Dead Island Gameplay Trailer

Thanks to the amazingly beautiful and haunting, yet increasingly irrelevant cinematic trailer released for the upcoming release Dead Island I have been following the media surrounding the game reasonably closely. Just a couple days ago a 12 minute gameplay trailer was released finally granting us snarling undead masses of the game buying public it's first real impressions regarding the actual mechanics to back up the amazing 3rd party cinematography. Don't remember the video? Click here.

So the game looks like a Grand Theft Auto clone with zombies. Well that's not entirely accurate..... more like a Just Cause clone with Zombies with a bit of Bulletstorm (minus the subliminal sexual assault impulses) mixed in.

It looks like it might be fun, but my pressing concern is that of a lack of gameplay focus.

I see instances of score boons rising from bloodied undead corpses being shot with automatic weapons and then scenes portraying horror and other similar emotions. It seems to me like you have to choose between Duke Nukem and Silent Hill 2; it really would be impossible to be both. Bottom line is looks like the game is trying to mix arcade style action with tense survival horror and that is the developer trying to have it's cake and eat it too. (The cake is obviously a lie anyways wakka wakka)

A horror experience needs to be before anything else immersive. For a survival horror game to really be effective the player needs to truly forget they are sitting on their couch and really be fully emotionally invested in what is happening on the screen and in the game. Huds, numerical scores, and other numerical information displayed on screen serves only to remind us we are playing a game; a pleasant diversion rather than being a part of a story in another universe.

Arcade style games are very fun, but for completely different reasons. It is simply a blast to pwn newbs with the sniper rifle from half a map away and see the kill message broadcasted to the entire server. It is a blast to get points for mutilating fodder enemies in creative ways a-la Bulletstorm, but it is a completely opposite experience from that immersive survival horror.

My kingdom for a true zombie apocalypse sim!

Honestly, making an fps where survival is prominent, you need to strike a balance between resource management, creating safe houses, and staying a step ahead of the zombie hordes would be epic. Hell a talented modded could do it in Minecraft in theory, or make a complete mod for L4D. It really would be a license to print money if someone would do it right.

Regardless Dead Island looks to be in danger of having an identity crisis. Of course the game doesn't release for some time, but being an anonymous internet troll I certainly won't let that prevent me from passing judgment!

Time for our industry to grow up

The buzz right now is all about Bulletstorm and it has really got me thinking. You may or may not have noticed that I have written a lot of thoughts about it in the last week. The game is getting pretty strong reviews and rightly so in my opinion, but still; is it really something to be proud of? Isn't it maybe time to start going out in new directions? Stay with me on this and brace for the epic wall of text!

Videogames, as an artistic medium (yes this again and by me), are still in their infancy. Very smart and creative people are really pushing the boundaries of what a videogame is, how it can be used, how to tell a story, how to get people involved, and how to illicit a reaction. The big thing is though is that no one really has been able to really tackle a hard, sensitive issue or really push the bounds of relationships or human emotion. We have come really close and made strides, but in all, games are still seen as toys for children and ways to enact adolescent fantasies. PG-13 movies constantly feature sexual acts, but Mass Effect adds in a tasteful and mature sex scene and there is a ridiculous outcry. Videogames are and can be very violent, but they always are seen as more psychologically damaging than movies. Hell, film can get away with a lot more than games can, but why is that? Because film, during it's development as an artistic media, had the balls to expand their subject matter and continually push the envelope.

One of my favorite movies both recently and all time would be District 9. The movie works very well because it hits on a lot of fantastic levels. It has some amazing super weapons, some fantastic and suspenseful fights, and great use of limited special effects that really provide a visual spectacle. It also is an allegory for Apartheid South Africa and has a huge focus on racism, oppression, and justification of dehumanization (or desalinization?). The abuse in the film can be very difficult to watch and it touches on a lot of very sensitive subjects. Would this ever be allowed to work as a game?

The last time really edgy, and I mean a relative, sensitive, provocative topic tried to be handled by a videogame people folded to pressure and things feel apart. Extra Credits said it better than I could.

I really would love to see some brave developer really tackle a complex issue or emotion in a videogame. I'm talking racism, relationships, the human condition, difficult decisions, something other than shooting Nazi's, aliens, zombies, or all of the above. I want to see a brilliant story that doesn't have shoehorned adolescent sex appeal. I want to see a mature, sophisticated story written and told in a way where it works best as an interactive medium, and not a book, movie, or serial television show. I really want an experience that causes us to really think and be uncomfortable in a way that only mature and difficult subject matter can.

I have a feeling its an Indie developer who will have the chutzpah to do it because the major publishers just don't want to risk a little PR to advance our medium forward (and prolly make a ton of cash). We need the Pan's Labyrinth's and Up's to balance out the Kill Bill's and Die Hards.

Now I would never say there isn't room for games like Bulletstorm and Duke Nukem. I'm playing through Dead Space 2 right and thoroughly enjoying using future mining equipment to dismember creepy alien, zombie things. Granted it is a ton of fun, and isn't that the point after all? My only problem is I also want more! There is so much more possibility with videogames that hasn't been tapped into yet out of fear of controversy and fear of the unknown.

We need someone to bet on other than Duke. We need to listen and think with skill, not just kill with it. It's time to grow up a little.

Videogames don't NEED to be violent

As much as I enjoyed the Bulletstorm demo last week, I really have been thinking about violence in videogames lately. As much as I love over the top weapons and the option to "kill with skill", right now I am casually playing two very fun games that either have no violence, or have violence as an auxiliary mechanic. You don't always need to bet on Duke.

The first is a game for Android and iPhone's called A Game Developer story. Developed by a small Japanese studio called Kairosoft, the game is skinner box gameplay to the core. You play the role of a small game developer trying to hire the right staff, develop games and consoles, and make as much money as you can in 20 years. The game is way too much fun and for roughly $4 USD you can't get much better. Between commutes and just being bored I am easily 30 hours in. It's a fun mechanic, could be a lot deeper if it wasn't a game for phones, and even as a shallow waste of time is very good at what it does.

The other game I picked up on Impulse for $9.99 USD is Caesar 4. The game is a city builder based on the Roman Empire (as the name may suggest) and the main gameplay element is juggling. It's about expanding your resources, providing food and amenities for your populace, growing your economy, defending yourself from invaders, and keeping Rome happy all at the same time. There is combat in the game, but it is a secondary mechanic; it is not the reason you boot up the game. It is just another aspect to juggle along with making pots and making sure the middle class has enough booze.

Granted there are probably better, contemporary examples of compelling non combat gameplay....

I played the Bulletstorm Demo and I still haven't Sexually Assulted anyone....

There has been a lot of buzz about Epic Game's shooter title Bulletstorm developed by People Can Fly, so I figured I would lower myself to the disgusting prospect of playing through the demo recently released. Despite the assertion by experts that violent videogames such as bullet storm turn seemingly normal people in to deranged rapists, I have not committed any sexual assaults as of yet. Granted the demo was only approximately 10 minutes of game play and I have no hard scientific data to back up the fact that playing the full retail release won't turn me in to such a deviant sociopath, but so far so good.

Now I'm not usually one who enjoys such games. By my disdain for the way shooter and action titles tend to be marketed to us, video game's core demographic, you would probably assume I would loathe and abhor the mere fact this game has been generating the excitement it has, but you know what; the demo was really fun.

From the beginning of the short tutorial video until the demo is over the game is driping with a campy, over the top gratuitous bravado that is very reminecent of Serious Sam. There was some plot about space pirates flying around but I didn't pay much attention and I really didn't need to. What's important is that this game has a brutal and childish flair for just running around murdering aliens.

This game seems to be going for what I call the "Die Hard Effect." You can do the same thing that has been done a million times as long as you do it better and with more style than everyone else. I didn't see anything new here, but what I did see was a fast paced, immature guilty pleasure shooter that looks amazing and seems to be fun where it counts. Let's see how this game does when it releases on February 22nd.