The 2 Hour Video Game

I recently flicked through an article on IGN about the "2 hour game", in short this is a very to the point narrative driven game (Although not always) which can be completed in one play through. Two examples at the moment is Journey on the PS3 and Dear Esther on the PC, both are very story driven, and may be considered more art pieces than a fully fledged game.
Looking at other entertainment mediums there are plenty of examples of similar ideas. For example when you go to the cinema you pay around £7 for a 2 to 3 hour film, in this 2 hours (If the film is good this is!) you learn all about the characters and generally have a good time! A better example to relate to this new style of gaming would be books, say you buy a series of books you spend a few weeks or a few months reading the story, learning the lore, and having this big overarching story. However you may only want a quick burst, hence there are also plenty of short stories out in the market, which generally can be read within a couple of hours. So video games seem to be heading in a similar direction.
With a video game like this you are probably less likely to go back to it time and time again, after you have played the initial play through you will probably leave it in the back of your collection, than one day dig it out to have another play through just like you would with a DVD. So is this new craze just an interactive film? Some people would argue that this does not count as a game.
Sometimes I look back at a game and think to myself "Did I really spend 20 hours on this?" And perhaps when my life and work picks up I won't have time to indulge in games as much as I do now. Maybe in this busy lifestyle many people have, having this quick burst of video games is a welcome break without moving into the casual games.

I started playing video games quite late in my life, I got the PS1 when the PS2 was released and got the Xbox 360 about 2 years after release. However when I did get the Ps1 I spent a long time playing platformer games like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon, but this is a genre that I miss now being a 19 year old student. The video game industry is dominated by first person shooters and war simulators, perhaps it is just because I am no longer the target market for these video games, or that it is a genre that has slowly died out.

I watched a video today of Double Fine studios Tim Scafer talking and Ron Gilbert discussing the adventure genre, and how it has not necessarily died out, but is shadowed by the huge sales that some games can get now a days.

When I was playing games like Crash I remember my whole family playing it, me, my brother and my dad would play it, it is what started my Dad on video games, I feel now a days video games can embrace such wide audiences, and that there is games designed for people that perhaps 10 or so years ago would perhaps be ridiculed for playing video games. The platformer genre is not dead, it just has a much smaller player base than other titles that can attract other players, but to me it still feels like a genre that will be very close to my heart, it is the genre that got me, and I'm sure a lot of other people into video games. The last platformer game I played was Sonic Generations, and as I've gotten this far without a real purpose I think I'll do a quick run down of how I feel about the game.

Sonic Generations is the celebration of 20 years of Sonic the Hedgehog, bringing the best (and what others may say the worst) of his 20 years in video games. The game consists of 2 levels designed around a video game in the series, one designed in 2D and played with "classic" sonic, and the other is the 2D/3D hybrid which has been used in Sonic Unleashed and Colours (Colors if your American). Everyone will have the level they will automatically love playing, due to the nostalgia associated with playing this game in your childhood, the music the level design, even the enemies from the specific game. The game is just a love letter to the fans, concept art from the past and a soundtrack of 50 of the best songs from the games, and remixed songs for modern interpretations of old levels and vice versa. This is what I love about the game.

I have a huge gripe with the boss battles and the story both felt rushed, and considering there is usually about 7 bosses per Sonic game they should of added more boss fights to the game, there never felt like there was an overarching threat in the game, no big boss that needed to be defeated, if you are getting this game for a amazing story, your buying the wrong game. The Rival battles are a much better experience than the boss battle, the fight against Shadow in particular, a one off race on the Space Colony Ark, it seems as if a lot of work just for music/level design just for one small fight made the whole thing actually seem like a much more intense fight, and was the one I went back to and played multiple times out of all the boss fights.

The hub world is split up into 3 sections, classic, dreamcast, and modern, personally I preferred the Dreamcast levels as this were the ones that got me into the sonic games to start with, so I automatically had a bigger nostalgia feel towards them, but most of the levels are well designed, and are not just copy and pasted reskins from the original games. As with the bosses it would be nice to have more than just one level per game, especially as classic zones like Ice Cap zone and Casino Nights (Not including the DLC) could of been included, there is such a wide catalogue they can choose from it would be nice to see more of the levels from the past reinvented (Sonic Heroes SkyFleet Zone please!) Obviously not everyone will be pleased with the level choice and perhaps they could of chosen a better level from Sonic Adventure as Speed Highway and City Escape play straight after each other, and perhaps another level would of provided a more distinct difference. It would be nice for future DLC to add new levels but unfortunately I do not see this happening.

Overall if you are a Sonic the Hedgehog fan I would recommend getting this game, but if you are you probably already have! If you are not a huge fan, but you do want to pick it up I would say get it on PC, it was dead cheap on release, so now it may be even cheaper, it is a good nostalgia ride, just ignore the pathetic story and have fun in the main levels.

Are games work?

Blizzard recently admitted they have lost 2 million subscribers from WoW, in one year. One commenter said the reason he quitted was due to the fact MMOs seem to feel like they are work and dictating how, and when, you can play. I have dipped in and out of MMOs a year of WoW, quit that to play Aion, quit that, went back to WoW, quit again, played Rift, got to level cap, quit. So my views may not be great especially at the level cap where the so called "game begins" as I can quote from my friend.

When I finally managed to reach 50 on Rift I ran straight to the main city and bought all of my final skills, and then sat their on my new level 50 mount... and than I thought, now what. So being the n00b I am I told my friend and asked him, now what? He said raid, complete instances and PVP, all much fun I'm sure, but even though i as tempted by better looking items it felt as my XP bar wasn't moving that their was no set goal for me any more. So all that was left was raiding, and being in a slowly dying guild I decided I had to find a new one. However after being rejected multiple times for not being a high enough tier, I quit.
To get a higher tier in MMOs the main idea is to raid, and bringing this post back to the original topic, to raid you must group up with a bunch of individuals to set up a time to raid together, unless you face the HUGE wait for the game to randomly match you. This is where it starts to feel as if it's dictating how and when you play, the jump in jump out slow grind that I as a casual MMO player was gone, I had to be a social gamer, which I am admittedly very bad at. And even if at times the grind felt like a chore, especially with the amount of times I died, due to my gear not being good enough, the game felt like a chore, like I wasn't doing this for fun, but to be able to say to my mates that I had reached a level cap in an MMO. And this is probably why I am not a big fan of MMOs even though I never say no to the chance to try out a new one, it just always feels like a grind but one I must complete.

The same thing can be said about social games like Zyngas Farmville, social gaming is becoming huge, and big companies like Ubisoft, and Activision are trying to get into this market. But these are other games that decide to dictate when we play, in Farmville you plant your crop than have to wait a few hours till you can "harvest" it, all for a few virtual coins. And yet this is one of the most popular facebook games out at the moment, the constant grind of planting, harvesting, and replanting is attracting thousands of people, when in reality it is the same repetitive task that you may do in your job for example. Perhaps the reward of seeing your coin pouch increase in size is just as exciting as getting your paycheck in at the end of the month? All though I see both of these examples as a constant grind I do see where the fun factor is, and all though for me it's not fun I'm sure there are thousands of you out there enjoying your "work". :)

Valve and Online Communities

I have always been a real big fan of Valve and after listening to a recent interview with one of the founders, Gabe Newell, he bought up a few interesting points. He mentioned that he hopes for the future of his games to be very community based, so that we as players end up designing and pushing the game forward, and to it's limits, but even better we get paid for it. Valve have often said that Team Fortress 2 is their "test game", so any new ideas of features they come up with get put into TF2 first, than they can study users reactions. This was recently done with replay editor, which i imagine will be in most of Valves future games.
To make money in TF2, real money not virtual currency, there is a multitude of way, be designing levels, where a user will donate to you. Creating hats, and more recently and more than likely more prominently in the future by creating TF2 movies. The community is very important to a video game, especially a multi player game and using them to the producers advantage is a brilliant idea, and gives the user i real feeling of power, and perhaps even responsibility to make the game what you want.
Now to piss off all the Call of Duty fan boys, recently announced is Call of Duty Elite an online service that lets you compete with your friends and win prizes. More than likely this will help you unlock credits in the next CoD in the series, or perhaps guns and weapons. The major downside to this is the pay monthly feature, having to pay monthly on the off chance you can unlock a new gun. (Yes it's still early days and it may be worth it, but I'm trying to prove a point!) To be part of a community it must be easily accessible, if one side has the advantage than this can't be a good idea, especially if people can't afford to be part of the "VIP" CoD players. This is still in control of Activision, so no community weapons or maps. Not all games need to be fully customisable, but when a game is in control of the fans your more than likely going to get an overall more fun experience.
This may of seemed as if i was bashing Call of Duty there, don't worry I'm sure all the players who play it love it to bits, but for me it's not my thing. And i know the saying 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' applies, but do they really need a "new" multi player every year? And having to pay huge amounts for 3 maps... I'm looking at you also Halo!

Oh right... an Introduction

Ironically since my first post was about reboots, but this is a reboot of my blog!
I am hoping to go to Uni in a few months time, to study Computer Game programming, but with the amount of people going to Uni, and tuition fees going up, not to mention my fuck up of an electronics exam, I have decided to start a blog detailing things i find interesting in the video game world. I'll try to update whenever i find anything interesting, and even if the fan base isn't huge... or non existent I'll try to update, as it may even come in handy one day! I have a few topics on my mind that i may blog about so here is a quick rundown, and if i do blog it I'll hopefully edit this and put a reference to it.

- Reboots. (Done first post)
- Valve and their community, and communities in games. (Done)
- Why Sonic Generations may break Sonics trend of bad games.
- The importance of sound, and how 5 gums advertising campaign opened my eyes to it.
- What makes a good final boss fight (Top 5)
- Why RIFT is like WoW, in a good way!

Unfortunately I'm not linked to any companies, I'm just some guy with a lot of spare time, so most "News" i have will be very late, and probably stolen from somewhere else. But hopefully I can raise important issues and all feel free to discuss in the comments.

Getting the Re-Boot

When a series gets close to the end of it's life span it's usually gone for good right?
WRONG the developers decide to reboot it! Get all that was good about the series and throw it out the window.

Most peoples views to a reboot are different depending on their love of the series and what has actually changed. For example the new Devil May Cry game, DmC has been getting quite a few rough remarks from fans of the series. At the time of writing this the E3 trailer for the game on the Ninja Theory Youtube page has only 927 likes compared to 2,050 dislikes, with fans complaining of the lack of crucial DMC elements like his sword Rebellion. This is before actual game play has been shown, and much of the story is still unrevealed. This could be the story of how Dante came into contact with rebellion, and you may spend half the game with his trusty sword.

However I do see where people are coming from,and I have felt similar hatred towards games that have been rebooted. Two that I know from the top of my head are Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure has completely redesigned Spyro.

What I don't understand that this is obviously a kids game, so it obviously isn't intended for me, But wasn't Spyros original design suitable for kids? Now he just looks like a lizard AND they removed Sparx! Admittedly the game is pretty clever using toys to bring into video games, but it's hard to work out that with 32 characters, is it a Spyro game? Or is he just thrown in because producers know people liked Spyro? Crash has gone through a similar change, a similar monstrous change, where they removed Crash's spin attack, meaning he now knows how to punch and kick, and now has to rely on other monsters to do his work. Not to mention the Spongebob style voice work annoys me. I'm sure if you gave any child the original Crash Bandicoot, any of the original 3 Spyro games they would have as much fun as I did.

However I have just proved my first point, because I grew up with these series i have a very different view to them, then someone who has grown up with the modern style of the games. So this is where we reach a standstill, is a reboot a good idea? Should some series just be laid to rest? I'm guessing as technology changes, as we age everything ages with us, and if our current generation play what was once a loved series, but is now a horrible mess we'll just have to let them get on with it... And then when they get older they will have the exact same hate towards the reboot of that game.