These past 2 1/2 weeks I have been unemployed, between filling out applications, I have done what else but play hours upon hours of video games. Right now it's mostly been the Rock Band series, but I have also indulged myself in Haze, Fable 3 and Jeopardy for the Wii. While in terms of achivement points and advancing in these games, I've got a lot done, but I'm not sure I would call it "productive." I've always been one to want to be intellectually inspired and entertained, and many times, video games do that for me. But I've played so much Rock Band, I can play without thinking. I've played enough Fable 3, I'm now doing random sidequests, which are boring me. I'v created such a strong deck on Yu-Gi-Oh! that I always win. So what can I do to intellectually inspire my video game playing? Write about it, of course! So without further ado, I introduce to you my video game blog, The Spoiler Review. The Spoiler Review will be mostly reviews of video games, but also just general intellectual discussion of view games.
So let's start off with the title and what it means. You're not going to find the answer in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, but you will find it in the Urban Dictionary. Urban Dictionary defines it as "When someone reveals a previously unknown aspect of something which you likely would have rather learned on your own, such as discussions of art media such as video games, movies, etc." I'll give you a few examples from movies, and I'll even be kind and give examples from movies over 10 years old, so if you haven't seen them, well, it's your fault, if you you haven't been spoiled already. A spoiler would be telling you that Rosebud is the name of sled before you watch Citizen Kane. Another spoiler would be telling you, before you watch Soylent Green, that Soylent Green is people. If I told someone who has only seen Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope that Luke's father is Darth Vader, that would be a spoiler. If I told you Bruce Willis's character in Armageddon dies in the end and his character in Sixth Sense was never alive, those would be spoilers. Spoilers aren't just in movies; they are in video games, too. I would say that is because video games are becoming more cinematic, or more like movies.
If you haven't play or seen a video game recently, video games are becoming more and more cinematic. This is why cutscenes can be up to 20 minutes long in a video. This would also describe the success of the game Heavy Rain. Heavy Rain was a game where all the action was quick time events. For those of you who don't know what a "quick time event" is, it's a action-packed cutscene sequence in which, in order to perform correctly and move on, a certain sequence of buttons must be pressed. The whole game was this! Some would say that is boring, as if this video game were just one of those "choose your own adventure" stories. So what made it so good and so popular? It was a good story. The characters were well developed, the player was immersed in the setting, the plot developed to a climax which had closure in the end, and a fair amount of plot twists were sprinkled about. You didn't need to do a lot to feel like you were a part of the game.
Story has more of a stronger role than it did 30 or 20 years ago. In the 1980s, we were so enthrawled with the fact we could control what was on the TV or computer screen, we didn't care about story. In the 1990s, we oohed and awwwed at the improving graphics that we didn't care about story. But once we entered the 21st century, the graphics improved to a point where there was little room for improvement. And while Wii motion, Kinect and Move brought a new way to control the icons on the TV screen, we already knew it could be done. So now we wanted story. We wanted to immerse ourselves more in the game than motion controls ever could.
A few days ago I was listening to a gamer on YouTube complain that video gamers have been too concerned about story. He argued that all we need to care about is the gameplay. His example brought him back to the old school Mario game. He claimed that back then we didn't need the back story or Mario, Bowser or Princess Toadstool. He claimed we didn't need conflict or setting, but rather just play. I would agree to an extent. After all, a game usually starts with a gameplay idea, not a story. But he's missed two important aspects. The first aspect, as I told you, the reason we didn't need story was the the technology awed us so much we didn't need it. The second aspect is that he missed that Mario does have a story. It's a simple story, but a story nonetheless. The Princess of the Kingdom that Mario (or "Jumpman" in the original Japanese), a plumber (or carpenter in the original Japanese), lives in, has been kidnapped by Bowser in order to take over the kingdom. Mario has to rescue the Princess while trying to stay alive in a kingdom infested by Bowser's henchmen. It's as simple as that. Actually, it's sets up the short-term goal and long-term goal. The short term goal is to survive with the highest score. The long term goal is to save the princess. Both of those stemp from the story. Story and gameplay go hand-in-hand.
This is why story can now ruin a video game, just like it can ruin a movie. If a video has great graphics and great gameplay, but if the story is lacking, it can ruin the game. This is especially true for the ending. Ever watch a movie, and the ending ruined it? It was a good movie...until it got to the end, and then it was ruined. Most of the time it's due to bad closure, but it can be other factors as well. You can probably think of movies where this happened. I know of video games in which this has happened. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed had two bad endings that ruined the feeling of being a jedi, and it only led to a bad sequel with an even worse ending. A friend of mind hated a Prince of Persia game for the way it ended, even though the gameplay was great.
And this is what The Spoiler Review is all about. In my reviews, I do review the game fully for its graphics/asethics, its gamplay (including controls), but also the story. And that is why I talk about the end of the story, even if it "spoils" the story itself. A game can be ruined by the story, and the story can be ruined with a bad ending. I believe a video game cannot be properly reviewed without the full story, including the ending. So this blog is not for those who do not want to be spoiled. This is your big SPOILER ALERT! Now I will try to be fair by reviewing older games. (I believe revealing the end of a game over a year old is not a spoiler. You should have gotten the game within a year's time if you really wanted to play it.) But if you don't want to be spoiled, do not read on those games. I'm looking foward to intellectual chats on video games that will stimulate, entertain and inspire.
(P.S. For future reference, you might hear me talk about two of my favorite video game reviewers and critics. They are both found on the Escapist Magazine, an online magazine. The first one is Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, a British-born, Australian-residing video critic. Every Wednesday he posts a video review called "Zero Punctuation," named so after his fast talk. I will warn you he uses vulgar language, but if you can get past that, he's got a lot of good reviews. The second is "Extra Credits," written by the team of Daniel Floyd, James Portnow and Allison Theus. These 3 do not review video games, but instead look at video games as a whole, as an art, from every aspect, from how they are made to the future of gaming. I will put both URL below if you want to check them out. I highly suggest you do.
Zero Punctuation: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation
Extra Credits: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits
No comments:
Post a Comment