Can Video Games and Movies Get Along?

Video games and movies are two different things. You might read that and think, “Uh… duh?” but honestly, I’m not so sure if the actual game developers and movie makers fully understand this. And if there’s one thing that I am sure of, its that they sure as hell don’t understand each other.  At all. That is very bad, seeing as the two spend a ridiculous portion of their time trying to copy the other one into oblivion.

Movies have been copying off of other media since its inception. Many of your favorite movies likely started off as a book or TV show. But adaptations of video games rarely ever work out right. Why? Well, It’s a vastly different medium. Games are totally interactive, and almost always follow the exact same camera angle, on the exact same character for the entire game(excluding cutscenes). Fans generally like it when adaptations from one medium to another are as closely matched as possible, which is really difficult to do in movies. Also, video games have very little dialogue, which is kind of a major part of films. So all of that basically adds up to this: Movies of video games suck. And I’ve seen very little evidence that this can change.

Oh sweet Jesus why?

It’s exactly the same if you flip it around. Video games of movies generally suck, too. The gameplay is forced, boring, and uninteresting and the plot is never as good as the movie. Also, they’re rushed to a ridiculous extent so that they can be released alongside the movie. The movie basically has to be put together already so the developers know how to make the game, and the time in between mid-production and release is not enough time to make a game. Period. The example of this that comes to mind is E.T., a game so bad that it nearly killed off gaming altogether. That’s colossally bad.

If Uwe Boll was a game designer, this is the game he would make.

So really, some game developers and some filmmakers need to sit down together and enlighten each other as to why their mediums are so good. Maybe they can learn from one another, and I can play Saving Private Ryan: The Game and have a good time.

AND MY AHKS (sic)

Hey Guys! Nothing too major today, Just a little video i made back in the day. I thought it should have a home here. Hope you enjoy it.
-Patrick

Halo 3: ODST Review

There is a very precarious balance between three basic design elements in video games: art, story, and gameplay. Halo 3: ODST is a beautiful, well-made game in the art category, but definitely is a little lacking in the other two. Let’s go over some background, shall we?

Halo 3: ODST is the fourth and most recent installment of the wildly popular Halo series, which you most likely have heard of. If you haven’t: Halo is a series of science fiction first person shooter video games, in which you fight for humanity against a bunch of pissed off aliens. There is a much larger story arc involved, but I’m not going to go into that because it is in no way vital to this review.

In ODST, you play as Rookie, a UNSC Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. ODSTs drop from the upper atmosphere of the Earth to the surface in a small, one-man pod.

That's the one!

Once you reach Earth, your mission is to go around and search for your scattered crew members. This can be done by walking to a specific part of the map and finding some sort of remnant (a sniper rifle, a helmet, etc.) of your crew. Once you find one, you are whisked into a flashback, where you assume the role of another member of the crew.

It is important to note that in this game, you do not play as some sort of super-soldier from the SPARTAN project–Rookie and his teammates are regular humans, and have the same limitations of a regular human (albeit a very strong and badass human). Due to these limitations, you do not possess the energy shield of Master Chief. Instead, you have a stamina mechanic and a health bar. Which means that if you lose any of your health, you’re not getting it back unless you find a health pack. And health packs are hard to come by. Is it nice to get something different? Sure. Is it also pretty annoying? Certainly. There are going to be some times in the game where you think, I’m going to die and there’s really nothing that I can do about it. And then you will probably die. Also, somehow ODSTs do not have the skill to dual wield a weapon. Again, kind of annoying, but it certainly isn’t a major hinderance of the gameplay. But it’s not really here or there. It’s just different.

Just about everything about ODST is different from the other games in the Halo series. Especially the art styling. The best word I can think of to describe ODST is moody. The city setting of New Mombasa is very dark and quiet and very film noir-esque. The scene is only improved when the player flips on the character’s VISR, a visual display that outlines every object, building, and living being in a distinct color (Red for enemies, green for allies, blue for objects, and yellow for the background), gives night vision, and shows a compass.

The visuals on the game are perfect for the general mood and feel of the game, and the audio is some of the best I’ve heard in any video game. The background music is a soft, smooth, and ambient jazz. The many sounds in the abandoned city turn it into an electronic ghost town–almost spooky and definitely immersive. In some cases, the player can find small audio recordings from various terminals throughout the city. Really, some of the best parts of this game are parts where you’re not doing anything except walking around and exploring the city.

The story is up to par with an average game. I wouldn’t describe it as the most fulfilling part of the game. It’s a good story, and it was well done, but there was nothing about it that was especially notable. You will like it, and it will be cool, but you probably won’t particularly care about it. I think it would’ve been really good had the game been longer.

ODST plays a lot like most Halo games as far as the actual battles. Which goes to say that it is really fun. You kill some aliens, and they shoot at you. You’ve got all of your favorite weapons around, and all of your favorite grenades, too. The main difference here though is that you don’t necessarily have to kill all of the adversaries nearby. You can just skip right past them if you want to. The game is completely nonlinear, and you can do any of the missions in any order you want, so there are a lot of random clusters of aliens that you can sneak past without killing. But of course, why would you want to?

It is also important to make note of the non-campaign playing modes. ODST features a new playing mode called “Firefight,” where you hold out a single location against endless hordes of aliens. It is similar to the Survival and Horde modes from Left 4 Dead and Gears of War 2 respectively. Firefight is fun, challenging, and lets you play with your friends instead of against them(for you gamers whose friends are all way better than you). Of the whole game, Firefight probably has the most replay value, and is undoubtedly the best for playing with friends, since there is no separate multiplayer mode in ODST. The game ships with the regular Halo 3 multiplayer on a separate disc.

Final Score: 8

Final Thoughts: ODST is a game that is worth playing for the rich art and new play mode, but because of the short campaign it is not worth shelling out 60 dollars for. I would recommend either borrowing it, or waiting until the price drops. However, If you don’t already have the Halo 3 multiplayer, Halo 3: ODST is a great option.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Since the very beginning of gaming, developers have known that we all really, really love killing. And we do love killing. It seems to be the main problem solving method in most games. Need some rupees? Kill some shit. Are those aliens invading your homeworld? Kill ‘em. And war games? You can most certainly bet that your enemies will get a big fistful of DEAD before the end of the day.

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That’s not a bad thing, necessarily. It’s a very fun aspect of video games. But we have too much of a good thing. Killing is getting a little, well…overdone. How many great games have you played recently where you didn’t kill anything? And no, sports games do not count. The majority of them are not great, and are barely games. Death-less games are difficult to come by nowadays. And it’s a bummer because developers can certainly make games like this. And good ones, no less. Look at Jet Set Radio. An artistic, unique, complex game without a ‘HEADSHOT!!!!!!!1ONE’ in any form.Non-killing games do exist–you don’t have to kill everybody in Metal Gear Solid games, and Portal is a great first person shooter–especially when what you’re shooting isn’t bullets. But the ratio is frighteningly unbalanced. And that needs to change. Believe me–I love shooter games. I like killing in games just as much as anybody else. But we need more games where the main objective isn’t just to kill. It seems ridiculous that such a creative and diverse industry has decided to focus on any single activity, that shows in the vast majority of their games. And don’t say that there isn’t anything else to make a good game about. Because there are two distinct categories of activities in the world: Killing shit, and fucking everything else that you could possibly do. Guess which category is bigger? And besides, it is really the developers’ jobs to think of creative new games.

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But it’s not the developers’ fault. They’re just catering to our interests. Like everybody else, they need money, and they’ll make it by pumping out FPSes by the dozen. It’s only what you want. When was the last time you walked around as a normal person in Grand Theft Auto? Probably never. Developers know that, so they put all of their resources into killing people in new and exciting ways.But if we can get outside of the deathmatches, and the killing sprees, and the slayer modes, then I believe that games can get more creative. Some murder-centric games have a great story. But limiting games to killing also limits the story-telling ability. Too few games really make you think. Too few games really absorb you into the storyline, make you care about the characters and what’s happening in the game, like a good novel can. More games should. The more you care about the game, and the people in the game, the better you’ll play, and the more you’ll play. Everybody wins.

***

Things are fine the way they are, for now. The shooters and such can be really fun games–some of the best. But we need to incorporate an even number of different games. If the industry wants to move forward, it’ll need some diversity. That’s just evolution at its most basic.