Up late talking games & writing? You're...

Film: No, this blog's title isn't my general philosophy (well okay, maybe it is) but it's also the name of the first (of five) Seattle International Film Festival flicks the wife and I are going to catch over the next two weeks.


This one was from Norway, and gave viewers one night in the lives of a dysfunctional support group for handicapped people. The therapist was a kook intent on using her group to write a book, one woman was a quadriplegic with a healthy husband who's tired of being tied to her, one man had a stroke and was in a wheelchair, and so on.

This group of people arrives in a van at the home of Geirr, a recently-paralyzed man who's going through an angry stage and having trouble with his marriage. The therapist tries to convince him to join the group, and things go to hell from there.

Although the material sounds heavy (and it was, at times) it was a pretty honest and comedic look at the bitterness and resentment disabled people can have. At the same time, it managed plenty of honest laughs thanks to the dark attitudes of the characters and unflinching looks at the piss-poor way life can be sometimes.


There were a few genuinely tense moments, and the range of emotions on the screen were absolutely relatable to anyone who's been at a low point in their lives. The film also took some pretty bold choices with regard to character actions physically, putting on film the things that people often wish they'd do, but usually don't. (One character gets pushed out a window, for example... it was exactly what I wanted to see, and I was surprised that the director actually went there.)

Overall I enjoyed the film greatly, and I was quite glad we selected this one to start off our personal SIFF series. For more info on the film, go HERE.

Anyway, it was a total thumbs up, so it's... Recommended.

Just a few random bits tonight...

Games: Still playing Saints Row on 360 and still loving it. It's funny, but this title really does beat GTA at its own game. I mean, it seems to me that the thing that people really like about open-world sandbox games is the ability to go anywhere and do lots of crazy stuff. Why would you ever strip that out? I plan on covering this game in the near future for GC, but at the moment I give it props for not taking itself seriously and going completely over-the-top in many ways, never losing sight of what makes for an enjoyable entry in this genre. It's not perfect by any means, but it's had no problem keeping my attention. You can get it for something like $18 used these days... that's a lot of game for a tiny investment. I haven't finished it quite yet, but it's still recommended.


One little ironic side-note: I had passed Saints Row up a million times and had written it off as a cash-in, but I was so pumped up and ready to play GTA IV that when I realized it wasn't anything near what it was cracked up to be, I started going into withdrawls. If GTA IV hadn't been so miserable, I never would have given SR a chance. Even more ironic? I'm actually considering getting a second 360 unit so the wife and I can play the entire Saints Row 2 co-op campaign fullscreen.


Take that, Rockstar!


Writing: The last few days haven't exactly played out the way I thought they would, and I'm not anywhere near my weekly quota for words-on-page. I'm usually quite proud of my discipline, but I have to admit that I've been slacking when I haven't been working. Guilty as charged. In fact, I probably shouldn't even be taking the time to write this when I have a sequel to make progress on and a short story to finish.


Ahem.

On the plus side, I went to my very-first-ever critique group, and although I had to leave early unexpectedly to get to a last-minute work assignment, it was a fun, positive experience. Shouts-out to Billie and Stephanie, and I'll catch up with you later.

No clue what this movie is... it just looked foreign to me.

Film: The wife and I are going to hit our very first Seattle International Film Festival movies this week. We're going to see five total, and I plan on doing quick rundowns after each viewing. If anyone in the Seattle area has any recommendations for which flicks to see, drop me a line.

So totally not us at the restaurant tonight.

Food: Can I just say that there are few things worse than paying for a bad meal? Check out Mouths Full this friday for more details, but the wife and I were in unfamiliar territory (the eastside) tonight, and we decided to skip the joints we have on our let's-eat-there list and just randomly pick something to review. Although sometimes this tactic pays off, tonight... not so much.

Games: One of the things I love best about my wife is the fact that not only does she play games, she is a gamer.

In my previous relationships, video games were always a source of irritation with my partners at the time. After leaving those situations behind, I was bound and determined to find a woman who loved to play games, or at the very least, did not take issue with the fact that I do.

There are tons of things that I appreciate about the woman I am happily married to now, but to keep this blog post on track, let’s just say that she is about as far into the game zone as any human female could ever expected to be, short of joining the Fragdolls.

And I love it.

…Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that although she loves to play games, before me, she had never been with anyone who enjoyed them or was as knowledgeable about them to the level that I am. I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but I’ve played a shit-ton of games and I’ll gladly stack my knowledge of the medium against the best of them. I know from the videogames.

So, when we’re doing the game thing, I’ll often turn to the wife and say “Hey, have you tried Game X?”

Sometimes she says yes, which is quite cool. But, if she says no… it’s even cooler, because then I get the chance to introduce her to one excellent piece of software or another.

Sharing something I love with the person I love is quite possibly the best thing ever, and not only is it a treat to be able to connect with my spouse in this way, I also get the added benefit of watching her go through titles she’s never played before and re-experience them for myself. One particular mission of mine? To sit her down with each of the modern classics.

Last week, she tried God of War for the very first time – and loved it. In fact, after completing the first one she moved on to another, all on her own. I haven’t played the original God of War since it came out, and watching Kratos rip the heads off medusae and impale undead legionnaires with their own swords reminded me of what a breakthrough game it was.

This week, I introduced her to Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time. I remembered being absolutely bewitched by this game when I saw it for the first time at E3 (and I’m a big fan of the series, really) but sitting down with her and watching this game in action again, I was absolutely stunned to see what an amazing, beautiful creation it remains. The platforming and environmental navigation is as engaging as it ever was, and the animation is still of the absolute top tier, easily the equal or better of anything on shelves today. And the art and level design—my god, despite running on the PS2 it’s still jaw-droppingly stunning, and a masterful demonstration of skill and craft. Prince of Persia looks leagues better than a lot of PS3/360 titles, which goes to show that technical innovation is no match for artistic spirit.

Getting the chance to sit down with someone going through these games for the first time is like discovering them all over again, and seeing my wife’s reaction to certain scenes or the way she problem-solves through this puzzle or that challenge is a real treat. I can’t wait to do the same thing with our children when they are of age, and I count my lucky stars every day that I’m with a person that can appreciate something like this just as much as I do.

Misc: This week has been pretty damned irritating for a few reasons, but I'm just going with the top two here:

Unreliable technology sucks.


...Oh, and Talking With Our Mouths Full has been updated. Peep it here.

Games: A regular on the GameCritics board recently posted a thread asking people what their “safety blanket” games are—i.e., what games do they find themselves coming back to again and again?

My response? None at all. I just don’t have the time!

Seriously… between my regular job, sending out submissions to get my first book sold, working on the sequel and a few short stories, my critic/editor duties at GC, this blog, Mouths Full, and reading selections from my huge piles of comics and novels, I don’t have nearly the amount of time for video games that I used to, or that I’d like to.

Do I expand my territory and represent for my ‘hood in Saints Row, or do I bang out another thousand words for Behind Infernal Eyes? Do I finish off the latest Brian Keene book, or do I proofread the latest reviews? Do I catch up on paperwork, or do I research agents?

(Careful readers will notice I haven’t even mentioned sleep yet.)

I often find myself sacrificing one thing for another, and wishing there were more hours in the day, and when I do find the time to game, there’s just so much out there that I can’t imagine coming back to a game I’ve already finished.

I’ve got a big stack of older titles I bought used or on sale (I’ll crack Sniper Elite one of these days), I’ve got more than a handful of download-only titles that I haven’t even touched yet (Penny Arcade’s On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has been calling my name since Wednesday), I have GTA IV that probably should be finished for critic cred even though it bores the piss out of me, and I’ve got a new game just in for review that won’t even hit retail for another month and a half.

Oh, and like ten new games I really need to play come out, like, each week.

Spend time with a game I’ve already been through??? You ask the impossible.

Anyway, sorry to get off on a rant there, but I think that had been building up for a while.


Quickies—

Food: Green Papaya Salad is awesome.

Games: R-Type Command on PSP is awesome.

Misc: The link to this story contains hookers, stolen credit cards, a 13-year old, and Halo 3. Again, awesome.

...That is all.

Games: So I went out and got a copy of...



the game everybody’s playing and the thing that’s racked up some of the highest-scored reviews of all time. The games media across tha intarwebs have been falling all over themselves to pile shimmering, golden scores on top of it, delivering the kind of unparalleled fellatio that’s usually reserved for the kind of sweaty teen dreams that only hormones can bring on.

As I write this, it’s currently got a 98/100 at MetaCritic after 66 reviews, the first 41 or so being perfect 100s-- seriously, that’s insane success. Rockstar must be thrilled, since any publisher out there would sell their firstborn for numbers like that.

Niko Bellic, on the hunt for Dan Weissenberger

So, after two days of playing, what’s my take on it?

I’m not at all impressed.

It’s not that the game is terrible because it’s not, but it’s certainly not deserving of all the accolades and perfect scores. Granted, I’m still very early on and have not yet completed the single player portion, but based on what I’ve seen so far… I don’t think I actually will. How's that for a ringing endorsement?

My man CJ from San Andreas... Check that fly ride.

Now before going any further, don’t start thinking I’m some sort of GTA hater. That couldn’t be further from the truth—I gave the first perfect score of my review career to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on PS2, and that’s a number I stand by. That was a tremendous game and a major achievement. GTA IV? Not so much.

I mean, looking at the game, I’m not even sure what I’m supposed to be impressed with.

Graphics? Well, the graphics are all right, but they’re not as stellar as most people seem to think they are. Quite honestly, I think there are a lot of games out right now that look a lot better.

Do you play games to admire the architecture?

Realistic replication of a city? Having never set foot in New York, I couldn’t tell you whether it’s realistically modeled or not—and really, who cares if it is? My ability to recognize landmarks or particular neighborhoods has absolutely no effect on gameplay.

Improved controls? I find the vehicle control to be atrocious, quite possibly the worst in the series, and controlling main character Nico Bellic is only slightly better. Everything feels slow and clunky, and quite frustrating at times.

Gameplay? From what I’ve seen so far, it’s business as usual. The same sort of ‘go here, kill someone’ missions that have always been in GTA have made up the majority of what I’ve done so far, with nothing interesting occurring, or even being promised.

Environment? I get very little value from observing AI characters exhibit random behavior while walking down the street, and I don’t usually play games for the scenery. Simply being somewhere and spending time is not a draw.

Story? Granted, this could be the game’s homerun, but it has completely failed to draw me in so far, and I feel (raspberry sound) for the characters. Sure, I giggled at some of the absurd lines and obvious jokes, but I don’t feel compelled to follow Nico on his journey, and I have absolutely no motivation to improve ‘relationships’ with the faces I’ve seen so far. I’m absolutely willing to admit that there may be some quality drama later on, but part of good game design and creation (and really, of any creative media at all) is the ability to capture a player’s imagination and immerse them in the world; motivate them to rise to the challenge and emerge victorious. At this point, I’m completely bored by what’s been happening, and I don’t feel at all engaged—without intellectual buy-in, I have no incentive to put up with what I see as a below-average (compared to San Andreas) GTA boilerplate.

Although I’m considering pressing on if for no other reason than it’s likely going to be one of those ‘must-play’ titles that any good critic should probably have under their belt, it already feels like work and that’s not a good thing.

If anyone out there can tell me what exactly is so great about this game, I’d honestly love to hear it… keeping in mind that graphics aren’t enough to sway me and that I’ve already played through four previous GTAs, exactly what am I supposed to be getting from IV? I would guess that if this was the first time I was playing a GTA I’d be more impressed, but I find absolutely no significant leap between what IV offers, and what every other GTA did before it.

Whatever critics are getting out of this game in order to justify the universal adoration, I just don’t see it.

It may be generic, but Saints Row plays like buttah

As a sort-of comparison, today I picked up a copy of Saints Row, since it had been billed as a GTA wannabe, and I thought it would be interesting to see what my reaction would be to it.

Not surprisingly (or perhaps surprisingly) I thought it started out really fun and frenetic, and I was quickly engaged with the customization and absolutely solid controls. I mean, this game is pretty much a next-gen version of San Andreas with the gang slant, recruiting homies, capturing territory, and so on, only it skips the pretense and gets right to the action.

I can't say that it's a good game since I only put in about 45 minutes with it, but not having to fuss with controls and camera was quite welcome, and it had waypoints and a mini-map, so it was almost exactly like IV minus the immigrants and New York ambiance. (Bonus points awarded for the prominent display of zaftig ladies.)

Saints Row and IV almost seem like flip sides of the same coin when played them back to back like that. Take that irresistible GTA hype out of the equation, and IV seems like standard GTA, just offering less than the last iteration and still not nailing the controls.

Games: So the wife and I just finished Army of Two today, playing the entire thing co-op from start to finish, just as the developers intended.

My impression? Severe underwhelmation.

Looks way cooler than it is.

Level design was unmemorable, and most of the action was the same sort of ‘ hordes of enemies materialize from out of nowhere’ stuff that stopped being interesting years ago. Even worse, there were a ridiculous number of bulletproof gun turrets and bulletproof soldiers, both requiring one player to distract them while the other sneaks up from behind to deliver damage. Not only did this kind of stuff reek of ‘videogamey-ness’, it was just totally uninspired and repeated far too often.

Which one of us is Salem and which one is Rios again?

The story and characters were a joke, too… I seriously couldn’t remember who was who and what was going on thanks to the extremely poor choice of delivering most storytelling and information through audio chatter in the middle of heated firefights when the player is completely occupied doing something else. By the time we finished the game, I couldn’t even remember what my own character’s name was… the whole thing felt very generic and phoned-in.

There were tons of other little problems like certain areas of the game glitching up and requiring a restart, or how the characters have no believable sense of maneuverability in the environment… it’s another game where you can only climb up things that the developers want you to climb up, and you’re not allowed to hop down a three-foot ledge unless it’s the right three-foot ledge.

The best thing about Army of Two was that the characters looked like the Jason twins from Friday the 13th, and being able to play co-op is always a plus in my book… besides those perks, there’s really nothing exceptional or interesting about the game.

I expected a lot more from a title getting such a big push from EA, and any future sequel will have to bring a hell of a lot more to the table than this one did.