To the 'Eberts': Video games can in fact be art!

Why Do We All Want Roger Ebert to Concede That There are Games That are Art?


In essence, because as Joseph Campbell has stated, we want to feel like we are in harmony with others around us and to be a part of our society. If we are not, we're crazy or just wrong. Roger Ebert is the perceived voice of a large faction of our typical upper middle class society. It is that representation that I think many of us feel a longing to convince, not just Roger Ebert himself. I myself, could not really care either way what Ebert really thinks but I do care what everyone else thinks and there are many who goes along with his suggestion that games cannot be art. Why? Simply I want to be right and this is, as much as I don’t want to admit it, a subjective thing that a large group of people have to agree on. If I’m the only one at the party that thinks I’m right. I’m likely the one at the party who is actually wrong.

Good? Got that out of the way?

Okay so to all of you that agree with Ebert I won’t fall into the more obvious trappings. The Bioshocks. Not even my beloved Ico and Shadows of the Colossus. I’ve been playing videogames since the original Nintendo. That classifies me as experienced. Do I think Ebert is going to really grasp Shadows often times confusing camera controls when we all know he doesn’t actually plop down and play a game like that all the way through? My guess is he wouldn’t even slay the first beast and if he did, he likely will be so focused in wrapping his head around the climbing, grabbing and stabbing controls that he won’t really absorb the deed. So if you can clearly see why I suggest we need something simple, short and playable by a first time gamer without the need for a video game console and specific game etc. Unless the Eberts of the world are unusually open minded (their point about games seems to suggest they’re not) and unless they have a scrappy niece or nephew that just won’t give the point up, they’re not going to see a regular game.

Flash and online Games!

Jobs’ despised online media format can become the silver bullet in our war against the haters. So where does that leave us? With quite the treasure trove actually. There’s closure, today I die, passage, The Graveyard and I’m guessing “Sleep is Death” although I have not played it. Today however I am going to talk about “Everyday the Same Dream” by Paolo Pedercini of Molle Industria.



This game fits the bill nicely. It’s not stuck on death which could be viewed as a little bit of a cop out in that everyone is afraid of their mortality. Mortality being the one factor to pin a story on could be viewed as a little bit of an emotional cheat code. This game is more of an interactive short movie. You need only to use the arrow controls to move left or right and the space key to select. You cannot die. You can explore the various outcomes of the story at your leisure. Hell, you can even just stop playing the game for an hour and let the great music play as a soundtrack to your life in the background....like me....while sit here typing this in an office...surrounded by cubicles....which brings me to my next point. The story of this game. I don’t want to spoil it completely. As Roger Ebert understands, the best way to experience a great movie whether feature length or a mere short, is to jump right in without knowing the whole story.



So let’s just say if you’re like me and you live every day the same way and dream about breaking out of the confines of your life and doing something new then go play this game and I think you will find something to connect with emotionally as you would a piece of art. I know I have. That’s why I got up the gumption to write this article. I’m not a writer.



http://www.molleindustria.org/everydaythesamedream/everydaythesamedream.html

Microsoft E3: Milo Demo = AMAZING

Natal is Microsoft's new camera/motion tracking device and Peter Molyneux king of the overpromising game concept is at it again with a demo supposedly called "Milo" of a 'game?' where you interact in all sorts of different ways with synthetic character and his world via the motion camera. AWESOME!!! (pics cribbed from Kotaku and/or Joystiq)

LEFT FOR DEAD 2: A Director AI that is worth a Damn?

Looks like Valve was listening to our complaints and is pumping (read: too soon) out a sequel that will be visually identically but functionally improved version of Left 4 Dead. What am I most excited about? Branching paths! This will be a new feature of the '2.0' AI director. This is one of the things I suggested in my former post on the game and I think if they really push it hard (read: very different paths) it will add a lot to the game.

Also there will be melee weapons...which are fun in Zombie games :)

Project Trico

There is a trailer online in advance of E3 09 of the next Ico project (aka Trico) and it can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF3fED8EXl4&feature=related



Critique: Ironically I actually got to the point in my geekdom that I tried to imagine a game that would keep with the basic design philosophies of ICO and Shadows while offering something new and I came up with an idea that is in many ways very similar to this so I feel like I'm already in the 'head space' to think about this trailer.

1st impression: Sad that the creature is so adorable but it is brilliantly animated. I can already see Fumito Ueda saying: "I wanted to place my emphasis on the relationship with the (insert name here....we'll go with cat-rat-bird (CRB))and I felt that the best way to do that was to make the (CRB) likable and feel like a living breathing creature." Well done so far!

2nd impression: If this trailer as as much to do with the finished game as Nico had to do with Shadows of the Colossus then this isn't going to be too much like the finished game with the exception that the player will be human and there will be a (CRB).

3rd impression: I'm pretty excited but if this had been a bit more serious and maybe the kid had been a bit older and less precocious I would be over the moon ecstatic. Other than that? I'm buying it.

LOST CLASSICS: OUT OF THIS WORLD (US) ANOTHER WORLD (UK)

Brilliant f'ing game. Get zapped into another dimension that is like arizona but purple-grey and inhabited by hairless ape-men that make loyal companions when you help break them out of jail. Watch for the poisonous leeches, deadly panther-lions, Laser pistol reload times and F'ING UNBELIEVABLE GAME DESIGN!!! This was like Half Life 2 but like 10 years too early. EPIC WIN!!!

Oh what's that you never played it back in the day on the PC or SNES? Well download the pretty new PC version and get cracking!!!

Lost Classics: Super Mario Bros 2....the Japanese one

Don't tell me you played Mario 2 back in the day and you pulled up turnips and Princess could float on her dress NO!!!!!!!!!!! That's Doki Doki Panic

Don't tell me you played lost levels either, that's like the Mario equivalent of Star Wars Special Editions: More fancy effects, no soul no balls.

I'm talking about The Mario 2 that you see in the screen caps above. The REAL Mario 2 that wasn't release in the US until last year because the designers at Nintendo HQ realized that it was too hard for our puny american minds. I can describe the first play through of Mario 2 as follows:

Title Screen: Hmmm looks normal. In fact I should be able to jump right into this new-old Mario game like a warm pair of well traveled slippers.

1st level: It's so similar I'm sure i'll quickly find a bar of bricks with my first power mushroom in it. Hey there it is (see 2nd picture) I'll just grab that and get....WHAT? THAT F'ING MUSHROOM WAS POISONOUS!!!

2nd level: What happened to the flow where i could run fast and time kills and jumps like I was some kind of goddamn ninja!?! In this game the built in level/enemy cycle timing is just some sort of sick demented mouse-trap springing shut on my tiny Italian neck!

later level: A WARP! It's about time that I get a little brea.......I"M BACK IN LEVEL 1???? WTF!!!!

later level: (3rd photo) okay it looks like this pipe took me somewhere new. Maybe under this brick arch there is some sort of hidden power up, invisible block...nope...nope..okay f it. I'll just go back since this was obviously a waste of my.....the pipe doesn't work.....I CAN'T EXIT THIS HELLHOLE? IT'S A TRAP!!! (4th photo).

That's right Mario 2 is a goddamn equivalent of the SAW movies but in circa NES videogame form (5th photo). Videogame torture porn more than a decade ahead of the torture-centric horror wave that gripped the first 10 years of the 21st century movie industry.

INSTANT CLASSIC

Lost Classics: Super Metroid

Okay it's not lost at all, quite the opposite in fact. Super Metroid is f'ing found now that it's on the virtual console. What about for those sinners our there like myself that never even played the damn game when it was in it's hayday?

THEN IT WAS LOST AND DAMN IF IT'S NOT A CLASSIC!

The Short-short: Brilliant SNES era 16-bit graphics. Impeccable timing of animation of character and weapon fire sprites. An innovative indigenious creature health recharging concept, perfectly timed weapon and suit upgrades kept the sense of abilities and areas to explore from becoming stagnant. Gigantor bosses that cause you to stare in awe when you have to climb 2 screens height just to stare them in the eye. This is the Empire Strikes Back of nintendo games (US Mario 2 was the Attack of the Clones of videogames). Roaming the hallways and tunnels of the game world leave you feeling like you can sense the dust motes and bizarre smells that must be swirling around your character at all times. Don't believe? Enjoy being terminally wrong. Decided that you're going to pony up the monies and buy and ACTUALLY PLAY the thing on virtual console if you missed the experience the first time around? Enjoy being RIGHT!

note: all spelling/grammer errors are intentional and will be preserved to maintain a certain flavor and spontenaity....ety...aty..