The Game Critique

I try to be civil. I try to be nice and understanding to everyone. In other words it takes a lot to piss me off. Thank you to the asshole that broke into my room and stole my PlayStation 3. Thank you for making me have to take time out of my already packed and less than bright day to file a report and remove all credit information from my account. Thank you for changing my view of the world and making me feel no longer safe in my own room. Thank you for actually going out of your way to figure out which closed door was unlocked and which one contained an empty room so you could steal their stuff. Believe me this is one of those times I really wished I got back early so I could pound your face in. And most of all thank you for teaching me what has to happen, what a person has to do to make me hate them. Asshole, my friend, you have accomplished a rare feat in the world. You have managed to make me hate another human being. A feat that many of my friends sometimes don’t think is possible. I was going to put a real post up today. I was planning on getting one out every day this week. I had more than enough material. But somehow it doesn’t seem worth it anymore. I’ve had a busy day that wasn’t over yet and thanks to you got completely derailed. 5 hours later I find myself in an increasing state of pissed off and writing this instead of everything else I could be doing and should be doing. This was a bad day for me already, so thank you asshole for making it even worse. So I will put this in a way you can understand me. You want the police to find you, because you don’t want me to find you. I have enough stress without having to wonder if I’ll get what’s mine back and having to wonder if I have deal with this shit ever again. I don’t like having to lock my door just to go to the bathroom for 5 minutes. I’m not even sure I can get another one. They don’t make the 60 gig model anymore and even if they did, I don’t have the money. The hard work I poured into doesn’t matter anymore, my saves, my money, my time and now my critical effort. My only consolation is that a lot of my profile’s stuff is online and not on the machine.

To any readers I might have picked up I will finish up whatever work and game essays I still have. I might post a piece on what little PC gaming I own or DS gaming, but the fact of the matter is, most of the work I had coming up was on the PlayStation. Time will tell if I’ll even bother anymore.

Oh and one last thing.

Thanks asshole and FUCK YOU!

Last weekend after a movie I sat my Dad down and started up Flower for him to try out. Now my Dad hasn’t tried a video game since the mid-90s and those were the PC adventure games. We’d play them together. But given Flower’s casual nature, simple controls and pleasing aesthetic, I figured he would get into it and I wanted a non-gamer’s take on it.

I quickly explained the controls, all two of them, started him on the opening level and then watched him play. It took a little while, but he was enjoying flying all over the place.

He seemed very interesting in gaining height. He didn’t go for the flowers right away and instead explored the environment. Like a child taking his first steps he turned this way and that learning how to move in the world. It’s a very apt analogy for what he was doing. He needed to learn to tilt and to factor in speed. Actually he learned how to control his speed better than I did.

He took it very slow and managed and stopped a lot as he just let the petals float in the air. After he got a lot more they began swirling around each other and he was enjoying himself immensely. Then he asked what the meteors were. I had to double check and figure out what he was talking about. It was the white lines of the wind. Then he hit his first patch of yellow flowers and the whole experience changed. The yellow grass bloomed into a flush green. He nicked named it the boom boom, I can only think after the subtle sound effect that came with it.

Soon it became a hunt and peck experience with him flying high to get an aerial view and then dive bomb the flowers he found. Even at the stop and start pace he was playing at he was getting excited. It was so visceral to him and it connected saying, “I could really get into this.” I mention that each flower plays a note when passed through and that I was never good enough to see if there was a tune.  The next few batches he tries to do just that and eventually hits an entire row. Yes, there is a tune.

Finishing up the first level I had my dad go through the next two in order. I learned that he found the game frustrating, but that good type of frustrating where you end up with a smile on your face and laughing at yourself. He didn’t much care for the the experience or any meaning that could be derived from each flower’s dream, it really was a game to find where another flower was and anything that didn’t work to that end was pushed to the side. My dad was frustrated by the fact the game took away control for a few seconds to display the effect you were having on the world. Though when the second field burst into color he did comment on its beauty.

The third level was very much about speed. For a game that is supposed to focus on peaceful nature, there is such an adrenaline rush from some of the speeds you can pick up. First around the windmills and later through he canyon. The strength of this speed element even made him go “woah” at one point as he careened around trying to hit as many of the “blue ones” as he could. The variety in the colors were enough to keep him interested.

After the third level it was late and we stopped there. But from a fresh and untainted perspective it seems that flower succeeded what it was aiming to do. It created a nice simple game that caused several different emotional reactions. It seemed to me that it offered more than was necessary from his perspective. All it needed was the flying and the colors. In fact at the beginning of the second level is where it stumbled for him because it was almost all grey until you bring life back to it. It wasn’t until that color came back that it seemed to grab him once again. There is enough style and basic substance to be appealing for both the gamer and the non-gamer as an experience.

That was a look at the aesthetic effect, now you can follow the link to the game’s design effect on the experience.

http://www.creativefluff.com/game-design/flower-a-dads-expirience-design/

(This is the first…thing I got from him. It is reproduced here exactly as written. I have nothing further to say. – The Swain)

Disclaimer: QWERTY’s opinions are not mine nor the site’s. The psudonym QWERTY is used to protect the innocent.

Flower is pretty. There, that’s my obligatory nice thing to say about it.

People tried to explain it to me. I told them to stop. No killing, fine, instead I’m a flower petal; BUT WAIT, no not really. In reality I’m the wind. Wind that apparently has gone off its Ritalin medication and has a bad case of Parkinson’s disease. Right and left apparently don’t apply in this world. The premise of all of this is that you are playing the dream of a flower.

-blink blink-Excuse me Descartes, do plant’s think?

At least it kept giving me pretty things.

Next Noby Noby Boy. So I’m a Life Savors inspired caterpillar, doing stuff for my millions of miles long girlfriend in space that… I… Ah…. Wel…

-Time Passes-

Ok, I have the trophies. I can walk away now. I beat Noby NoBi boY. I’m told I should think of it as a sandbox game. Where’re the guns? Cars? Hookers? Well? Sandbox my ass…which apparently can make centaurs. All of this based upon a syphilitic acid trip.

Was this a good game? I honestly have no idea. Though since I woke up with half eaten lipstick on my mouth next to a garbage can without pants I figured it was at least a good Saturday night. My phone tells me its Thursday. I wish it would stop trying to imitate Dirty Harry, if I need to know the time I’ll open it to colors swirling and then snaps in two, curls back and eats your own ass, puzzle solved. Let the L block land now. (??? -The Swain)

Finally there’s Linger in Shadows. I thought, “How awesome is that title. Holy shit that sounds awesome. And it’s only three bucks.”

This is apparently German. It’s as good excuse as any why I’m trying to spin a concrete flying dog to distract a floating metal squid while time has been frozen. This is after you fly into a cat’s eye to make barrels act like a kaleidoscope, while making a city fall around you.
…

…
…
Double-checking blood samples for traces of n0bee no2 BoiY.

-Crickets chirp-

‘And you walk on down the hall, and And he came to a door…and he looked inside Father, Yes son, I want to kill you, Mother…I want to…(And that’s enough of that now – The Swain).

Here’s a little design analysis piece I did for Creative Fluff design blog on the Killzone 2 commercial. Sony took the marketing in a different direction and are actually getting behind the game. See what I thought of it.

Here’s a little design analysis piece I did for Creative Fluff desgin blog on the Killzone 2 commercial. Sony took the marketing in a different direction and are actually getting behind the game. See what I thought of it.

Killzone 2 Commercial piece

I also write for the design blog Creativefluff.com, where I turn my eyes towards the design aspects of video games. Here is a bridge article between that site and this one where I examine the PS3 exclusive Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and find the design aspects lead to a little more than just a great game if you’re willing to look.

Read it here: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – a critique