* An analysis of the ending of Red Dead Redemption, strong spoiler warning *

Finally, Rockstar have come up with a game that wants us to be good. Playing as a reformed outlaw in a graphically gorgeous title combining almost every aspect of the Wild West we’ve come to recognise through films, TV shows and folklore, the most surprising quality of Red Dead Redemption – even more impressive than the amazing attention to detail –  is the enforced morality and, in line with the game’s title and its central theme, redeeming qualities of the main character. John Marston, contrary to those previous incarnations of Grand Theft Auto and other Rockstar Games’ antiheroes, is not seeking success and wealth through crime; he is aspiring to be good for the betterment of himself and his family.

As in previous open-world games the players themselves are free to do as they wish, inevitably leading to a sandbox environment of carnage and chaos as the he/she sees fit. In Red Dead, the option to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is presented – do you capture criminals alive to collect bounty rewards and shoot the weapons out of people’s hands instead of killing them, or decide to go renegade by robbing the innocent and, as an homage to the classic Western cliche of moustached villainy, tie a woman up and place her on railroad tracks? Despite your decisions in these situations and regardless of your own personal play-style, the most striking thing about the main story missions is how Marston always, from the start of the game to the finish, chooses the honourable route.

Blackmailed into hunting down his former brothers-in-arms by a pair of lawmen who have his wife and son held captive, Marston is sent out on a quest to essentially rid the land of the last surviving remnants of his own criminal past as the violent era of the American Old West comes to an abrupt end. Marston chooses to deal with hostile situations by speaking with restraint and politeness instead of pulling out his gun, and his actions throughout the story are often heroic, albeit through unavoidably violent means. So outside of the story missions when players may utilise their freedom to go out and commit evil deeds should they wish, it all seems a little inconsistent – hypocritical even – when compared with the predetermined intentions of the character during the game’s cutscenes that drive the plot forward.

* Spoilers from this point on *

By the end when the violent and bloody missions are seemingly over and the police allow Marston to be reunited with his family, the game gets you to play through mundane chores tending to his farm, herding cattle, and spending quality time with the wife, Abigail, and estranged teenage son, Jack, who is more interested in reading than holding a weapon. It is quite the contrast to the majority of the game and, accompanied with a chillingly ominous score that haunts these segments, there is a feeling of impending doom: that this peacefulness is too good to be true.

It is no real surprise then when the lawmen return to betray and murder Marston and his family; on the contrary there is a sense that this is a true calling. A life as a simple rancher is not something John can adapt to, regardless of his intentions, and there is an acknowledgment at this stage of Red Dead that not only can this videogame character never escape his outlaw past, nor can the player escape from the violent dynamics of the game by which they are now well-accustomed to. John is deadly, remarkably efficient in killing those coming for his family – his prior sins have ensured that he is in his element when with a gun in his hand.

Marston manages to send his wife and son away on a horse with tears in his eyes and, having said his goodbyes and surrounded by the army and the police with no chance of survival, realises the price of true redemption – not for himself, but for his family – before taking a deep breath and accepting his fate. But the real tragedy of this finale is that, when his death should have marked the end of the Marston family’s affiliation with its dark past, it is actually through his passing that the once-innocent Jack seeks his own revenge, now controlled by the player 3 years later in the game. Violence begets violence and the son follows in the father’s footsteps; exactly the sort of future John Marston had tried to protect Jack from.

The feeling of surprise and shock when playing as Jack deliberately merges the player’s experience with this new character: Who am I? What do I do now? Not only has the player lost all their invested emotional connection with John, but so has Jack. And it surely says something of the impact and tragedy of the story’s conclusion that, when assuming the role of the son, I immediately travelled across town to hunt down the policeman who ordered the execution – a bonus mission in the game – and going on a random rampage against the law looking for revenge instead of redemption, a pointless, empty lust for blood so commonly found in the genre which conflicted with and was completely contrary to the values John Marston had strived for and realised through his sacrifice. The Wild West was dying, and so too was that young Jack’s apparent incorruptibility.

For all its technical qualities in creating a believable world outside of the player’s influence and overlooking the flaws – namely the many unnecessary, superfluous supporting characters and, especially, the disappointing and drawn out missions towards the end involving Marston’s former gang leader - Red Dead impresses most in its subtle morality tale behind the familiar GTA-template, told through an excellently-realised and ultimately sad journey that lives up to the game’s tagline, ”Outlaws to the end”.

~

Red Dead Revolver (PS2/Xbox) review

~

Andrew, my friend, co-writer and neighbour, isn’t really a gamer. A web developer by trade with a gamer boyfriend, he has seen gaming from an outside perspective and recently become a fan of Battlefield Bad Company 2, establishing himself as a skilled sniper with a ridiculously good kills/headshots ratio. In this interview, we find out more about Andrew and what his thoughts on the medium are as an “outsider”.

Will Ooi: Andrew, tell us about yourself.

Andrew James: I’m a graphic designer who wants to be a writer. I spent most of my time working on design projects and websites and not enough time on writing, mainly because I’m afraid of what will happen if I open the dormant Pandora’s box in my mind. I love good movies where suspension of disbelief is not a chore. Actors are either brilliant or crap in my opinion and writing is the same. There is no in-between and I’m very black or white when it comes to what is good and what is bad. When I’m not watching movies, designing websites & logos or spending time eating out with friends, I’m trying to find a PS3 demo or game that can help me go blank for long enough to forget who I am.

WO: What/who are your artistic inspirations, from movies, designers, websites, etc.?

AJ: Hmm. Tough one. Anthony Hopkins (even though he’s been choosing bad films lately) is one of my favourites. Emma Thompson, Angelica Houston and Sigourney Weaver are all women who deserve more attention. With designers, I have no nameable inspiration. Same with websites. I see things I like in bits and pieces and I don’t identify with anyone in particular. I’m kinda tickled by the notion that I’m not in the ’scene’ and don’t really know who is who. It helps me be completely original, and if I copy someone it will be a fluke and by accident, because I had never seen their work.

WO: What was your original impression of games, prior to owning a PS3?

AJ: The only experience I’d had with games was trying to get them to run on my old PC out of curiosity. I had terrible luck, and you weren’t able to return PC games if they didn’t work, so I was a bit scared of games. I didn’t have any friends who were gamers and If I wanted advice about games I’d have to ask someone working at EB or the game shop about how to get things to run etc. I was curious, but not convinced they were worth my time or money.

WO: What convinced you in the end to go through with the decision of purchasing it?

AJ: My boyfriend wanted a console and I wanted to buy him something nice for Christmas that I knew he would like. So I got him a PS3 and watched him play Call of Duty 4.

WO: What was that experience like, from a non-gamer perspective?

AJ: I was quite amazed at how far graphics had come since I’d seen people playing a Playstation 2 and I thought that I might like to give it a go, as it seemed like skill was a large factor in finishing the game and I wanted to see if I was skilled.

WO: How did you fare?

AJ: I was better than Kyle. It was also good to come across a game where practice made you a better player. It wasn’t just luck.

WO: Is it that pursuit and mastering of skill that has gotten you so into Battlefield Bad Company 2? You are becoming very good at it indeed.

AJ: I think it’s a combination of becoming more skilled, and being part of a team. I really enjoy the feeling you get when you are surrounded by other players who want to win as much as you, and the ones on your team become your friends even though you don’t know who or where they are. You get sad when you see them die, and you feel proud to revive them, or protect them. And you also get a sense that they might be grateful for your help, and they might say things out loud like “oh thanks dude!” even though you can’t hear them.

WO: What’s the origin of your PSN ID, ’sirakos’?

AJ: “Sokaris” spelt backwards was an Egyptian god and I like to annoy the Greek man in the USA whose last name is Sirakos and is too slow to register it for emails and twitters and usernames

WO: On Xbox Live, Microsoft have recently done a U-turn on their controversial decision to ban players who displayed their sexual orientation in their Gamertags. Someone by the name of “RichardGaywood” was even banned under these old rules.

Given this, do you think such a move will help conquer the stereotypes of gay gamers, even if only in the world of online gaming?

AJ: I didn’t even know about Microsofts ban and subsequent reversal. I guess that shows you how informed the gay community is about these kinds of things. It doesn’t make interesting news on big papers, and it certainly doesn’t help sell them. I think issues like this arise all the time, and go largely unnoticed due to two factors; 1. Lack of interest from general public in what happens in games. 2. Apathy from the GLBT community when it comes to discrimination. I’m glad Microsoft has decided to reverse their ban. I’m shocked it was ever allowed in the first place.

WO: Do you think there is solace to be found in the anonymity and ‘escape’ of gaming, particularly for younger gay kids?

AJ: I bet there are a lot of gay gamers, especially kids around 15 or 16 who aren’t out playing sport and they aren’t at home sewing or knitting. What else is there to do ? Stereotyping here, but they are probably big into the RPGs to escape their personal hells, not being judged, being respected for their skill.

WO: What do you think of the stereotypes of game characters?

AJ: It’s a shame that the first gay character in successful and big game was that camp queen that you had to save in GTA. I’d much rather the gay guy be a capable villain over a pink camp stereotype, for it to be a non-issue like it is in real life when it’s treated with respect. Mind you, we can’t even get black characters in games unless it’s to be the token black character. What’s strange is there is no need.  History and movies and books and art have proven that connecting with people on an emotional level is the best way to capture them. The emotional connection is what keeps you entertained. Games seem to do that very badly for no reason, other than bad writing, and bad voice acting. In a world where people would write games for free, and unknown and talented acting students would work for tuppence, there is no reason.

WO: Do you think that there will eventually be a ‘real’ gay character in games, where sexuality isn’t an issue?

AJ: I don’t think there will be for quite some time. Not unless I become the director at a large game production agency. I think if there are gay characters that aren’t your average stereotype bit-part, it will be in small games that get no press and have limited budgets.

WO: In this respect do you think that the game industry is lagging behind in terms of social acceptance of homosexuality?

AJ: I think the game industry is an accurate litmus test of current attitudes towards sexuality in greater society. People forget too easily that there are gay people all around them, living and working amongst them. Not all gay men are flamers wearing pink hot pants and plucking their eyebrows (not that there is anything wrong with that). The sad irony is that games are targeted largely to teenage boys. The kind of boys who aren’t out being outwardly social and out playing sport with their friends, who might be gay.  I know if I had a PS3 when I was growing up, I’d much prefer to sit at home and play games, especially online games, where I can interact with people who don’t judge me, or hurt me.

WO: Do you think gaming could assist in breaking down this discrimination in some way? For instance, a major character in a game being gay (lets say a Call of Duty character) and for this fact to be addressed tastefully in-game

AJ: I think if it was a ‘non-issue’ but just something that was a matter of fact. Gamers would not be able to be outwardly appalled, because the introduction of a gay character would be somewhat of a non-event. Just like it is in real life, when you find out your friend or colleague is gay.

I think the other thing that gaming has to offer in terms of diversity is team work. I could find myself on a team with people from all over the world, people from cultures that I’d previously had no respect or understanding for. If we were able to tap into that and make people aware of who is around them it might help bridge a cultural or ideological divide, through teamwork. Sadly, such a realisation would also lead to open bigotry and discrimination, which is probably why the gaming companies avoid this kind of open and connected dialogue altogether.

WO: Do you think games can be taken as seriously as other mediums one day, or if they deserve to be?

AJ: I think there is a lot of untapped potential in games. 3D screens will be an industry standard in the next 5 years. I just wish that the gaming companies took the writing more seriously. It’s not hard to get a good script written in advance, and pay some decent actors to do the voice acting. It’s my opinion that there is no valid reason (unless you count cutting corners) that games can’t be just as entertaining or as emotionally encapsulating as movies or TV.

WO: From what you’ve seen in games, what do you think of the standards of acting?

AJ: TERRIBLE, and with no excuse. Game budgets are gigantic, often bigger than those of movies. If the goal of a game is to increase the connection between the player and the coveted suspension of disbelief, then game producers need to learn from the movies, and they need to learn fast. The best voice acting in a game I’ve ever seen was Uncharted 2. It was a largely uninteresting game, apart from the voice acting. And guess what, it got game of the year. If you’re going to do only one thing right in the production of a game, it’s my opinion that voice acting should be the top of the list.

WO: What have been a few games that have stood out for you? What has drawn you to them?

AJ: I really liked Call of Duty 4, for it’s graphics and simplicity. Online COD4 was awesome. It was humbling at first, and then rewarding later. When you watch your name slowly get to the top of the end of game leaderboard, it’s really quite exciting.

I liked Fallout 3. I’ve never had so much fun on my own before. Bethesda created a world that I was not only happy to spend lots of time in, but one that frightened me and gave me a sense of awe.

Dead Space was an amazing out of nowhere game. It didn’t seem to get anywhere near as much hype as other games released at the same time, but it was by far one of the best space horror games I’ve played. Compared to Aliens vs Predator which is out now, Dead Space 1 was far superior, and they managed to do this without falling into the trap of copying Aliens, like so many other space shoot’em games tend to do.

Assasins Creed 2 is quite amazing. And I eagerly anticipate Battlefield Bad Company 2 as the demo seems to be taking up more of my time than most other games I’ve played. [UPDATE: game has since been released and Andrew's stats are here].

WO: Do you see the appeal of an ‘escape’ in videogames? Like, for instance, being a ninja in a game. Do you think games have the ability to empower the ‘user/self’ over other mediums?

AJ: I think we must tread carefully when we talk about how games change our daily lives when we are not playing them. The conservative politicians would love to hear a gamer say “Being a ninja in a game made me want to be a Ninja in real life!” Translation: Killing in games makes me want to kill in real life. I think games offer an escape and a significant suspension of disbelief. Life is boring. We were promised magic and rocket ships as children. PS3 and Xbox are as close as we can get to those dreams in the present day. Is it any wonder games are so popular? We are finally starting to live those dreams, even if it is through a TV screen.

WO: Given that you are, apart from the odd dabbling in certain titles, essentially a non-gamer, how do you feel about Michael Atkinson and the ‘no R18+ rating for games’ issue making headlines at the moment? And, now that he is resigning, how do you think this will impact Australia?

AJ: I was so impressed by the political startup Gamers 4 Croydon. I think Atkinsons’ resignation is long overdue. Anyone who thinks that bikers are less scary than gamers clearly has issues and should not be in the public arena making decisions that affect the daily lives of the population.

To be blunt, Michael Atkinson is a princess, not a solider. I imagine if he did play games, his desire would be to play as the female damsel in distress, waiting for a knight in shining armour to come along and rescue him. At the risk of a possible libel suit, I’d like to go on record and make the suggestion that he was probably a spoilt rotten brat who was given anything he wanted as a child (except a Commodore 64, because games are evil, and so are gamers). He was probably sent to a Christian school and told that he could make the world a better place by spreading his ridiculous ideologies across Australia. Still holding a grudge against the children who DID get an Commodore 64 (or a VIC20), he decided to make it his personal vendetta to make all gamers pay.

He took his goal of spreading his ideologies one step further by making those ideologies public policy. His mistake? Assuming no one would try to stop him.

WO: Thanks very much for your time, Andrew.

RPGs tend to always intimidate me before I start one: upon estimating the hours I’m going to need to commit towards understanding the equipment system, not to mention navigating all those menus and grasping the fictional history as well as figuring out the combat tactics, it worries me ever so greatly and yet, strangely, I am never sufficiently put off enough to avoid the genre altogether. The worry stems from a selfishness: a concern borne out of a fear of what will happen to me if I actually like the game. Or rather more specifically, what will happen to me if I actually, sincerely, love the game.

Despite all the great reviews DA:O has received, that wariness still existed in the back corners of my mind, particularly after my last attempt at an RPG – the ever-frustrating Lost Odyssey -  ended with me angrily cursing, switching off and trading the game in after having to put up with one too many twenty-minute-long ‘random encounters’ despite my best efforts to excuse them. The short story ‘Dream’ segments unlocked in the game were amazing and beautifully written, but they were way too few and far between amidst such an archaic turn-based RPG gameplay system filled with uninteresting, lacklustre characters and a completely forgettable plot seemingly incongruent to those bonuses.

Dragon Age Origins, on the other hand, was developed by Bioware, responsible for completely captivating me with Mass Effect and many others prior with the Baldur’s Gate series and that ever-mentioned beloved acronym, KOTOR, and I really should have seen the impact of DA:O coming from a mile away given the developer’s reputation as I picked the game up more out of curiosity than anticipation: an epic story, well-written and realised characters, and most impressively, an entire backstory of Tolkien proportions. So amazing in fact that it’s produced yet another variation of that RPG fear of mine: a simple question of whether I will have the time to play through as all the different races to fully experience all the variation in the titular ‘origin stories’ this game has to offer, not to mention going through all the DLC… and then there’s still that Mass Effect 2 second playthrough I’ve been meaning to get through continuing to tease and tempt me in the background.

I adore a great story and the experience of a quality game. I love being transported into that fictional world, becoming as one with my on-screen character. I get disappointed when game stories are terrible, akin to awful Hollywood movies all about explosions and visuals without even a hint of a soul in sight. A soul, you ask? In a game? Perhaps I do have unrealistically high expectations of video games and am often left pondering their true power as a medium, but then something like DA:O shows up with not only a soul, but also a heart in the form of its characters and an entire in-game history to be studied.

And I mean studied, too. Given the number of codex entries in the game, even dwarfing that of Mass Effect, I couldn’t help but realise that this was the digital equivalent of Tolkien’s Silmarillion. Indeed, the main story and Darkspawn enemies are reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, but it’s how all those individual story elements and themes are brought together for Dragon Age – the races, the mythology, the history; the way it all collides and the conflict caused as a result – which has really touched me. Every single aspect of the game comes with its own explanation and backstory where discussions on racism and discrimination (both across as well as within races), religion, and class are all presented from both sides of the coin and presented in the form of difficult decisions accompanied with much moral conflict, with it being up left solely up to the player which path they wish to choose. As a result not only has my faith in quality RPGs been restored, so too has my belief that the medium can continue to achieve an unmatched form of emotional power.

The relationships you form with your recruited allies is incredible thanks to excellent voice acting, with the conversations and interaction between all the 3-plus-yourself combinations of party members a particular standout. Taking a break in-between quests at your party camp not only offers a reprieve from the often-difficult but rewarding combat itself but also serves as the perfect opportunity to get to know the characters in the game. Even non-playable characters possess charm and presence, my particular favourites being Wade the armourer and his impatient shop-assistant in Denerim. There is a deep sense of attachment in DA:O which improves on what was offered in Mass Effect 1, but is sadly missing in Mass Effect 2 as the latter game favoured action setpieces ahead of the original’s purer RPG character development elements. Not to say that ME2 is lacking story and character-wise, but playing it after DA:O I do feel as if ME2’s characters and their motivations weren’t as well-defined or expanded upon as they could have been.

Dragon Age Origins is the kind of game where pictures, or in this case screenshots, cannot do justice to the content on offer. The impact it’s had on me is really something I didn’t expect, and never have I felt so touched in a video game as during the Urn of Sacred Ashes quest when the Guardian revealed the very essences of my character and those of my party, in particular, Leliana. An Orlesian bard who had placed her complete faith in the Chantry – i.e. a female songstress who had given up a shadowy past to become a devout believer of the Maker, the game’s representation of the Judaeo-Christian God and its delivery through Catholicism – and being told that her faith was misguided, deluded and selfish, was an incredibly powerful and almost soul-destroying moment. It was also the instant when I understood how deep this game really was.

Similarly with the game’s choices, never before have I come across a title which has really nailed the idea of consequence and regret. Fallout 3 almost did it to me when Dogmeat died and I felt compelled to load up my last save game and lose several hours of play just so he could live again, and also when Jericho was finished off after we were ambushed in the Wasteland by multiple albino radscorpions, but ultimately it was too personal and individual a game in that everything I did essentially only affected myself and my own feelings and style of play. Mass Effect 2’s imported files from the first game offered little more than brief cameos of the outcomes of my actions in the first game as the sequel focused mainly on the new story. In both cases there was no tangible sense of dwelling on and acknowledging that a mistake had been made if or when the repercussions came back to haunt me.

By the end of my first playthrough as a ‘good’ character I had become so attached to my party members that all of my choices were based entirely on a sense of responsibility which had slowly evolved over the course of the game, whereas the second time round in being a ‘bad’ character my poor and inconsiderate decisions led to Leliana and Alistair leaving in disgust, several others rebelling, and me greatly regretting the course of my actions. To compare it to Mass Effect, these harsh consequences were no doubt inspired by the confrontation with Wrex in ME1, but even considering the finale of ME2 where the lives of your crew were at stake, there was never that fear throughout the game that you could hurt or offend someone so irreversibly that they would hold a grudge against you for good. In other words, being responsible for lives being lost is one thing. Being responsible for betraying someone you had become attached to while they still lived is quite another.

For a game to make me believe in the fantasy and to then make me feel something from it is a rarity. My choices were hardly ever beneficial for everyone concerned, and there were many occasions where I wish I had said or done things differently because of the consequences that followed. That fear of playing an intimidatingly large RPG has translated into a fear of hurting a character’s feelings, and it is a credit to the game that multiple playthroughs as different races produces a different experience as, for instance, background characters encountered in previously end up being your close friends the next time you encounter them, completely changing the context of your actions. To be drawn to the story and the characters so much that choice becomes an emotional effort rather than a curious novelty of the game is Dragon Age Origins’ greatest strength, leaving me with yet another important decision: determining when next to dedicate the time to play through it again, just to see what other outcomes and ramifications are on offer.

I still remember it so vividly: the day my mum took me to the store to pick up the Sega Master System II, my first ever console and a moment that inevitably influenced my gaming life for good, culminating in me. The console’s box design and game covers checkered in predominant white with black stripes and adorned with Times New Roman font. We sure have come a long way since then, but in the early 90s when Hypercolour t-shirts constituted taste, it was magic.

All my friends had NES’s – all of them – but there was something about Sega that struck me. Maybe it was the futuristic logo which has never aged, even now, or maybe it was the appeal of supporting the underdog. Perhaps it was even the built-in game, Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Regardless of what it was, there was certainly something special about it and I simply couldn’t wait to rush home to unbox it along with my first ever non-built-in game that accompanied it, Enduro Racer.

Glorious it was, curvaceously compact with a shiny charcoal finish and smelling like fresh plastic. Cables were connected and old CRT TV channels were manually configured, on it went and there it was, the most unforgettable theme song in my entire life. Enduro Racer and all its isometric angle cruelties which I would come to learn of later could wait its turn for now.

Photo from RetroJunk

Alex Kidd in Miracle World had several pivotal aspects. The awfully harsh difficulty scale. The skill required to swim against the flow while underwater, avoiding that Octopus boss’ tentacles in order to get close enough to punch him. The punishment and fear it conditioned into young impressional minds by morbidly offering special question-mark item boxes which were possessed – at random – by ghosts that would fly straight through every on-screen obstacle and kill you with a touch. The number of times I died and replayed straight away, watching that same title screen and hearing that same jingle. The shame I still feel in never finishing it, always losing the last Scissors-Paper-Rock boss fight without even a hint of the luxury afforded us today via modern-day FAQs or, dammit, even the internet. I must have played that game over 200 times and it always ended up (and immediately restarted) in frustration and that friggin’ theme song.

Now when I look back, 20 years later, the game wasn’t that great, even by 8-bit standards. It was always going to be remembered as a mediocre Mario rip-off, just with oversized-fists and big ears and a relentless level of difficulty. As for the Master System II itself, the console’s controller’s sharp edges used to give me blisters and you could only pause by pressing the big round white button located on the actual machine. And ever since then I’ve witnessed, as we all have, the rise and fall of Sega, with memorable characters and games coming and going and often fading into obscurity, with Alex making way to Sonic as Sega’s mascot and being promptly adandoned, but that bloody music, my God!

Still catchy and no longer rubbing in the fact that it was game over yet again, the theme song to Alex Kidd in Miracle World takes me back to a wonderful time of my youth and for that it’ll always hold a special place in my memory, bringing a smile to my face whenever my brain decides to turn back the clock, overlooking the trauma caused not only by the lack of save function with those old game cartridges, but also the painful injustice of predetermined Scissors-Paper-Rock contests resulting in two fingers stuck up at you followed swiftly – and memorably – by death.

]]> http://willooi.com/2009/12/retro-review-alex-kidd-in-miracle-world-and-its-theme-song/feed/ 3 http://willooi.com/2009/11/modern-warfare-2-a-post-completion-discussion/ http://willooi.com/2009/11/modern-warfare-2-a-post-completion-discussion/#comments Fri, 13 Nov 2009 02:49:09 +0000 Will Ooi http://www.willooi.com/?p=699 (Spoilers of course.)

It was all over far too soon. With barely a moment to rest or let your guard down to admire the amazing environments and graphical details of the year’s biggest release, the campaign mode of Modern Warfare 2 – whilst inarguably exhilarating from start to finish – wasn’t quite what I was hoping it would be, nor was I as profoundly affected by the controversial airport level as I was building myself up for. The emotional resonance of the original story in the first Modern Warfare, set in current times and grounded (somewhat) in reality, has given way to fantasy in the sequel. By way of comparison, MW2 has pretty much turned into Metal Gear Solid 4.

Not to say it’s not a good game – it is, but only in a purely aesthetic manner. But in very much the same way the original MGS changed the industry as we knew it by introducing blockbuster film productions to gaming before taking a ridiculously confusing turn for the worse as  the plot descended into madness as the series progressed, I fear that, this time round, Infinity Ward “did a Kojima” and opted more for the spectacular rather than the subtle and meaningful surprises; great gameplay masking gaping plot holes.

My gripe is with how inadequately explained it all was.  The airport level was still shocking, yes, but any real meaning or conscientious questioning to be derived from it was overshadowed by the sheer unbelievability of the story, particularly with this vital aspect of it upon which the game’s plot hinged entirely – the process of becoming an undercover agent:

So, an American soldier gets hand-picked by the CIA to infiltrate the Russian ultra-nationalist terrorist group, and presumably he’s learned how to speak Russian fluently (the mission is named No Russian, after all) and been trained in Russian culture so as to make it all the way up close and personal to the world’s most dangerous man, Vladimir Makarov, in the space of, what, a few months? Half a year? It seemed as if the airport stage had been designed beforehand for the shock value with the plot as a mere afterthought, particularly given that the objective of that level was to “earn Makarov’s trust” – which just doesn’t make any consistent sense given that you were already in his posse. Worse still, the rest of the game’s story charges you with finding Makarov and killing him, and yet if you shoot at him during the airport stage you fail the mission (!). To make it even more exorbitant the next stage is set in Brazil. Why? Because shell casings from the bullets used to kill those civilians are tracked to somebody in Rio; in other words, how can we find a link between a massacre in Moscow and a cool looking place to put in the game for action purposes which we haven’t used before, like somewhere in South America? A flimsy plot device, that’s how!

So by the beginning of Act II, I had simply turned my brain off. Arguably it shouldn’t have been on in the first place for Modern Warfare 2, perhaps, but why have mature and controversial content in the first place if the rest of the story plays out like James Bond directed by Michael Bay? By the end of the game, with twists and turns and, sadly, the odd predictable moment or two of corniness, the brain was well and truly comatose. Having said that though, I did enjoy it greatly in the same way I would a cheesy action movie from the early to mid 90’s: playing through the gulag level not only reminds you of The Rock but also contained a somewhat appropriate self-referential Hollywood-style payoff with the Sean Connery character turning out to be Captain Price. And that’s simultaneously the problem I have with MW2 and the thing I miss from MW1: the original had the tragedy as well as the commentary on war – particularly with the nuclear explosion seen from your perspective. MW2 tried to capture that same level of “thought” but is let down by going for the overly  spectacular extreme. It definitely still succeeds as a pure action game and a guilty pleasure – I would have just preferred something deeper as hinted at with MW1 and the Cain & Abel voiceover from the MW2 trailer.

Overall MW2 deserves its praise for extremely high production values, marvellous technical and visual achievements, great pacing and action setpieces. In particular I greatly enjoyed the focus on the connection with that great cast of supporting characters – particularly with Captain Price taking on the role of his former mentor Captain MacMillan from the first game, as well as seeing Soap MacTavish from the third person perspective for much of the game before finally “being him” at the end –  again quite reminiscent of techniques used in the Metal Gear series. Shame about the story and the poor use of the airport level, though, because I think Infinity Ward missed a really good opportunity here to do something in the name of videogames. Something special. Maybe I was just hoping for a bit too much. So while I contemplate the future of COD, no doubt still playing through the campaign again a few more times, my mind falling asleep amidst the explosive excitement and developing an ever-increasing addiction to the even less meaningful but totally spectacular multiplayer, I will still grasp onto that hopeful notion that games can truly promote an important message through its medium. But oh what might have been…

The Australian Classification Board – Censorship and Banning

I, like most other Aussie gamers, was upset when the zombie-killing game Left 4 Dead 2 was banned. Indeed the ratings system here is backwards, yes it’s outdated, but the real key issue we have with it is that it is a hypocritical decision because the original game, containing practically everything the sequel has been banned for, came out without a hitch. After an unsuccessful appeal by Valve, the makers of the game, the title was modified and passed the ratings system with the highest MA15+ age gate, however if the Classification Board – or just South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson – is going to insist on there being no R18+ rating for videogames then so be it, the arguments against the lack of the classification (which cannot be granted without the agreement of all state and Commonwealth attorney generals) will continue, but the least one could ask for is that consistency is shown in the meantime.

It’s these double standards that have many gamers foaming at the mouth; Fallout 3 was initially banned because of the game’s drug references but not because of the violence and gore which included features such as the Bloody Mess perk which increased the violence and, should the player utilise the abilities granted to him/her, pick up decapitated heads and place them, say, on dinner plates. Rather ludicrously, once the drugs in the game were renamed to no longer reflect their real-life counterparts (i.e. Morphine changed to Med-X), even though their properties and effects within the game were still the same, it made it past the ratings system with no further problems.

My own personal dilemma is that I really enjoyed Fallout 3, and yet I absolutely acknowledge that if I had young children then I would never, ever, want them to play through it; blowing people’s heads off through VATS or having them explode their enemies into a red mist. So that’s where choice comes in: once over the age of 18, they would have every legal right to watch an R rated film because the rating system’s purpose of existence is to appropriately screen material from the underaged public. But for the Board to completely take away the choice of purchasing games in their full uncensored form is akin to a condescending pat on the head of all those gamers over 18 years of age, essentially claiming that we are incapable of telling the difference between fact and fiction, even though we are trusted to be able to with film.

Violence and drugs aside, it was the immersive experience of Fallout 3 that stood out along with the game world’s system of moral code and consequence which made it such a powerful medium of escapism from ‘the real world’. Arguably the violence within the game, while gory and excessive to the point of ridiculousness, may have been relevant to the post-apocalyptic, fictional world of the Capital Wasteland, much like how the Mad Max movies (an inspiration of the series) and many other film worlds have been depicted. It was portrayed in such a way in order to capture the lawlessness of a world stripped down to its base survival instincts, and presented via a biting satire of 1950s Americana in a fantasy setting tinged with black humour.

To some extent however, I do have to ask myself whether the experience could have been as memorable and as fun without the weapons and the violence and the excessive gore and drug use… who knows? But the main thing about Fallout 3 as a game was that there was a deeper role for the player, built around a gameplay system where terrible things could be done, including the murder of civilians, should the player choose to do so. Similarly with the Grand Theft Auto* series – to speak in film terms, essentially the videogame equivalent of an overblown mockumentary on modern American society – the ultimate decision as to how to approach the game was up to the player and direct consequences would occur as a result. Games have come a long way since the days of linear plots and distinct fixed boundaries as to what the player could and could not do, but the whole concept of choice – the lack of it through real-life censorship and banning as well as in-game options – is still a divisive topic. Yes, violence has been around long before videogames, but sadly the industry’s argument for “games as art” has not been done any favours by those titles that have deliberately sought the controversy.

* (Interestingly with GTA IV, the Classification Board had initially banned its sale before a modified version adhering to an MA15+ rating was accepted for release. The changes? You could still kill people by shooting them or running them down in a car but no pools of blood would appear afterwards beneath their corpses. You could still hire prostitutes and engage in sexual acts in vehicles but you could only see the car rock up and down with a fixed camera angle as opposed to a controllable one, which somehow makes it all okay. Furthermore, the downloadable episode The Lost and Damned featured the completely uncensored content above and still somehow made it past review – if the Board is going to enforce censorship of material, it could at least do so with common sense and, again, consistency.)

~

The Snuff Film Equivalents of Gaming

Why does gaming carry with it such a stigma within Australia then? Perhaps because of its history of attracting controversy, rightly or wrongly, and with good intentions or entirely self-serving ones. Games such as Manhunt 2, a title fundamentally built on the premise of executing enemies in the most vile and revolting manner possible, was deservedly banned here and heavily censored elsewhere.

Inspired by snuff films and containing just about the same amount of substance, I managed to get my hands on the first Manhunt via a friend who bought a copy before the decision was made to retrospectively ban it several months after its release, and I have to say I was utterly disturbed by its violence. It was a glorification reaching a level of vile desensitisation, and with no reason or purpose in the game apart from achieving, again, the most graphic kill animations possible. The gameplay mechanics were solid from a functional point of view, but Manhunt was pointlessly sadistic in every other respect. The worst thing about it and particularly the likes of baseless games such as Soldier of Fortune, Postal, and going back as far as the controversy Mortal Kombat courted and thrived off, is that they give game critics the ammunition they need to pigeon-hole videogames as a medium to such an extent that knee-jerk reactions without proper context (or even playthroughs) are far too common, ala the ridiculous furore with Fox News’ infamous take on Mass Effect, completely ignoring the qualities of games that promote moral thought and decision making in the midst of strenuous situations, along with the impact on the player’s conscience. These snuff games do nothing but take morality out of the equation altogether, fully warranting their bans and sullying the image of videogames in the eyes of the government and the mass media.

~

The Modern Warfare 2 Airport Level Controversy (Spoilers)

It had been strongly hinted at in the trailers, but until the footage leaked onto the internet (for the short period before it was removed) no one was at all prepared for the fact that the airport level of Modern Warfare 2 had players engage in the act of killing civilians from the terrorist’s point of view. It must be noted that the stage is entirely skippable and features constant warning messages of disturbing content, but in these cases it helps to take a step back to think about the ramifications and purpose of such an inclusion before making an uninformed decision and leaping for the panic button.

Curiously in terms of Australian banning, the game received an MA15+ rating from the Classification Board months ago and is still scheduled for its original worldwide November release date just over a week away - despite how, as stated in its report, “civilians are shot with blood burst bullet wounds; civilian corpses are strewn across the airport floor, often in stylised pools of blood; injured civilians crawl away with lengthy blood trails behind them,” but because “no post mortem damage can be inflicted on victims and, in other missions in the game, killing a civilian results in mission failure,” the violence in this context is okay. Which makes one wonder why killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, hardly realistic targets, is not.

In all honesty I appreciate Infinity Ward taking a huge gamble here with the level; so long as that, in whatever manner this airport stage does play out and in the full scheme of things, it does not trivialise terrorism and the fact that innocent lives have long been lost as a result of it. And judging by the aims of Modern Warfare 1 in showing the horrors and loss of war – and even just trusting in the developer to display basic human sensibilities of what constitutes good taste – I predict that it absolutely will not.

I fully expect it to turn out to be an utterly devastating and tragic moment in the game – it appeared as if the level was the finale to the first chapter where you play as an undercover CIA officer who has infiltrated the group but is powerless to the events of the massacre (which has unfortunately lost its shock value having been spoiled) – carrying with it a deep emotional resonance with the player. An impact never before seen in gaming albeit a talking point for years to come.

The quote from the president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media is:

“The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that’s meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against” – which completely misses the point and provides a good insight into how games are seen in this country. It is obvious that the developer’s aim here is to ensure that people will not enjoy playing through the stage, contrary to the entire point of playing a game in the first place which, considering the Classification Board’s approval of its release, indicates an agreement in the purpose of this level.

Indeed, if we are shocked to the core as we ought to be, Modern Warfare 2 could prove to be a positive step towards the further exploration of videogames in testing the potentials of its own medium; using its uniquely identifying feature – being in control – to create a palpable sense of morality and enforcing the shocking and disturbing consequences of the player’s actions in a digital representation of the real world. In other words, a significant advancement from games being constantly referred to by others as a mere “leisure time activity,” and meant for those with easily-influenced minds without the ability to discern from what is right and wrong, as opposed to more “serious” art forms. Sadly, Atkinson continues to argue otherwise whilst at the same time enforcing inconsistency, saying that “Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment,” and yet still granting its unedited release as an MA15+ title.

~

Close

The major problem in Australia, if it isn’t already plainly obvious, is that games are not taken seriously. The argument against the incongruent rating system is that it is somehow okay when other mediums such as films depict graphic violence and disturbing content matter when there is indeed an R18+ rating to advise the public of the content, but as soon as such material is in the hands gamers the rules immediately change. The conundrum? Games are dismissed as child’s play; mindless folly and embarrassing source of silly, meaningless “entertainment” incapable of achieving irony or bringing a proper discussion to the table. So when the odd title does come along, trying to add a conscience and tackle the bigger and more controversial issues – much like what any art form aims to do – out comes the stigma of videogames where the accusations of “glorification of violence” pour forth from the media, completely misunderstood and hastily judged before anyone has even had a chance to experience it for themselves.

Not everyone will get the point, of course. There will no doubt be videos posted on Youtube after Modern Warfare 2 comes out of players deliberately and happily killing civilians without the slightest regard to what Infinity Ward are trying, optimistically, to achieve. But just like the Paul Verhoeven films Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, etc attempted to challenge one’s sensibilities – to move the viewer out of their comfort zones – the critical response manifested in conflicting forms: face value (senseless violence) versus subtext (parody and satire of violence), all dependent on how one interpreted what they saw. Videogames obviously differ from film in that films take their audience on a fixed rollercoaster ride whilst games tend to offer a plot-driven ride whilst also allowing player control in their progression, but because of a selective and inconsistent R18+ classification system we Australians are given access to the former but often denied the chance of interpretation for the latter.

In taking risks with its content, hopefully time will show that Infinity Ward made a brave choice in an attempt to create a new level of emotion and deeper understanding of real life cruelties via the videogame effect. But maybe the world, and especially Australia, just isn’t ready for the medium of gaming to do tongue-in-cheek or convey poignancy, irony, or a realistic videogame representation of the world because it is, apparently, too real for gamers to be able to tell the difference, regardless of their age.

Upon its release I am confident that Modern Warfare 2 will shock and disgust within a proper narrative and context, because it’s these feelings – a sense of guilt conflicting against and challenging the actions of the player in that scenario – that will really help gaming achieve the same emotional connection of other art forms, and hopefully the industry’s attempts at doing so are analysed appropriately by the public and the powers that be. Even if it is only by those who really get it… which doesn’t look like it will include the Australian Classifications Board nor Michael Atkinson anytime soon.

Selfish housemates getting on your nerves? Time to move out?

Well ahoy there!! I, Landlord Lucantile of Alexandria Arms, am extremely pleased to offer you – YES YOU! – the investment property opportunity of a lifetime!

An absolutely stunning three storey complex. Of course, only one of those floors is operable and there isn’t much of a ceiling, but hell, THREE STOREYS!!

Situated in a pleasantly quiet spot next to the motorway, this home offers shrubbery and plenty of parking space but, MY WORD! It’s the fully furnished interiors that’ll really get your mouth watering:

A classic antiquated and mint-condition rug in the bedroom, along with smoking area

And who has time for wardrobes, seriously!? I, Landlord Lucantile, am also willing to part with all my own garments and hat collection for your comfort; to make this offer sound just that little bit more enticing!

“Pfft!! Why would I want to wear your blood-stained clothes anyway, you fool?!” I hear you exclaim pessimistically. Well then, how could you possibly say no to my collection of Nuka Cola Quantums? Similarly friend, how could you even humanly – you’ll like this one – bear the thought of rejecting the beautiful prospect of your very own Rumpus Room filled with – yes! – teddy bears and beverages?

Not to mention my library of bedtime reading materials and, the true gem of this offer overlooking the magnificent cityscape: the Weapons Cache (plus pitching machine)

Okay I know what you’re thinking: “With all those goodies in there, what about the raiders then?” I’ll be straight with you and confess that, yes, the place has had a single incident of burglary in the past, what with, in hindsight, the previous complacency in security measures.

You’ll doubtless be pleased to hear that the culprit was apprehended.

And that a new, cutting-edge system of home protection has since been installed!

An ingenius, custom-made Home Anti-Burglar System governed by Owner Recognition Software (made up of no less than 531 sensor modules – FACT) which makes entering these fine premises absolutely, perfectly safe, as I shall demonstrate for you now.

Similarly, the Weapons Cache has also received a complete security overhaul.

And if none of those above methods prove successful, then this piece of artwork on the way up the ground level stairs is bound to put off any would-be home invaders.

So there you have it, friend – and I, Landlord Lucantile, will proclaim it happily to the Wasteland: “It’s the deal of a lifetime!!!”

* Landlord Lucantile is open to offers this coming Saturday from sunrise to sundown, with the property expected to be sold for offers of 750 thousand bottle caps and above, or 100 slaves and over. We ask that you do not bring weapons, however if you choose to do so then please DO NOT fire them around the Weapons Cache. Or at Landlord Lucantile. The safety of all applicants on their way to and within the home is not guaranteed by Lucantile Properties, and Lucantile Properties will not be held culpable for any injuries or crippled limbs visitors may incur during inspections of the residence. Should you wish to purchase the property, Lucantile Properties is not responsible for any retaliation you may receive from Wasteland Regulators.

]]> http://willooi.com/2009/10/a-fallout-3-investment-property-of-a-lifetime/feed/ 3 http://willooi.com/2009/08/review-greedy-power-adaptors/ http://willooi.com/2009/08/review-greedy-power-adaptors/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 13:00:00 +0000 Will Ooi http://willooi.com/review-greedy-power-adaptors/ I wish to charge up my Nintendo DS. It isn’t asking much.

And I have only one space left on the port.

I wish to fit the power adaptor into that remaining space: the one untouched. 

But because of the shape of it, I cannot. There is conflict. Could you not be shaped vertically, I retort? 

~

But “NO” it shouts, “I wish to be here“

So I am forced to rearrange every other plug, just to accommodate this one. Inconsiderate prick. 

“This is needlessly annoying,” I say, shaking my head. “Why are you so greedy, oh dear me, oh dear.”

Succumbing to its greed, half of it still sticking out anyway, I am exposed to an imminent explosion at the mercy of my next switch flick. 

Witnesses have up to this point neither confirmed or denied rumours that Niko Bellic and/or Johnny Klebitz were at the scene

According to news sources:

“There’s been a major escalation in Sydney’s bikie gang war with the bashing death of a man at Sydney’s domestic airport in front of horrified bystanders yesterday.

Four men aged between 21 and 25 have been charged with affray over the incident and more charges are expected to follow. Police say the attack appeared to be planned and it’s raised questions about the level of security at Sydney Airport.

…

Police believe the violence erupted between members of the Hells Angels and Comancheros biker gangs after senior figures from both gangs flew on the same flight between Melbourne and Sydney.

…

The murder follows a series of tit-for-tat shootings involving two other rival bikie gangs - the latest just yesterday - that has left Sydney’s suburban streets living in fear.”

The victim died of severe head injuries after being bashed by the metal poles propping up the queues.

So then: a bikie war, an apparent assassination of a rival leader in broad daylight at a public place, a death via bludgeoning, the CCTV footage has done a runner. Doesn’t this all sound so very familiar? The only thing missing is that little jingle that plays alongside the words ‘MISSION COMPLETE – $10, 000′. However unlike GTA the bad guys got caught. So let this be a very important lesson to us all: always print out your tickets before your flight for a quicker check-in.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5