I get back to playing more recent fare with a piece focusing on an oft overlooked element in gaming and its use in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons.
The week’s column was spawned by that all too great motivator, desperation. It was getting late and I had to go to bed early because I was working the election polls the next day. I had to be up at 5 am. I looked over my list of games that I’ve played but haven’t written anything about (every critic should make a list like this) and pick out something I could find something to say about. I’ve played quite a few recent games, mostly for reviews, that I haven’t gotten to yet because of horror month. November is when I catch up. I have thoughts about some other games that I will be getting to, but they require more thought and time than I had. So, I grabbed brothers and one shower later I had something I wanted to say about it.
I’m of course speaking about the in-game camera. When it works it is invisible to the player or rather when it works as expected it is invisible to the player. Brother’s camera was not invisible. In fact, when I was playing it made its presence known simply by behaving in a few instances differently than I’ve come to expect from video games. This otherwise mundane moment stood out to me for that reason. Then I read that Polygon piece on the game director and his film background and certain things clicked.
Incidentally, while I was at the polls I had to keep myself entertained and I was running out of reading material. I got to jotting notes down for post ideas, but mostly further thoughts on video game cameras. Usually, I’d put extra thoughts on the PopMatters post that ended up on the cutting room floor or just didn’t fit the streamlining process, but the thoughts I have merit more consideration and then their own piece. So, look out for that.
In the meantime, read by Brothers post. I seem to do some of my best work as a rush job.