"We're shitty people, Joel. It's been that way for a long time."
Developer: Naughty Dog
Creative Director: Neil Druckmann
Game Director: Bruce Straley
Lead Designer: Jacob Minkoff
There's not much to say about this thing that hasn't been said already. I'm only saying those things that everybody's been saying because you don't finish playing a game like this and have nothing to say about it.
That being said, the ending of this game left me pretty speechless.
Rightfully so. The folks that brought us the Uncharted series, with each installment pushing the "games as art" debate into more mixed, ambiguous and dangerously arguable territory with its state-of-the-art cinematic ability at the time.
No question here, that if Uncharted 1 through 3 were a testing grounds of how to push gaming technology towards untapped potential, The Last of Us is a product of that endeavor.
Game mechanics, level design, art, UI, AI, multiplayer, DLC, content distribution, back-end, front-end, and all that other crap - yes, that's the bones of any video game anybody's ever made, from Candy Crush Saga to Heavy Rain.
They're the innate bread and butter. Without one or the other, it's not a game. At least Metacritic won't say it's a good one. So what do players look for in a good game? What's missing from the bread and butter? It's not rocket science.
It's been three days since I finished the final episode, No Time Left, of the five-part episodic zombie survival series. Several times throughout those three days, I have become deeply troubled because I kept thinking about this game. I ate a clementine today, which only made it that much harder to swallow. I realized early on that this was the only game to forge such a strong connection with me, deeper than just a superficial desire to play it out of enjoyment. I kept playing this game not because of it's fun factor, because frankly there is no such instance in any of the five episodes out there where fun is ever factored in. You play it because you have to. Like finishing each episode, getting to the end, and sacrificing everything with the choices you make is the onlypossible thing you can do.
This is a game that will be discussed in online forums, lecture halls, and gaming websites for a long time. From a developer that's been in the down-low for quite some time, known for several sub-par games (Back to the Future? Wut?), and some memorable ones (Sam & Max), Telltale surprised absolutely everyone when the first few episodes rolled out. Because it just kept getting better. And rawer. And unbareably addicting. What this video game has done for the industry, it is not something to be ignored.
It is a revolutionary gaming experience. Here's why:
THE STORY
By far, the greatest virtue of The Walking Dead's offering to its players. This is a compelling, loyal story to the source material, and yet it offers something completely new -- it takes advantage of the medium that its produced on. The wise choice to make a new narrative set in the same universe opened up an entire new canvas of possibilities, and the writing team took advantage of it, by the spades.
Set right at Day 1 of the zombie epidemic, instead of watching Rick Grimes in comatose in a Georgia hospital, we follow Lee Everett, a college professor stuck in the back of a squad car, on his way out of the city. The slate is clean. We know nothing about this guy. But at the end of No Time Left, the tether between character and player, avatar and human, it's closer than most games can ever hope to achieve.
The second central character, Clementine, is the lifeblood of this
series. She is the core -- Lee might be the player's avatar, the main
influencing factor within the game's story, but Clementine is cleverly
constructed to be absolutely everything to the player -- the
core, the goal, the emotional center. From Episode 1 through to Episode
5, Telltale's story team has been able to strengthen and reinforce that
notion with each single dialogue choice for Lee. And her presence just
drives the motivation to finish the game, however you're playing it. The
amount of investment we put into this nine-year old girl is through the
roof. I furiously clicked my mouse button if any zombie or human went
anywhere near her -- I felt genuine anger when her life was threatened,
and I wanted to hug her to death myself whenever she was sad. One of
the best non-player characters in gaming history, and definitely the most
deftly-written, organic and complex child characters in any story I've
ever read, played, or watched.
Each episode deals with a chapter in Lee and Clemetine's trials for survival, from the original survivor group of Episode 1 in the drugstore, switching to the motor inn, down to the dairy and eventually into Savannah in the hopes of sustaining Clementine's search of her parents -- its a mirroring of the comics that works so ubiquitously that there is no detachment from the structure of the story. It takes the context of both the comics and the television show, and imparts its own elements, given by the nature of the video game medium, and molds those mechanics to serve the story. The separation of these chapters are natural, gripping cliffhangers. And The Walking Dead is nothing without character deaths -- and they come a-plenty. They are all left-field. They all made me gasp, sometimes yell. They are all heart-breaking in some way or another. There is no extra air being wasted -- all these characters have a part to play, and they're all essential to the story; of course, this being a game structured around player choices and their effects on characters, that's a necessity. And nicely done it was.
There was never a point in the game where I stepped out of the story. The immersion was deep and satisfying, emotionally draining because of the subject matter, and relentlessly manipulative. Players never get away with a story choice that won't have consequence later on. The 'hints' to notify the player that an NPC will 'remember' certain things -- that's the tease that gives the added tension of the gameplay mechanic. But story-wise, it's an incredible achievement for this amount of immersion to come from a point-and-click adventure, and I truly think its because every element of this game's development has always served the story. By the fourth and fifth episodes, Telltale had mastered that to the tee. And the result was an ending sequence that collectively punched every player right in the feels.
The best part about this story? It wouldn't work in any other medium. It is distinctly a product of its constraints and its opportunities set by the nature of the video game. The interactive storytelling, the branching character outcomes, the poignancy of player choice -- all gone if you transpose or adapt it into another environment. Like the comic takes advantage of the ever-lasting storyline, or the show takes advantage of the power moving images can do for a story, the game puts all its cards on the table.
THE GAMEPLAY
The technical aspects is where a lot of critics would have had parts to nit-pick, but it all becomes moot by the further episodes, where Telltale really figured out how to handle their limitations in an effective and terse way. Using the repertoire they had, they turned simplicity into a complex player-centered experience. The playing of a point-and-click adventure has that level of nostalgia that early gamers in the 90's love, but there was never a Walking Dead kind of brooding storyline to accompany it. What do you do to mesh the two together?
A lot of the studies coming in about why exactly the game is just so good keeps coming back to the decision mechanics of the player. The dialogue options, and the dialogue itself, is the core of the gameplay here. The adventure elements of searching for interactive parts of the levels, or the short action sequences are always there as effects of the initial choices that players make, through these instances where they must make a choice to decide the direction that Lee and Clementine should take.
Rooting them in the themes of the game, instead of the progression towards a goal, is how Telltale solved the point-and-click risks. Each dialogue option represents a way to respond to characters that would change their disposition or attitudes towards Lee. The player being in control of these decisions places a unique kind of responsibility in their hands -- not like an sandbox shooter, or a platformer, where the level of detachment is clear and accepted. The Walking Dead is an intimate, personal experience. The detachment instead comes in the form of control. The pre-ordained selections for dialogue are going to be Lee's thoughts, players choose the kind of Lee they feel is the right one for the job. So, players maybe aren't in the shoes of Lee Everett, but are responsible for constructing his attitudes. That sense of responsibility towards a character drives the gameplay.
Everything branches from the choices. The emphasis on full-circle, karmatic foreshadowing help hammer that down for the player. And without a doubt, it becomes one of its central themes - and also it's one of the themes of both comic and television show. Gameplay serving story.
Most of all, it's simple. Icons to represent points of interaction. Four directions of movement within an environment. Optional hints. Everything designed to minimize the focus of the player's attention on what they're doing, but rather, why they should do something.
THE DESIGN
Aesthetically, the stylized, comic-book art design of the game is the best choice Telltale made right from the starting gate. Importing that connection with the comic book universe not only settled down antsy comic book fans, but it aided the construction of that universe tenfold. It just looks straight out f the pages. Immersion factor multiplies quickly. The gore is so prevalent, but it's never over-the-top, never kitschy or silly. The raw and the grit is there, not in the detail, but the atmospheres and the soundtracks and the colours. Complexity hidden under simplicity is a running visual theme here. The faces emote so well for stylized faces, but the expressions are heightened by the weight of everything that's going on.
The sound design obviously gives the dimension it needs. Jared Emerson-Johnson's sombre and ominous background score punctuates just about every major decision with a melody that, on cue, will bring you back to those fateful decision in a heartbeat. By Episode 5, it's a cue for waterworks.
The locations are fittingly TWD-esque. The drugstore - enclosed, encapsulated, a boiling pot for tension, waiting to fall down. The motel is wider, but way more dreadful. Dilapidated and tired - just like its characters. The dairy farm's idyllic falsehood represents just that -- there is no safe haven from what they're experiencing. The train is a much more direct thematic connection to the story, and it has a lot of good story moments. Pushing forward to the end, full steam. Until Savannah, with the sewer system, Crawford, and the mansion, it's a variety of locations to evoke a variety of moods and feelings, with all the characters running amok between them, the sense of evolution and emotional progression is supported by steel-thick design and aesthetics that augment just about everything.
THE VERDICT.
Game of the Year for 2012, it should win all the awards. Just the context of having a second-rate, pseudo-indie developer come out with this gem, it's a direct display of story overpowering flare, sales revenues, marketing prowess, or franchise profitability. Just tell a fucking good story, and keep that goal with every artistic, technical or gameplay choice, and you'll have an amazing game. In a way, this is the best fan-fiction in the world. The collaborative nature is undeniable - players themselves get to impart their own thinking into the outcome, sort of, of how Lee and Clementine end up. The developers took everything they knew about The Walking Dead, and kept their vision sound and loyal.
Buy this game, if you've never played games before. It's simple to understand and unbelievably addicting from the first 10 minutes in. If you're gamer, play this game because it's not like any other game you've ever played. If you're a person, play this game because having the chance to feel this kind of emotion from fake people gives you a refreshing break from the simplicity of real life.
The Walking Dead will make you feel alive with conviction and motivation. Play it, and you'll know why.
It's here! One of my personally most anticipated MMO's hits wide release today, and chances are you're gonna get more than what you bargained for in terms of a traditional MMORPG game.
I talked about the The Secret World a year ago when the first news leaked that the guys who did Age of Conan (Eh...) where at the drawing board for a whole different take on the game genre. The first news kinda blew my mind when I discovered there was a plan to make it modern-day dark fantasy, set in the 21st century, and centered around secret organizations, conspiracy theories, and mythological monsters that plague the world at night.
Yeah, that sounded pretty dope.
So I've been following the news around as it comes out, and unfortunately because of school and whatnot I've been unable to stay on top of the news for this blog. But I have been posting a lot a while back about it, so hopefully that tickled your fancies.
The Norwegian game developer Funcom has stated a $14 monthly subscription fee, so everything sucks that I can't play it until I get a steady job (lol) or waste all my remaining funds on more games (God forbid).
The best thing this game has going for it is it's completely unique story world, at least in a fantasy-laden genre such as the MMORPG. You've had The Old Republic, but that got botched pretty damn quickly. And while the new World of Warcraft expansion is on the horizon, and Guild Wars 2 in August is arriving, The Secret World still has the upper hand in the MMO front with the earliest release.
Out of the three, The Secret World and Guild Wars 2 both have a good chance of catching a lot of people's attention in the gaming world. Both games have very specific and unique gameplay mechanics that are a far departure from the steadfaast WoW system that's dominated all games that have come in recent years.
Let's hope that changes with The Secret World. And now, Cinematic Trailers galore!
Still gonna write some fanfiction about this game. Honestly though, this story world looks amazing.
With the Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Ubisoft and EA Conferences over and done with, what else is there to do at E3 when you're not actually there?
I assume we spend countless hours glued to our screens refreshing any kind of video services we have open waiting for a new trailer to pop up on something we were hyped up about at the beginning. Or we just lose interest.
But, there have been lots of NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS over the past few days, I think worth sharing because it marginally interests me while I wait for Guild Wars 2 and The Secret World to come out because I am way too stoked for digging my hands into those story worlds, like omg.
Wii U will support two separate gamepads, possible 5 player games
New Super Mario Brothers U
Mass Effect 3, Assassin's Creed Spin-off, Zombi U -- all on launch
Nintendo has a lot of games
Beyond: Two Souls is NOT a rehashed Heavy Rain
If you're offended by the notion that Quantic Dream makes "interactive movies" and David Cage is a "frustrated film director" then you're an idiot and have no place making opinions about anything ever. Let me elaborate.
Video gaming is an incredible medium of entertainment. Its constraints are almost non-existent, it's engagement is what radio and television have striven for for more than five decades. Its speed of development and technological direction is unpassed. There is so much potential in this medium.
And your shitty head can't wrap around the fact that gaming can be more than top-down dungeon crawlers, or achievement-based shitfests where people yell at each other through headsets and kill each other aimlessly in a military simulation. Well, you're narrow-minded. You're a goof. Quantic Dream pushes the envelope on what gaming can be, and should be. Same with Ubisoft Montreal's Watch_Dogs. The fact that they're even making a new, A-Title property out of nothing and putting their cards on the table is a testament to their ambition and loyalty to the industry. They realize something is stale. They want to give it a jump.
Trade exhibitions like this are for developers and businesses hype up consumers and introduce new things they're doing to engage their peers and colleagues in the field. Because we're shitty consumers, not to mention the most demanding, needy, ungrateful and unreasonable consumer base in any form of entertainment, the developers have listened. To the sales, mostly. And sales call for repetitions of established franchises. Your Madden 26's and Call of Extreme Duty: Modern Black Ops Warefare 7 will saturate this market until it can't even breathe out of its mouth.
I'm angry, yeah, but I'm optimistic. At least the current franchises, for the most part, have a respectable developer that we can trust with delivering new, exciting, innovative content. But if you chastise an indie developer, our a non-"mainstream" developer for innovating in their own way, for truly trying something new, then you're a terrible gamer. You don't get the video game industry.
Casual gaming has risen in the ranks to be a powerhouse for the industry. Social gaming you can't even escape whether you're in public, in private, or in outer space. And those developers are ones that understand the nature of the industry, the beast that is this thriving new technology that will drive the global market for interactive entertainment, probably entertainment as a whole.
It's not the games and the creators that need to catch up with you, it's you that needs to catch up with the developer that are winning the race. And I'll tell you, no matter how much Blops II sells, or if there's a Dead Space 5 down the road--the bigger number doesn't mean the better game. We seem to forget that often. Moving on,
Speaking of sequels and the like...
So far, not just today -- footage for Dead Space 3, Borderlands 2, Assassin's Creed III, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Resident Evil 6, Halo 4, Lost Planet 3, and more..
HAWKEN.
Just gonna stop the bullet lists now, nothing else interests me. I've never been into MechWarrior, or any kind of mech-shooter game, but Gundam is an awesome series, and most of its spin-offs. Hawken's a game made from the ground-up by a handful of devs with a lot of heart and passion and a solid idea to build up from.
What more could you ask for? Glad they're finally to unleash onto the world the fruits of their labor. I hear its free-to-play too, which is too much to ask, but we're getting it. I guess they'll make ample fanboy money from that ridiculous exclusive controller you can get with it?
Try me.
And a kickass live-action-y trailer:
So there's that.
I'm trying my hand at responsible blogging here, so give me a break. Also, if you don't like my opinions, please share my blog with people who will. Much appreciated.
Welcome back to another day of E3 in the wraps! You excited?
Well, being the responsible games industry journalist I've suddenly set out to be for this week, I've done nothing but marathon Season 5 of Mad Men for the entire day. So I only caught about three quarters of the Nintendo Conference (but really they have like two more other ones) and there was a whole lot of this:
My body was ready.
Lots of Wii U stuff. Sweet. Scroll down for a picture of what it looks like. It's just a bulky tablet with bumper buttons and analog sticks. And then this:
And the actual game:
This 3D roaming-camera-stillshot-style trailer trend is really taking off, eh? And surprise, surprise, who's at the development of this zombie game? UBISOFT.
Don't know how the hell they're pulling off what they're pulling off but they should keep doing it.
Otherwise, I'm too lazy to cover what else happened at the Nintendo conference, lots of Mario titles, some Pikmin 3 for those of you to care...and a lot of awkward scripted stage banter. Gives me the shakes when I have to witness that comfort mutilation in my living room.
And living room integration seems to be what Nintendo's pushing with their new console and peripherals. I'm cautiously stoked. Seeing as I haven't touched my Wii for a good year and a half, hopefully I get some spark in my life to pick up Super Smash Bros. and suck my wayto the next generation of gaming as Nintendo so confidently totes.
IN OTHER NEWS:
Developers are releasing game trailers for their upcoming releases
Sony is using two flagship comapnies to support their entire arsenal
Black Ops II still deserves attention (fucking really?)
Walking Dead: Episode 2 -- the first one actually does not suck.
People love their sequels.
Go check IGN, Kotaku, The Verge, TDW Geek, or any other related blog for some other news.
I'm lazy. This is hard.
THINGS I MISSED YESTERDAY:
Yesssssss......so looking forward to this. Storytelling, while it's sophisticated and the best games always employ the best tactics at combining interaction with it, it seems to get a backseat from both audience and developers (most, anyways) when it comes to creating really good games. Games are stories, when we're put into the story, maybe it takes away from some of the glamour of being a spectator--not affecting the outcome. The lure of voyeurism, of non-consequence.
Shove a controller in your hand and a faceless protagonist to move around, and you get ultimate power and control over the story being told. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to you. But it definetly changes how we tell stories. Quantic Dream understands that balance.
Beyond: Two Souls looks crafted. Like an artisan's work. Handled with precision, care, and a deliberacy (not a word but fuck it) not found in, let's say, the Call of Duty franchise. Heavy-handed comparison, I know, but fuck those guys. Facial recognition technology and motion capture, new game engines starting to get showcased (Square Enix I heard has unveiled one in preparation for some more Final Fantasy goodness), new IPs being released--E3 is turning out not so bad.
It's that time of the year again, kiddies. Where the basement dwellers come out of their man-caves and half the world readies themselves for another Call of Duty title (when will it die?), it's the Electronic Entertainment Expo! Cue confetti.
THE RUNDOWN - E3 DAY 1 (In no particular order)
We're gonna talk about gaemz n' shit.
So much Ubi in my Soft, it's ridiculous.
Activision/Treyarch/Infinity Ward/whoever the fuck is working on another COD spin-off pocket-money-grabber.
Dead Space 3! Buuuuuuuutt....
Wii U is still important. IT'S STILL IMPORTANT.
Since my journalistic resources are limited to what major blogs to follow, my coverage of E3 this week will be limited to whatever things I find cool from day to day, and if I have time or am not too lazy to actually share with you my thoughts on the new titles/games/tech/anything else.
SO. It looks like Ubisoft's conference had a few gems to showcase. Ubisoft Montreal announces their never-before-seen footage of a near-future, open-world, third-person, computer hacker action-adventure title that they've been working on, Watch Dogs. The demo looks great, the concept sounds even better, and the footage was amazing detailed and sleek. The UI in its current phase I'll be happy with--without a doubt they'll keep changing it until the release date is announced though.
Watch Dogs sounds like the kind of fresh air that the gaming industry needs to breathe in order to rejuvenate a lot of what's being going on. Last year it was sequels and threequels and prequels, this year it's the same, except Nintendo has new toys moms get to play with (Wii U looks pretty slick however).
A new IP with the current technology the industry is capable of utilizing is reassuring to me. The facial mo-cap alone on these characters seems like it's worth a shot. Knowing Quantic Dream's next project is going to be announced soon (the guys who did Heavy Rain and that amazing tech demo at GDC earlier), can't see what's in store for gaming technology come the next year.
Microsoft's announcements with Smartglass, Nike endorsements, and Blops II, including whatever I didn't pick up, we're pretty good too. I guess. Fuck Microsoft actually, why would anybody want IE AND Bing on their TV?
The other big videos/demos released today (minus Blops II, which did not enthuse me at all):
Risky move from Visceral to try an action-adventure co-op game, rather than the traditional Dead Space roots in isolation, horror, and tension. Getting some Lost Planet vibes, maybes some Resident Evil in there. The latter already having turned into a shooter-based action adventure, I'm a bit weary.
But (and there should be a lot of buts here), having not played Dead Space 2 yet, I'll have to check the scare factors in that game, and correlate them with dismembering space-gun action, and see if this genre adaptation/total switch-up is acceptable. The biggest risk here? Co-op gameplay for what seems to be the story mode. Introducing a second player (hopefully optional?) is a strange move that really could go both ways. Definite change in the tone and direction for the franchise as a whole.
What I get from Visceral Games is a bigger focus on story potential for Isaac and the game universe. Having already exhausted the resources in creating one of the best survival horror games of our generation, and having a decent follow-up to that (by horror game standards), it's really more of a blank slate than Visceral probably hoped for. If they have to sacrifice a few scary-ass scripted events to get something fresh for the fans, so be it. Big giant alien mutant monsters never hurt anyone. Still looking forward to this one.
Gonna give the Wii U some love too. Saw an internet comment talking about the "Pro Controller" and how it's ironic payback at other console companies stealing all of Nintendo's ideas and flipping them off. Which I like. Fuckin' Microsoft. Seriously, it looks like a 360 controller.
But with the apparent universal remote capabilities and the "reader/writer" thing I'm still trying to wrap my head around, the applications for the Wii U device open a lot of doors for how gaming can grow as a social activity, which really has been Nintendo's thing. With their conference tomorrow, I expect a lot of surprise announcements? Probably some plumbers involved.
Sony's conference is underway -- expecting Quantic Dream's Beyond to make a showcase, and show how much the tech the PS3 is capable of has come along. Then it's 4 more days of gaming awesome.
Coverage will be consistently sporadic and unreliable, just the way you like it.
Other than that I'll just rant about how much I hate the Call of Dooty series and its fans and bitch and moan about games I want but will never have.
But I have Arkham City: GOTY Edition so fuck y'all.
The video game industry doesn’t have much of the exposure and awareness that other entertainment mediums have, such as film or television—having grown to the size and popularity it has over the past 20 years, I’m surprised a project like this hasn’t been capitalized on by a bigger studio.
Then again, that’s probably a good thing. This trailer seems particularly earnest about its subject matter and those being talked about. Indie game developers logically would be the most mentally driven and have the most internalized struggle in getting their game out there. Without support from investors, a large development team, or higher-ups choosing a production timeline, it’s really a free for all for indie game developers to bring their baby—in the form of an innovative digital experience that’s unique to them and their players—into the real world.
By that notion, it should be full of drama, intrigue, and struggle.
Don’t know about you, but it felt dramatic enough.
Which is a nicer way of saying this documentary might make prejudiced or ignorant people outside of gaming culture a bit less so.
More importantly, HBO has picked up this concept, as rumours have said, for it to be a fictional series in a thirty-minute format (thankfully not a sitcom), about an indie game developer building up their game from ground up.
Hit or miss, it could go down to how much consulting HBO does with the gaming industry. You do something like this wrong and—as recently demonstrated about the Internet—if you fuck up, there will be consequences. And gamers are not a particularly forgiving bunch of demographic. It’s HBO though, so fingers crossed.
Right now, Spike’s 2011 Video Game Awards are in full swing, and a slough of awards have already been won, with Portal 2 rightfully taking many of them, including sweeping the voice performance category, as well as Minecraft snatching a well deserved indie game victory.
Pretty happy with what’s been shown so far, save for the uber-casual vibes I keep getting from both host (though he was great in Tangled) and audience—the way they say ‘graphics’ just irks me, maybe it’s just my elitist geek showing through—but one of the greatest things about gaming award shows is that I can see the trailers live as well. Conventions are lame in that you have to be there to see them.
Despite the fact that I just saw Charlie Sheen onstage and Modern Warfare 3 win an award, it’s still a good feeling when you feast your eyes upon something like this:
Naughty Dog Inc. are the guys behind the Uncharted franchise. Three games in, they’ve established themselves as one of the most innovative game developers when it comes to interactive storytelling. They did the games industry a huge favour, if you already didn’t know.
They’re developing this. So hopes are high, and that’s helped well along by this amazing cinematic trailer above. What’s wrong with that zombie-or-whatever’s head in that trailer? Well, it’s not science fiction.
It’s just science.
Okay, not fully just science, but damn it, this concept is outstandingly cool for a post-apocalyptic game, and there’s already been a huge surge in recent years, we’re hoping for a fresh take. Could this be it?
Naughty Dog has yet to fail its fans, or its industry. Or its console. If this is a PS3 exclusive, Microsoft might finally have a run for its money. Console-war pointlessness aside, this trailer is a definite reminder for me of how far video games have come artistically as a form of more than just cheap entertainment.
It’s a medium that’s like no other, and should stay that way. It should be the next step. If this lives up to what this trailer is teasing, lets hope games like this push that notion forward.
UPDATE: Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim takes Game of the Year, along with Best Role-Playing Game. Bethesda Game Studios takes developer. This makes me happy, and makes up for Charlie Sheen / MW3 combo (a fitting one, actually).
One thing I am, aside from a geek, gamer, and sometime gnome enthusiast, is a student of media production and theory. So I see a video like the one above that I really do hope you watched, especially if you’re into one of the following:
gaming culture
artistic cultivation
cultural relevancy
the application of design in multiple media platforms
So yeah, I just heard about Iam9Bit today, but what I’ve learned from Machinima’s coverage of the art initiative/independent collective/grassroots start-up is that the limits of artistic expression can be continually pushed into regions that our traditional understanding may not be able to grasp yet.
Throughout history, artistic movements have pushed past scrutiny and criticism to bring upon new ages of creative expression, and therefore affect the entire culture that it draws from and vice-versa. I get good vibes from this collective. Will it achieve such iconic status? Probably not. But I can agree with that they’re pitching in that video; there is no other group doing something like this.
It’s an amalgamation of art and culture, in that it brings two worlds that are incredibly similar on principle, though worlds apart in perception and cultural significance and combining them how they should be seen: awesomsely.
What do they exactly do? Well watch the video if you haven’t already. But if it’s not clear, they make/collect/share art inspired by video game culture. If you check their site, linked here, you can see their most recent stuff includes commissions by top game developers to promote/market their products.
Shit like recreating Newt’s doll from Aliens to celebrate the release of Aliens: Colonial Marines, and also a kick ass NERF-replica pulse rifle, customized and detailed to resemble the movie props. Badass? I think so.
Their earlier stuff includes and underground community event promoting the then-upcoming Street Fighter 4 with what better than a fight club?
Their site has tons more in their portfolio and gallery, and just looking at all this awesome stuff blows my mind, as a student and as a appreciator for gaming and art.
These guys combine the two and really transcend preconceptions and assumptions about both. They throw those in the bin and cut off the binds that tie them down. The result is amazing art pieces and attention from major industry players from both the gaming and artistic communities locally and abroad. They are how you do entrepreneurship, and it all starts with the grand idea and the passion required to pull it off.
New role models? Hell yes. Thanks, iam8bit.
Come to Toronto to show us how it’s all done!
They’re based in Los Angeles. Reach if you’re near. You won’t be disappointed.
So, Gamescom in Germany is happening again. And all the big players are out there flaunting their neat new games, like Battlefield 3, Guild Wars 2, Resistance 3, Saints Row 3, Borderlands 2, Dark Souls, Modern Warfare 3, and plenty more both you and I have never heard of, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It is the year of the sequels, and threequels, but to spice things up a bit, some new players are entering the ring.
NCSoft, the company that owns ArenaNet (creators of the Guild Wars franchise), have had a sleeper agent waiting to pounce on the games convention circuit till now, in the form of this awesome trailer and potentially awesome game.
It’s another MMORPG, yeah, but as I said in previous posts, sometimes the standard tropes with big steel swords and ancient ruins and medieval sensibilities gets bogged down. Enough arrows and mage staffs. Bring in the hoverbikes and space freighters.
That’s right, it’s a damn space western, a ‘future fantasy’ and an MMORPG. Not much news yet, since just about everyone is discovering this game for the first time, but I’m stoked to see how they handle classes and gameplay mechanics. Looks like your standard class archetypes though; rock-dude tank warrior, bunny-girl sorcerer, dashing duel-wielding rogue—but hey, those things work in MMO’s, so I’m not complaining.
Also, I would watch a movie of this, like if Pixar had a fringe sister company taking care of less kiddy-oriented, more awesomesauce ideas like space westerns. The animation reminds me of Tangled though, if Tangled was set on an alien planet and everyone had energy pistols. Lovin’ the art direction this game, is my point.
Disney-Pixar X-Treme?
Fund it, Pixar. Fund it.
For those interested, here’s some commentary. Apparently it’s been in dev for four years. Jeez, NCSoft, you’re really holding back to cards on this one.
Elizabeth, from the upcoming Bioshock: Infinite. Click through for flickr.
And the character as seen in-game:
And a trailer, just for kicks:
nex lvl levitating city shieeet
Sick photography by the way, always want to try some portrait, but my camera is as useful as a fistful of really shiny dirt. The photographer’s photostream is pretty packed with some decent, and some awesome cosplay of other characters.
Could cosplaying be making an entrance at The Fanboy Subconscious?
Am I really going off the deep end?
What’s next? Anime-Con coverage? Some manga reviews? Furries?
That’s next time, on TheFanboy SUBconscious: How Far Down Will He Go?
Click through any of these above tidbits to get to his website. Plenty more goodies including his work with the original Guild Wars, and most of his freelance work.
I honestly hope you find all this as cool as I do. Readmy posts about the game itself if you want to know more about it.
While fiction about real-life drama and existential monologues are all good topics to make narratives about, nothing really beats experiencing what we most want to: an entirely different world.
It’s guys like this one who are in the industry getting to craft those worlds and share them with everyone so they can live it too. Truly an amazing profession.
The more I read up on The Secret World, my imagination starts running rampant with the possibilities of what this game might include and what I want it to include and what if this was actually real life and oh my god, what if the Slender Man is real?
And then I go to wondering about how awesome this concept for a Massively-Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. For anyone who’s not familiar, most MMORPG’s are Lord of the Rings/Game of Thrones/any well-known epic fantasy fiction-esque arching storylines with magic and swordsmanship and GLORY.
What’s different about this? Well, as you can tell, there’s that guy in the trailer who reminds me of John Constantine only he actually gives less of a fuck, and also there’s a crazy tentacle ghost-monster? The Secret World is set in modern day times, in ‘our’ world, with everything seemingly normal except that every single fucking supernatural conspiracy exists beneath the shroud of everyday life.
So, given that realization, I jumped on the bandwagon because I love me some supernatural creature design. Werewolves, Wendigos, Vampires, Djinns, Spectres (badass-looking ghosts) and zombies are just some of the enemies to be found in this game, replacing the traditional enemies you’d find in other MMORPG’s we’re familiar with.
Since you probably don’t care about gameplay mechanics, I’ll just skip that part and keep talking about the art of this game. It’s pretty damn cool if you look at both gameplay and cinematic trailers. Like these earlier two:
With all these fantastically Lovecraftian creatures running about the world, there needs to be some bros to put an end to it right? Right! So you got three ‘secret societies’; hell yeah, they exist—the Illuminati (of course), the Dragon, and the Templars. Three factions have different philosophies, intentions and ulterior motives to what they want with the supernatural, but I believe they’re all looking for certain relics around the world to do something crazy with.
Really, if you don’t think this is cool, your imagination is about as thriving as a decomposing leaf.
I mean, fuck, I could spend 2 blog posts just talking about the character and creature design. But I’m merciful. Do I care if this game will be good or not? Hell no, I just want more cinematic trailers. Cinematic video game trailers are one of the best things ever in the world ever. Ever.
Big news buzzing around the computer gaming community on the Internet right now is related to Half-Life, one of the most well-known and critically acclaimed computer (or video) games ever made.
When this video went up, it sparked buzz immediately across game websites, blogs, and gaming news outlets across the web. Why? Well, it’s not because the graphics are outstanding by today’s standards. Half-Life was as game created in 1998. What this independent animator did, was take everything in the game, and polish it up.
Original gameplay clip. Notice any changes between this one and the one above?
As the animator, James Benson, describes in his video, he took 99% of what the game gave him in terms of materials and graphic assets, and he worked with it to create a really damn epic movie-like trailer for a game that just about anyone who plays computer games will know about.
As you’d think. It went big quickly. And when I went to his channel, I realized that this guy had done something else pretty spectacular.
This post from a while back introduced you to my favourite game in the style of a dance-off with a bunch of crazy lookin’ characters. Same guy. Makes sense really. But all those dancing dudes? They all came together.
The common consensus is that James Benson should be hired by Valve Software already (the game developer who created both the Half-Life seriesand Team Fortress 2). If anybody’s interested, he animates using the program 3DS Max, and yes, it is a program for the pros. I jelly.
