilliantly balanced, even after each of the admittedly fantastic class updates. But it’s important to note that what works in public play with an undefined number of players of equally undefined skill may not work in actual team play. Thus even the wonderfully handled Team Fortress 2 is subject to changes in the world of clan play. And please, don’t give me that “rock, paper, scissors” nonsense; this basic model of balance only works because of its simplicity. The more type of “rocks” you add to the equation will almost certainly make balance give way to exploitative gameplay.

If progression makes the classic FPS gameplay that many of us (still) love that much more difficult to properly balance, what is it worth? If developers are trying to increase interest among the uninitiated, perhaps they can start by trying to implement those ideas without losing sight of what has kept their most dedicated fans so loyal for so many years. I don’t want this to turn into another Modern Warfail 2 rant, but I think it’s an important landmark in the trend, and has set many fans up for disappointment. The simple act of removing mod tools, along with the much discussed dedicated server issue, has made it a bit of a joke among competitive players. Gone are the days of “promod,” and the only option you have is to play it their way. If Infinity Ward are so insistent on improving the variety of our experiences, they don’t have to do it at the expense of the experience that many of us already love. It really is that simple. If they don’t want to provide a good “back to basics experience,” they could at least continue to provide the tools that allow us to do that for ourselves.

Now, I’m not here to rain on the RPG parade. I don’t think that it’s clearly a bad thing that FPS games are beginning to adopt more and more from other genres. I actually believe that the combination of RTS elements into this genre is largely under-explored. That’s what makes indy titles like Natural Selection 2, and (hopefully) Nuclear Dawn so appealing, and it’s the reason that despite the awesome looking Bad Company 2 on the horizon, we’re still all really waiting for Battlefield 3. On the other hand, the adoption of RPG mechanics into the genre is anything but under-explored. Practically every new release into the genre, be its focus on single or multiplayer, is entrenched in progression more typical of World of Warcraft than Quakeworld.

These trends have had tremendously positive and negative effects on the genre. It’s all about a healthy balance, and the key world will always be balance. Most recently I’ve been enjoying my first romp through the world of Borderlands, and such a title would not be possible without components of both genres spilling over that line. Hell, the entire game is basically a patchwork quilt of other peoples ideas (I think Cortana told me that I’m looking for the vault from Fallout 3, but I’ll have to ask the dysfunctional robot from Invader Zim). Regardless of originality, games like Borderlands and Bioshock have increased my enjoyment of the genre, especially in terms of the solo experience—it’s just becoming hard to tell where one genre ends and the other begins.

The basic message I hope you take away from this exploration is that there’s an audience for a more classic approach to multiplayer that will be largely unfulfilled in the future if this trend continues to dominate the first person shooter genre. It’s my hope that developers will continue to deliver hybrid experiences without giving up on the classic concepts that have made this such a successful genre in the first place. Remember: Counter Strike and Quake didn’t need progression to remain popular for more than a decade!

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As military green craft of human design engage the blue alien Na’vi incumbents in battle on the planet Pandora at some point in the future, I mused Ubisoft might have been better off making their widely derided Avatar spin-off game an RTS. Then of course I realised somebody already had, it’s called Halo Wars.

The visual similarities of Avatar and the Halo games suddenly become striking. Set some years into the future, Avatar’s Pandora is a lush, colorful alien world presently occupied by a tall proud, alien race and a sizable force of human marines augmented by advanced technology who are a long way from home. What you’ve likely heard about Avatar’s plot (i.e. that it’s Pocahontas / Dancing with Wolves / The Last Samurai ; but in space) is true, so clearly it differs greatly from that of the Halo trilogy. The Na’vi too, are a vastly different race from the Sanghelli Elites in almost all other respects so the visual similarities are admittedly largely superficial in nature. Nevertheless, were a gleaming Forerunner structure to be caught in shot rising out of the forests, it would not have looked out of place. Pandora is the real star of Avatar and it’s a place you could well expect to find on a Forerunner designed ring-world.

Of course, the extent to which Halo borrows from Cameron’s Aliens is well documented, especially when we’re talking about the human marine forces. The man himself pretty keen to point this out only this week to boot. It’s iconic vehicles and weaponry, the Pelican Drop ship, Warthogs and Assault rifle owe so much to Cameron’s universe. The UNSC Marines, clearly Bungie’s love letter to Aliens’ Colonial equivalents. That Avatar would lean on Cameron’s previous work for source material in the same way that Bungie has is no surprise. But where the tone and atmosphere of Aliens is dark and gritty, Avatar’s Pandora is a bright and colorful environment comprised of elements you could pull from levels in any of the Halo games. Be it from ‘Halo’ , ‘Silent Cartographer’ or ’343 Guilty Spark’ from the original game, the lush vegetation of Delta Halo in the second or more recently the African forest of ‘Sierra 117′ in Halo 3 to name the most obvious. Unlikely as it may be that Cameron used the Halo games as inspiration for Pandora, the similarities go beyond the shared source material of Aliens.

It’s ironic though, that Avatar brings Pandora to our screens in such vibrant fashion just as the Halo series is heading away from it. The recent premiere trailer for Halo: Reach sports a much darker, grittier feel accompanied with suitably gruff dialogue from the members of Noble squad. Where the colourful tones of Halo distinguished it somewhat from Aliens, it appears in Reach it will at least be even less clear cut. If anything, Reach bears a greater resemblance to the Halo 3 shorts directed by Neill Blomkamp who at the time was working on the ill-fated Halo movie or more recently, that of the promotional trailer for Halo 3: ODST.

There are Halo fans who don’t particularly care for this dark and gritty aesthetic, eschewing that the world of Halo should always be bright and full of colour as in the original trilogy. This was never a view I subscribed to ever since I saw the first CG teaser for Halo 3, a desaturated sixty seconds of awesomeness that tells you all you ever need to know about the Master Chief. Blomkamp’s work on Halo: Downfall was different, but to me, incredibly compelling and District 9, the film borne from the ashes of the Halo movie’s demise (and my film of the year by some distance) was the ultimate indictment of what might have been. If a Halo movie was ever to be made, that was absolutely the way to do it. Cameron’s Avatar however, has shown us this isn’t necessarily the case.

Unsurprisingly given the staggering cost at over $250m, there is much debate as to Avatar’s impact on cinema. It’s a film that begs to be seen, especially in 3D. Concerns about the plot, dialogue or length are largely immaterial, even if Cameron doesn’t so much drum the over-arching anti-imperialist message into your head as repeatedly hit you in the face with it. These aspects are more than competently presented as you would expect from an expert film-maker. What blows you away is the spectacle and technical tour-de-force. After years of hype and false starts, a use of 3D that genuinely adds another level of immersion and the most believable incorporation of CG characters yet. Plaudits awarded before perhaps but like Star Wars did in it’s day, the bar has just been moved an awful lot higher.

For me, Halo’s inevitable transition to the big screen need not now be the darker, grittier path that Blomkamp envisioned, even if Reach would appear to be following in those footsteps. The technology is there for the lush, alien environments of the Forerunner ringworlds, the alien races of the Covenant, The Flood and a futuristic human military force to be brought together without risk of it winding up like the Spirits Within. The potential spectacle of an epic three way battle shot properly in 3D notwithstanding.

Not everybody mind, is now going to throw $250m budgets around at forthcoming releases, which should thankfully spare us endless cheap knock-offs of Avatar’s technology ala The Matrix ‘bullet-time’. But as Hollywood gropes around for new ideas and gaming’s cultural relevance increases, Cameron allows us to dream that perhaps it’s incarnation of one of video games’ biggest properties need not be done on the cheap. And for that, perhaps Halo still owes Mr Cameron one after all.

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You’re in a difficult position now. Either begin again, wiping the slate completely clean, or start from where you left off and face those bosses the enemies that you were struggling with when you were amazing at the game. Not all of us beat every single game that we buy, because we want to buy so many of them. This is what the game industry needs. The consumers who maybe buy 5 or more games in a month don’t need to be restricted, but encouraged and capable to return despite the circumstances. Ladies and gentlemen, we need a recap system.

This Is How

When I began playing Professor Layton and the Curious Village, I wouldn’t so much get frustrated with the puzzles as as I was with how much time would go on between them. It was a game where later down the line the puzzles upped themselves in intensity as well as solution time. The game really is no more than one puzzle after another wrapped in a story, and that story might actually be 10 pages long versus the 30hrs of puzzles it takes to get it all. It was nice that even when I put it down for months at a time I’d still have a good idea where Layton was. It wasn’t so much that the story was simple, or that there was none to begin with (I’d honestly have forgotten anything as many times as I left it), but every time I came back I was given a short, basic recap of the events that had transpired. This wasn’t complex. It was a 10 second slide show and it helped me understand what direction I was heading.

This Is How Not

Persona 4, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy XII – noticing a trend? All RPGs. I’ve put these games down, maybe 20 hrs or so in, and I’m not looking to go back as long as I’m mum on who killed my what now. If these games just took Layton’s approach to filling me in on what I might have done in hours 15-19, I might be encouraged to pick up where I left off, rather than feeling like I wasted 60hrs of combined effort in these games. Maybe I should stop getting into RPGs? Why, when something so simple could be done to push me back into these games.

Buy Less Noob!

Not really a constructive answer. Sure, it’s a good economic reason, and probably a bit better for the overall backlog, but this is a simple change that needs to be brought about. Think about it. I know half of my games are in my backlog because I got into them and honestly have no idea where I left off. So let’s say I only bought one game, didn’t play anything else till I finished it. If that trend caught on, how many Modern Warfare 2‘s would have been sold this November? I’m no good with hypothetical sales charts, but I hope you get what I’m saying. While I’ve got the imaginary chalk board out, how much could this increase sales of RPGs if I knew that if I got in a good 20hrs I could come back at my leisure. I know I’d make quite a few more worry free purchases knowing this. I might even be able to play a few more than just jumping back into a multiplayer title.

Do It, Then We’ll Talk

I don’t care what reason you spout off Mr. Developer, it wouldn’t be as hard as you think to do this. If you’re not willing to, here’s another thought. Mr. video blogger, do you have a capture card and a lot of free time? You do it, and make a million dollars off of it. I’m of the opinion of two people can do it for free, a few dozen paid employees can too. Publishers, I can’t be the only one here seeing this. Do it.

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There was never a point in my five years with World of Warcraft that I actually showered any praise upon it. Though I felt the game had promise from the start, it was not actually the kind of MMORPG that I wanted, and I knew it never would be. I came from Ultima Online which at its inception was a true persistent state world – something World of Warcraft was never even intended to be. The leveling scheme and race / character mechanics relegated World of Warcraft to being nothing more than an EverQuest clone. It was the best of what was available though and I enjoyed it for many years. I did just about all that you could imagine doing – I played on PvP and Normal servers, I dedicated myself to small group instances and pvp, I became a raider, and I eventually wound up leading a fairly large raiding guild. They were all enjoyable experiences for a time but ultimately even the spectacular group of people I had come to know and play with in my guild was not enough to merit continuing to pay for the game in the light of Blizzard’s ever more rapidly declining standards.

The decline in Blizzard’s standards has been an ongoing phenomenon essentially since the game began development. All that has changed over the years is the pace. Early in the life of the game I became obsessed with the fact that the overhead “minimap” showed strange artifacting and color blotches in areas beyond my sight over some hills. I was absolutely perplexed when I ventured far enough out in the world and realized it wasn’t artifacting at all but in fact a faithful rendering of what lies supposedly out of sight. Broken, untextured terrain lay just over every hill between zones and in uncharted areas of the map, areas that weren’t even particularly hard to see into from certain vantage points. Giant holes in the map just out of reach. Massively unprofessional work by ANY type of standards. As the years rolled on the snail’s pace of development continued to be a major letdown to all. The landscape to this day is littered with entrances to dungeons that were never opened – many of which were discussed as early as the original beta, but wound up relegated to expansions five years later either due to ineptitude or (more likely) scrimping. When the Battlegrounds first opened they displayed massive promise and were widely popular. Again, however, we would all be disappointed by the lack of development of new maps and the constant watering down of existing modes of play. A college kid in his dorm can hammer out a Capture The Flag map in a matter of hours – yet Blizzard is unwilling to even invest the time and money in that.

The answer to the question of why is simple – because they know they don’t have to. They won’t do anything about gold spammers or exploiters because trial accounts pad their subscription figures. Why would they invest money in development when they can retain subscriptions by lowering drop rates and adding “Reputation” gains that are time-limited by “Daily Quests”? You really think those daily quests were just a feature to give you more content? Of course not – most of the quests are nothing but gather / retrieve piffle. The key is that they allow Blizzard to control how long it takes to complete the provided (boring) tasks. For years people have been questioning why they can’t be allowed to fly in Azeroth. The answer lay at the start of this screed, they were too cheap to actually create a finished world map for RELEASE! If you could fly anywhere you’d see that behind the curtain is a mess of broken textures, jagged polygons, and holes in the world.

Which brings us to where I am now – a FORMER World of Warcraft player. I tried for months to hang in as many people are doing now. The frustrations I’ve been describing aren’t elusive or unique to me, they’re established facts that everyone playing World of Warcraft knows already, we simply choose to look beyond them waiting for the time when the game would be fun again. Many of those I once played with, who still continue to play the game, insist that they’re having fun despite the fact that I can see and hear the frustration every time they log in. They’re mistaking WAITING for fun to happen for the actual process of having fun itself. They remember a time when things were better, when they were having fun, and they’re holding on to the false hope that any moment now Blizzard will stop being so cheap and inept and will turn the game around. I’ve watched people log on only to raid, only to express the entire time how little fun they were having, and log off in frustration every night – and then claim when directly asked that they’re still enjoying the game. Eventually they’ll realize fun isn’t coming and there’s no sense waiting around for it to happen.

I know this to be true because I waited. I waited for months after it became apparent that Wrath of the Lich King raiding was a pathetic shadow of the original World of Warcraft raiding experience. I liked the people I was playing with and I didn’t want to leave them. If I could just make it to the next expansion, I thought, things will have to get better. Then Cataclysm was announced. Blizzard bumping levels on old content just to avoid making anything new. Flying brought to Azeroth – but because they’re too cheap to actually fix the entire map as they’d have to, they’d just “sink” it in the “Cataclysm”. Reading the description I literally could not believe what Blizzard was trying to sell me. We get more cheap table scraps while the masters gorge themselves on money by selling race changes and faction changes and gender changes and pets and whatever else they found that isn’t NAILED DOWN.

So, I bid my farewell to Blizzard, and while I know they don’t care – I’m hoping maybe a few of the people reading this will. There are so many of you out there confusing the anticipation of something fun happening for the actual experiencing of fun. Stop waiting. Quit now. There are plenty of genuinely enjoyable ways to spend your time. Don’t waste your money waiting for Blizzard to wake up and care. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. Just more tunnel.

As the dust settles from the year’s tent-pole release of Modern Warfare 2 it feels strange to remember that back in 2007, it’s true predecessor Call of Duty 4 itself launched in the shadow of the similar sized behemoth Halo 3. In this light, the usual eulogizing about “biggest entertainment launches ever” and comparisons to Hollywood ring pretty familiar and no doubt they will again when Halo: Reach lands at some point in 2010.

In some ways, it’s a shame that a year will separate the next iterations of the two biggest FPS franchises as it’s always interesting to compare the two and their respective developers quite divergent philosophies in FPS design. Mind you, gamers and their respective publishers alike will probably be thankful one won’t have as much opportunity to cannibalize the other in terms of their time and money. On the other hand, it will afford both Infinity Ward and Bungie the chance to keep an eye the other, perhaps improving both games as a result. Call of Duty 4 certainly didn’t go un-noticed back at Bungie HQ.

Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t do much to invalidate the fundamental difference between the two games, that of Infinity Ward’s preference for a heavily scripted approach and big set pieces compared to the more emergent AI driven gameplay of Halo. What’s fair to say is that Infinity Ward have gotten more a lot more adept at hiding the “stage door” this time around. MW2 isn’t without it’s sudden difficulty spikes or funneling of the player away from routes the designer didn’t want the player to go down by brute force but the occurrences are fewer in number and less transparent than say the TV Station or the infamous Ferris Wheel in the original.

Yet there is one particular area of Modern Warfare 2 that I consider to be a lot more like Halo 3 and that’s the over-arching story, or more accurately, the flaws in their approaches to it. A very well respected member of the Halo community once offered a criticism of Halo 3 that always rang true for me. The broad thrust being that whilst the in-mission fiction of Halo 3 was well developed, the over-arching fiction of the whole game connecting the missions was not. For me, Modern Warfare 2 suffers from a similar issue even though that’s not a criticism I’d lay at the feet of it’s predecessor. Although bombastic and told from multiple perspectives, all of the missions in the original game feed in to the same thread and converge elegantly with the SAS and USMC winding up working together through to the end.

The story in Modern Warfare 2 however, despite some excellent individual moments doesn’t feel quite so cohesive and lags behind it’s predecessor almost from the start. Whilst always a difficult act to follow, the opening isn’t a patch on the journey from the eyes of President Al-Fulani en route to his execution in COD4. Moreover, this time around the US “Ranger” missions do not mesh anywhere near as well with the rest of the game and it doesn’t help that they are arguably the weakest parts also. Were if not for the setting of a Russian invasion of American soil, they would be even more forgettable than they already are. It’s not coincidental in my view, that the second half of the game feels a lot stronger than the first precisely because the story focuses elsewhere and it’s difficult to shake the suspicion that Infinity Ward might have felt the same way. The story from the American soldier’s perspective is certainly bookended sufficiently but it’s well before the end of the game. I’d be interested to see what missions might have been left on Infinity Ward’s cutting room floor.

Using multiple perspective’s isn’t the problem per se as Infinity Ward have successfully pulled this off in the past. In Modern Warfare 2 though,  arguably all of the best set-pieces and all of the best characters are comprised in the other missions. Be it the snow-mobile chase, the roof-top escape across the favelas, the attack and subsequent escape on the gulag right down to betrayal of Ghost and the water chase at the finale. In comparison, running around a retail park defending a burger bar or the building to building fight down a leafy Virginia suburb feel rather run of the mill. Things take a turn for the better once the Rangers hit Washington but this is largely because of the setting and increase in scale. Understandably, the imagery of Washington in ruins faced with invasion by Russian forces (or even a wholesome American suburb) is potentially evocative for a lot of people, if perhaps less so for the Couch Campus resident Brit but it is in no way the highlight of the game it might be. Strangely, for a game all about big set pieces it feels half baked. Perhaps if Infinity Ward wanted to make a game about an American invasion they should have focused just on that, ala Resistance 2.

To be fair, the sequences either side of the nuke detonation and subsequent EMP blast were very well done, largely because it was a bait and switch. Trapped in the downed helicopter with an impending nuclear impact, most players would probably have not only expected the 24 style turn of events but also a reprisal of the excellent “Aftermath” scene from the original. At the same time as saying “Hah, we wouldn’t make it that obvious”, the scene also justifies the hitherto bemusing actions of Captain Price in launching the nuke in the first place, demonstrating the developers are capable of a decent unexpected (if far-fetched but hey) plot twist when they want to be. It’s not just these that are lacking in the Ranger missions either, it’s the lack of any real characters, decent or otherwise.

Whilst you might argue the toss about the missions either way, it’s definitely only the non US Ranger missions that have any actual characters in. Admittedly this is in part because they are reprised from the first game (even in the case of ‘Ghost’ who is clearly just ‘Gaz’ with a different name) but Infinity Ward opted not only to put them there in the first place but also develop them further in MW2. Next to these, the US Ranger characters are wholly forgettable. Even the considerable talent of Keith David cannot make Sgt. Foley stand out, perhaps suffering from having voiced too many games. Whilst many people may have just heard “Jack Bauer” in COD5 when Keifer Sunderland made his appearance but that in itself might be beneficial in some ways. Here I could be listening to the “Arbiter” from Halo 3, “Julius” from Saint’s Row or “Captain Anderson” from Mass Effect. Who I’m definitely not listening to is Sgt. Foley and it doesn’t help when the dialogue in Ranger missions appears to be limited to the two phrases, “Oscar Mike” or “Hooahhh”. The latter especially being over used to the point where it’s vomit inducing.

If Infinity Ward were a British studio, the disconnect in the effort put in to Soap, Captain Price and Ghost et al vs the Rangers might be understandable but they are of course based in California. Why not develop characters on a par with these for their US audience? It’s not like it wouldn’t be a profitable venture with rumours abound that even a supporting character like Ghost will receive his own spin-off of sorts. Did Infinity Ward consider the setting or “No Russian” to be sufficient or do they consider US audiences to not care about strong characters? Perhaps they just have the same man-crush on Captain Price that the rest of us Brits do but in any event, it’s certainly strange to see such a big imbalance between the two story threads in the same game.

For those that might point to General Shepard as a saving grace of sorts, I would concur he is at least a decent bad guy and the scene at the end of the safe-house infiltration certainly sets him up pretty nicely. But isn’t the Hollywood archetype supposed to be the hammy British evil bad guy defeated by the local heroes?

Perhaps Infinity Ward really are bucking the convention after all

Screenshots from PC Game’s Hardware photorealism article.

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Developers have been creating content for multiple platforms since the dawn of this industry. In the past, however, this often meant starting from the scratch on each independent platform. Even with the dawn of the Microsoft age of console gaming, things didn’t really seem all that promising for the PC. Some PC games made their way to the original Xbox, but fewer console releases traveled in the opposite direction. With the advent of more powerful consoles and more unified tools, however, there are ports moving across platforms in both directions more seamlessly than ever.

These are just a few examples of console-first titles that are making a splash on the PC.

There are no zombie shortages on the PC.

Resident Evil 5 (released)

Capcom isn’t exactly well known for their PC support. However, their participation on the platform seems to be gaining steam. Their seventh generation game engine, known as MT Framework, deserves most of the credit. The multiplatform engine has allowed Capcom to create software that runs on all “next generation” platforms with relative ease. The results have been tremendously promising, especially on the PC; many of Capcom’s other MT Framework titles have already made their way to the platform, including Devil May Cry 4 and Lost Planet.

Where Resident Evil had been halfheartedly ported to Windows in the past, the fifth entry in Capcom’s survival horror franchises represents the best version to appear on the PC yet. With support for post-HD resolutions and more accurate aiming, it’s arguably the best version of the game period.

There’s no demo for the PC version of Resident Evil 5, but there is a nifty benchmark tool that will give you a glimpse of how well it performs on your rig. The Resident Evil 5 benchmark tool can be found here.

Not shown: naked Cammy skin!

Street Fighter 4 (released)

Street Fighter 4 represents one of the more unique titles to appear on this list. Of all of the games that one would expect to make their way to Windows, fighters are among the least likely candidates. The PC version of Capcom’s Street Fighter revival is almost ironic, and yet, many have called it the “definitive version” of the game. In addition to all of the features included in its original console release, Capcom has upped the ante by including some interesting new elements, such as PC exclusive achievements and new visual filters. The community has even created a variety of custom costumes for your favorite characters, many rivaling the quality of the official DLC. If the appearance of Street Fighter on the PC weren’t already ironic enough, this game doesn’t even use Capcom’s MT Framework!

Street Fighter 4 for uses Games For Windows Live; unfortunately it does not support cross platform multi-player. If you’d like to see it in action, you can check out their official benchmark tool for Street Fighter 4 as well.

Like this, only better.

Batman: Arkham Asylum (released)

This title comes from a pretty fresh developer. Rocksteady Studios isn’t exactly well known in any corner of the video game industry, or, they weren’t until their new Batman title hit retail shelves. Many gamers applauded Rocksteady for executing a game in the Batman franchise that, well, doesn’t suck! Critics and gamers alike rave about this new stealth-action title, and nearly everyone agrees: the PC version is the cream of the crop.

Batman: Arkham Asylum makes use of Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, which probably made the Windows port an easy decision. For those gamers who have a beefy Nvidia GPU “under the hood,” this game goes the extra mile by supporting Nvidia’s PhysX accelerated physics engine.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was published by Eidos Interactive. You can find it here.

Assassinating PC's in Q1 2010.

Assassin’s Creed 2 (Q1 2010)

Unlike Capcom, Ubisoft is no stranger to PC gamers. They have a history of PC-centric game development, reaching back to classics like Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. Those franchises have witnessed a bit of a regression in the opinion of many PC gamers, as recent entries of such franchises target console audiences, and thus approach game design with a different mentality.

It’s not Ubisoft’s foundation in PC gaming that appeals to this list. Beginning, perhaps, with titles from the original Xbox (Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, Prince of Persia), Ubisoft has been porting their best console wares to the PC. This trend has continued this generation, with competent PC ports of a new Prince of Persia, and Assassin’s Creed.

Assassin’s Creed 2 will make its way to Windows PC’s in Q1 2010.

Will DICE deliver?

Battlefield Bad Company 2 (March 2010)

This franchise has been the darling of PC gaming since DICE released the original Battlefield 1942 way back in 2002. Since then, the series has received a slew of sequels and spin-off titles. Console gamers got their first taste of Battlefield on last-generation consoles, with the release of Battlefield: Modern Combat. A “next-gen” version followed, but it was Bad Company that really captured an audience. With multiple new Battlefield titles appearing on consoles, it was only natural that DICE’s PC fanbase felt a little ignored. DICE aims to change this perception next spring by bringing the former console exclusive to the PC.

In many ways, this game will test DICE’s dedication to their original fans. With the controversy surrounding Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, DICE has cashed in. Jaded and angry Call of Duty fans are looking to DICE to steal their hearts, and all they have to do is follow through. I don’t think anyone is expecting Bad Company 2 to be a worthy follow up to (the masterpiece) Battlefield 2, but it certainly looks good enough to hold us over for the next “true” sequel!

DICE will give PC gamers a sneak peak of their efforts in December with an open beta.

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