Playing Games Like a Girl
Posted by Eric Reichert
Oh my God! Mass Effect 2!
This weeks video is going to be about Mass Effect 2 but I wanted to talk about one specific thing that has come up in my playing. For Mass Effect 2 I played though as a female. Part of that decision was because I played though the first game as a female and imported my save into this game. I didn’t put much thought into the choice but I wanted to see the effects of all the decision that I had made in the first game.
One of the things that really stands out about the difference between the male and female main character is that I feel the female has a much better voice actor. It’s the same women that does the voice of Naomi in Metal Gear and a bunch of other games. That is not to say that the guy playing the male version is a bad actor. I just feel that the female one is better.
Another moment struck me when playing that was very similar to the first. I was on a mission where I had to infiltrate a group of mercenaries. When my female Commander Shepherd walk up to sign up with the mercenaries the guy tells her that the stripper are the next door over. I was then given the option to punch him in the face.
I just love that for some reason. It’s a tiny little moment that you can’t experience if you play the male character and one that stands out because I don’t have men say things like that in my day to day as I have myself penis.
Eric’s Opinion of Metal Gear Solid 4
Posted by Eric Reichert
The art of story telling.
Posted by Eric Reichert
I have been playing though Metal Gear Solid 4 this past week because it’s next up in my line up of videos I am making and am enjoying it. If you put a gun to my head and asked me to pick one of the defining characteristics of MGS4 I would tell you it’s the story. Years ago the Metal Gear Solid series was an innovator in the stealth action genre but MGS 4 didn’t do much to stray from the path has set for it’s self. That is not to say it’s not a great stealth action game. I would just argue that games like Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed have done more to advance the genre.
Metal Gear Solid has always been a great bench mark for where video games story telling is going and where it’s headed. With MGS4 Hideo Kojima is trying to wrap up this large story that spans multiple games over twenty years. It’s an experiment in video game story telling trying to determine how games as a medium and a fledgling art form progress from here. With MGS 4 they try and pack so much story into it that even the most knowledgeable Metal Gear fans can get a little lost.
Obviously some of that is the voice of Hideo Kojima and the way that the Japanese tend to tell stories in games but I think that there are a few mistakes that they can improve upon. One of the major things that I have problems with in all my works of fiction is the idea that you can’t lead the audience by the hand. There is a subtly to story telling that most writers struggle with every day.
As much as you want to tell the audience everything when you get to your reveal, some times too much information is just hard to grasp. I remember watching the commentary for the new Star Trek flix and they talked about Kirk and Spoke Prime’s mind meld scene. When they explained everything the audience felt confused but when they cut Spoke’s voice in and out so you can’t here everything you pay more attention to what is said.
On the other hand I think that writing for a movie and a game are different animals. Mirror’s Edge was written to the great story driven that would have work well as a movie but as a game I didn’t care about the evil authoritarian government kidnapping my sister.
That is why I think that MGS 4 is one of the better examples of where games are heading. I care about what is happening to the characters. I just think that if some of the dialog were tightened up that the story would have more impact at some times. That is not to say that they game does not have its moments but I know it could be better.
There are certainly games that screw it up worse. As much as I loved Modern Warfare 2, the story fell apart several times. A lot of that was mostly do to the fact that they went a bit too subtle. They were mostly just trying to get to the next epic battle with little regard for story.
Eric’s Opinion of Star Trek Online
Posted by Eric Reichert
It’s like printing money!
Posted by Eric Reichert
I have always had a stranded relationship with video game trading. On the one hand i have always loved the fact that I can take games that I don’t want and trade then towards a new game. Of course the other side of that coin is the reduced value you get for your used games. I remember when I was much younger they started airing commercials for a video game store called Funcoland. It was later bought out by Gamestop but these commercials said that you could take in your old games and get new ones or even cash. It sounds like and awesome system at face value but over time I grow tired of it.
I never did an abundances of trading in games growing up mostly because the only game stores were to far away but towards the end of my high school days we got a Gamestop a few blocks away and I did some trading there. Just about every time I have traded in games I walk in with at least three games that are fairly new and walk away with one that I might not have paid full price for. The last time I traded in games it was Call of Duty 4 when it was about six months old and got $20 for it and they turned around and sold it for $45. I’m not one of these people that feels cheated by Gamestop because of their trade in prices. They are a business and need to make money. I just wished that I wouldn’t have to gut my game collection to get a new game.
Thankfully sense I got my PS3 I have started using Goozex. If you don’t know what it is then I will explain. It’s a game trading site that connects you directly to a person that wants your game. Instead of money, the site sets a point value for the game. The person who wants the game spends his points on the game and you get that amount of points for trading a game. You get points by trading or you can buy them from the site. It’s simple but the point value for a game is equal to what the game sells for at a used game store so it’s basically like trading in a game and getting the full price for it.
If you have a few old games lying around and want to trade in for some new games I would totally suggest that you give Goozex a try. I have traded away a few games already and received one but I will be getting more in a week or so. The system also makes me more inclined to buy new games as well. I’m going to buy Mass Effect 2 next week but I was worried that I would play it through ones and never touch it again like the last one. Now that I use Goozex I know that if I get it and beat it over a weekend I can trade it away and get a ton of points for it.
Eric’s Opinion of Killzone 2
Posted by Eric Reichert
Summing it all Up
Posted by Eric Reichert
I just finished watching the Pixar movie Up and it really expresses what I have always loved about what Pixar does. It not simply that they are so great at creating 3D animation but also the stories. I think that a lot animated film are targeted at children so ther think that they have to water down the story or avoid talking about certain subject matter because children are watching. It seems like it’s an open invitation for film maker to get lazy and make piles of shit that they think kids will enjoy. That is not to say that kids wouldn’t enjoy it. If you asked a young kid which of the Star Wars films is his favorite they would probably tell you it was one of the newer ones. We all watched shitty movies when we where kids but I respect Pixar because in almost all of their movies seem to hit these emotional notes that most people would stay clear of.
Up is a very clear example of this. In the first five minutes you see these two characters meet, become friends, grow up, get married, buy their dream house, find out they can’t have any children, grow old together, and then see the wife die. There is almost no words spoken in those few minutes and I think that is why it works so well. In five minutes you go from silly giggling to fighting back tears. I would be lying if I said I didn’t struggle not to cry. It’s a very subtle montage that conveys so much emotion to you but because it is all done through image and music they get away with it in a kids film. A kid would need to have a certain amount of understanding of whats happening to make an impact on them. For the rest of us it’s a very powerful scene. It has to be one of the darkest scenes I have seen in a kids movie that I can remember. The only thing that I can think of that hits things like this is Doctor Who but even though they say it’s a kids show it really isn’t.
Sims 3 always makes me feel pathetic.
Posted by Eric Reichert
Just about every time Anthony Burch from Destructoid recommends a game I will undoubtedly play it. There is just something about they way he talks about a game and what he feels you should be trying to get from the experience that drives me to want to try it out myself. Yesterday he talked about how he was playing Sims 3 and describing it as an example of story a drive game. The game is so free form that it doesn’t need and story to it because you develop the story as you play it. It one of those things that sounds like something we all knew but never really put into words.
So I decided to give Sims 3 another try. Last time I played it I made a guy that became a Rock Star with about 18 children from about 14 different women. I just messed around and choice to make my Sim do things that he might not have done otherwise because I could. He would get married, cheat on his wife, divorce her, they reconnect, and get her pregnant again. It was silly fun and I was driving the story along but this time around I wanted to try something different.
I made my new Sim a bit more like me. At least a bit more like the way I preserve myself to be which could be far off from the truth. He is a loner that love to sit around and play video games and wants to be a writer. He is also childish which I figured fit me just fine. My adventure kicked off right away when I realized that I had spent almost all my money on the house for my Sim. I didn’t have enough left for a computer or even a TV. So here was a little lazy couch potato with no way to entertain himself.
I needed cash but didn’t want to join a carrier because it would consume all of my Sim’s free time and he would never have time to write. That for me was the first thing that hit very close to home. So I got him a part time job at a book store. That way he would have some money but still have time to write. When he eventually had enough money for a computer he spent a lot of time writing but more of his time watching TV and playing video games which also points to me more then I like a video game to do.
As far as relationships are concerned, he met his next door neighbor and they became friends very fast. He has permanently placed himself in the “friend zone” with this girl. Try as he might, she seems to have no romantic interest in him. She will have sex with him though which, again, is very similar to events in my life. That however is a story for another time.
It very interesting how you can set things up the mirror your own life and then see them play out. It entirely possible that the only reason things mirror my own life is because I am the puppet master of this little play. I guess I will just have to keep playing to see what my possible future might be.
Eric’s Opinion of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Posted by Eric Reichert
It’s not called Massive Action Game for nothing.
Posted by Eric Reichert
I finally finished of Uncharted today and really enjoyed it. It had a great mix of gun fights and climbing around solving puzzles. It also did a great job of stepping up the action as you get towards the end. I do feel that for a single player game with no modes other then the campaign it was a bit shorter then I would have liked but I think that if it had been stretched out it would have felt bloated and repetitive. I now have high hopes for Uncharted 2. I’m not sure when I might get the chance to play it but I have a few things I still need to get through before I can start worrying about it.
I also have been playing the beta for MAG and have been having a blast. I don’t know if I would call myself a First Person Shooter fan but it seems like those are the only games I ever really play. I think it’s mostly because it’s one of the few game genres that you don’t really have to learn anything new when you pick up a new one. For the most part the tend to share the same buttons and all the weapons fall into recognizable categories like assault rifle and shotgun.
One of the things that I always enjoy in an FPS is massive games. The more players in a match the better and MAG have matches that go up to 256 players. I was worried that the games might just turn into a mess of bullets and body parts flying everywhere but the game is set up in such a way that to amount of players is never overwhelming. Based on what squad to get put in you have a different goal. You either have to attack or defend some point on the map and trust that the other people on your team are doing the same to their target. It’s one of the first games I can think of to do massive battles this good.
Another winning point for me is that as you level your character, you gain skill point that you can spend on certain roles you play. I put my first few points into the medic skill tree and was running around healing and resurrecting my fallen teammates. I don’t know why I gravitate towards the medic in FPS games but I just enjoy it. To me it always feels like I’m cheating the system because healing you team always gets you a ton of points and no one else ever seems to want to do it. Give me medical kit and a rifle to defend myself in a massive battle and I’m in gamer heaven.
I think that I am going to be really pleased with MAG once it comes out later this month. I’m going to have to get myself a headset though. With big games the need you to work as a team, communication is key.