javiGoN's Wall
5/23/13 1:57pm
After the FACT returns! This week we remember Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
5/22/13 4:13pm
Xbox One is here! A lot of people are disappointed. Find out what we think!
4/25/13 8:02pm
Metal Gear Solid once meant the world to me but after so many disappointments, it just might be time to let it go.
javiGoN: You're definitely right about MGS1. It had its own share of baggage, convolution and silliness but the difference is that even as a kid, I could play all the way through it with no prior knowledge of the game or characters and still be entirely invested and fascinated by the story. Like I've said in the comments below, it walked the line in such a way that I didn't care if things got cray-cray. Hell, I think MGS3 is the best in the series and it has a man who creates a Tommy Gun out of hornets! Shit's retarded, but whatever.
Maybe my problem is that nowadays it feels like the amount of crazy we are expected to tolerate has been cranked to 11. Just compare cutscenes from the original MGS1 to The Twin Snakes to see what I mean. Both games are telling the exact same story, but one keeps things grounded and to the point which to me makes is way better. Twin Snakes on the other hand, took something as simple as snake leaning against a wall to overhear a conversation and changed it to him doing an aerial over the entire door frame to listen from the other side. Really, that’s the perfect analogy for how I feel.
Do I demand realism from Metal Gear? Absolutely not. The games would be so much worse without the likes of Grey Fox, Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow. But to me there's a difference between bending the reality you've established: (reading/manipulating minds for P.Mantis & ghosts for The Sorrow), and shattering it: (immeasurable strength for Raiden/immortality through nanomachines for Vamp).
Clearly, it’s a matter of taste. If you prefer the over-the-top wackiness of Twin Snakes more than the original, then I imagine you couldn’t be happier with the series and that’s cool. I’m just really not into it. There’s a ton of stuff in Metal Gear that I adore. I see hints of absolute brilliance in each title, and that’s the only reason I care enough to write this post and reply to you guys. I want the series to live up to what I could see it being and that seems to piss off a lot of people off who think it’s perfect…
To your point about the story only able to be told through a game – 90% or more of Metal Gear's story is told through either cutscenes or codec calls. I don't see how any of that would be impossible to be hard to convert to another medium. The average film runs for about two hours, yes. Check out the longest movies of all time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_films_by_running_time
I'm pretty sure fitting the entirety of Metal Gear’s narrative into a 6-day long movie wouldn't be a problem.
Maybe my problem is that nowadays it feels like the amount of crazy we are expected to tolerate has been cranked to 11. Just compare cutscenes from the original MGS1 to The Twin Snakes to see what I mean. Both games are telling the exact same story, but one keeps things grounded and to the point which to me makes is way better. Twin Snakes on the other hand, took something as simple as snake leaning against a wall to overhear a conversation and changed it to him doing an aerial over the entire door frame to listen from the other side. Really, that’s the perfect analogy for how I feel.
Do I demand realism from Metal Gear? Absolutely not. The games would be so much worse without the likes of Grey Fox, Psycho Mantis and The Sorrow. But to me there's a difference between bending the reality you've established: (reading/manipulating minds for P.Mantis & ghosts for The Sorrow), and shattering it: (immeasurable strength for Raiden/immortality through nanomachines for Vamp).
Clearly, it’s a matter of taste. If you prefer the over-the-top wackiness of Twin Snakes more than the original, then I imagine you couldn’t be happier with the series and that’s cool. I’m just really not into it. There’s a ton of stuff in Metal Gear that I adore. I see hints of absolute brilliance in each title, and that’s the only reason I care enough to write this post and reply to you guys. I want the series to live up to what I could see it being and that seems to piss off a lot of people off who think it’s perfect…
To your point about the story only able to be told through a game – 90% or more of Metal Gear's story is told through either cutscenes or codec calls. I don't see how any of that would be impossible to be hard to convert to another medium. The average film runs for about two hours, yes. Check out the longest movies of all time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest_films_by_running_time
I'm pretty sure fitting the entirety of Metal Gear’s narrative into a 6-day long movie wouldn't be a problem.
Raccoon Dog--MSF: Sorry, but a lot of this looks suspiciously like a case of rose-tinted glasses. MGS1 had multiple plot points going off in several directions, from Nuclear Proliferation, genetic heritage, finding something worth fighting for, to psychodrama and introspection into characters that are introduced and subsequently killed off in an orderly fashion. Hell, MGS1 relies extremely heavily on backstory from the MSX games that didn't actually exist until MGS3 and Peace Walker were introduced much later! All sound familiar? The presentation has changed, but the content has remained the same. It's still crazy sci-fi alternate future that runs with multiple themes per title while keeping multiple story threads going full-throttle at the same time. I think a lot of people, mainly people who have an arm-chair knowledge of story-structure, tend to judge Metal Gear as cinema or a T.V series when doing so is completely wrong. Metal Gear is a video game with hours of story content that simply does not fit into the same mold as other media it is compared to. If the pacing and structure was the same as a movie then it would last what, 2 and a half hours tops? It's certainly not episodic either. If anything, it's built itself up as almost a novelization of sorts with the primary action being playing-input gameplay.
So TLDR I don't buy that MGS has somehow changed. It's always been consistently padded with character quality and trusting its audience with complex narrative in a market where nobody is assed to shake things up a bit. It constantly innovates stealth gameplay and what can be done with video game storytelling and people damn well know it. Because at the end of the day, Metal Gear is one of the only games that dares to go outside of copying the latest movie trend and tries to tell its story in a way only a videogame could. Uniqueness isn't to be trampled on. Especially when a lot of its deemed faults are automatically false when you try to force it into a story mold it has NEVER tried to fit into.
So TLDR I don't buy that MGS has somehow changed. It's always been consistently padded with character quality and trusting its audience with complex narrative in a market where nobody is assed to shake things up a bit. It constantly innovates stealth gameplay and what can be done with video game storytelling and people damn well know it. Because at the end of the day, Metal Gear is one of the only games that dares to go outside of copying the latest movie trend and tries to tell its story in a way only a videogame could. Uniqueness isn't to be trampled on. Especially when a lot of its deemed faults are automatically false when you try to force it into a story mold it has NEVER tried to fit into.
Tom the Iron Man: As do I, hence my disapproval.
javiGoN: Aww man, I can't be in your club, Jack?
Jack_Red89: Fair enough you are indeed a true fan but I question javiGoN.
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4/9/13 5:04pm
Can you guess which game we're tackling on this week's After The FACT!? http://goo.gl/qNxKG
3/21/13 2:30pm
It's time for more After The FACT! This week we take a look at Star Fox 64.
3/20/13 2:41pm
This week's After The FACT will be up by later tonight. In the meantime, I challenge you to guess the game! http://goo.gl/Zmpvj
3/13/13 1:30pm
We all remember pouring our change into arcade beat-em-ups at the local pizzeria, but are they as fun as we remember? Lets find out!
armodillo17: 2 hrs? It only takes about 45 minutes. Still awesome, though.
javiGoN: I'm sure it's a licensing issue. Konami and now Activision would have to make a deal for it to be re-released. :(
MagnumMagnus: I'd love to see a rom hack of this game that makes it 4 player.
I think that's the only way it could get better.
I think that's the only way it could get better.
Treasure Hunter: I'm surprised the SNES version of Turtles in Time isn't on the virtual console. I've never played it, and it looks like a fun game.
javiGoN: I had mild fun with it but if you enjoyed yourself, that's awesome.
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3/12/13 5:12pm
EA goofed the launch of SimCity. What does it mean for the future of DRM?
3/4/13 5:30pm
Was Far Cry 3 really that good? Gabe lays down the law on this week’s After The FACT!
RabidWombat9: I seriously love you! Definitely check out Far Cry 3. There's a lot of different opinions on the story of that game. It'll be interesting to find out for yourself what you think.
RabidWombat9: My friend and I love listening to that song. It's strange because we despise dubstep, but there's something about that song. It just works. It's so perfect in awfulness. I love it.
RabidWombat9: Hey man. Thanks for the pretty in-depth comment. (I'm the dude from the video). While I understand what you're saying and think it's an interesting idea for a game to tackle, I believe Far Cry 3 executed it poorly. I couldn't really get too in depth in the video due to time constraints, but here we go:
I think that sort of style would've worked well, and it's an original take on a game's narrative. However, the writing just made it so hard for me to really get attached. Jason's decent into madness was fun to witness at times, but whenever he opened his mouth, all he did was spout exposition. The biggest offender of which was when he stared at his hands and said "What have I become?". It was shit like that that drove me nuts while playing.
On top of that, there's no drive to rescue these people. You're motives for rescuing them is that they're Jason's friends. You as the player are given no reason to like them or even be interested in them. In fact, they're all rich, seemingly spoiled assholes. I'm not trying to say they can't be anti-characters (if that's a thing), but give me more than simply knowing they have "black cards." Give me a want to rescue them. The game needed to help me share Jason's emotions more.
Spoilers ahead, folks. The last point of the game that really got under my skin was the end and the writer's justification for it. There's an amazing interview at RockPaperShotgun you should check out if you haven't already, which shows the writer's unfortunate generalization of us gamers. He essentially said that we're supposed to want to feel a need to save Citra from the island. Even though she shows no sign of weakness or want to leave her place on Rook Island, we're supposed to want to save her. Then, in the end where she kills you, you're supposed to be shocked about it. As if the game just played a big trick on you, and then at that point you realize how wrong you were to want to save her.
Well, if you're like me and I'm assuming most other people out there, you didn't think Citra needed saving. That ending just ruined your entire perception of the game and what your motives are. Far Cry 3 seems to have a set of ideas and emotions and thinks you should feel those exact same emotions too because they tell you to, not because they actually make you feel them. The other ending ruined the idea of diving more and more into the culture of the island by simply packing up and leaving it. No real build up or thought. it just happens.
Sorry for the long response. I should've been more clear and specific about my gripes with the story in the video. But thanks for the comment. I love discussing different ideas with this community. It's a lot of fun. Thanks again.
Here's that interview: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/19/far-cry-3s-jeffrey-yohalem-on...
I think that sort of style would've worked well, and it's an original take on a game's narrative. However, the writing just made it so hard for me to really get attached. Jason's decent into madness was fun to witness at times, but whenever he opened his mouth, all he did was spout exposition. The biggest offender of which was when he stared at his hands and said "What have I become?". It was shit like that that drove me nuts while playing.
On top of that, there's no drive to rescue these people. You're motives for rescuing them is that they're Jason's friends. You as the player are given no reason to like them or even be interested in them. In fact, they're all rich, seemingly spoiled assholes. I'm not trying to say they can't be anti-characters (if that's a thing), but give me more than simply knowing they have "black cards." Give me a want to rescue them. The game needed to help me share Jason's emotions more.
Spoilers ahead, folks. The last point of the game that really got under my skin was the end and the writer's justification for it. There's an amazing interview at RockPaperShotgun you should check out if you haven't already, which shows the writer's unfortunate generalization of us gamers. He essentially said that we're supposed to want to feel a need to save Citra from the island. Even though she shows no sign of weakness or want to leave her place on Rook Island, we're supposed to want to save her. Then, in the end where she kills you, you're supposed to be shocked about it. As if the game just played a big trick on you, and then at that point you realize how wrong you were to want to save her.
Well, if you're like me and I'm assuming most other people out there, you didn't think Citra needed saving. That ending just ruined your entire perception of the game and what your motives are. Far Cry 3 seems to have a set of ideas and emotions and thinks you should feel those exact same emotions too because they tell you to, not because they actually make you feel them. The other ending ruined the idea of diving more and more into the culture of the island by simply packing up and leaving it. No real build up or thought. it just happens.
Sorry for the long response. I should've been more clear and specific about my gripes with the story in the video. But thanks for the comment. I love discussing different ideas with this community. It's a lot of fun. Thanks again.
Here's that interview: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/12/19/far-cry-3s-jeffrey-yohalem-on...
3DMaster: Wait, wait, wait wait.
Why the fuck would I want to destroy fields of weed? You smoke that shit, you don't destroy it!
Why the fuck would I want to destroy fields of weed? You smoke that shit, you don't destroy it!
Fox: The dissonance in tone helps accentuate the experience, it does not undermine it. Jason Brody acts like he is the hero of a video game, and this is contrasted by the other characters who act out the reality of being trapped in a hostile situation. His reaction to the trauma can also be seen as a decent into madness, which is the central theme of the game.
The irony being we as players know this is a game. This use of metafiction creates a commentary about us the players and how we interact with and our role in the narrative.
All of this is done rather deliberately. This game knows exactly what it is trying to do. To say it would be better with Saints Row 3 nonsensical style would do it a disservice. There is some really good black comedy and examination of context going on within Farcry 3 that should not be written off.
The irony being we as players know this is a game. This use of metafiction creates a commentary about us the players and how we interact with and our role in the narrative.
All of this is done rather deliberately. This game knows exactly what it is trying to do. To say it would be better with Saints Row 3 nonsensical style would do it a disservice. There is some really good black comedy and examination of context going on within Farcry 3 that should not be written off.
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2/27/13 5:50pm
The PlayStation 4 event has come and gone but after the dust has settled, how did Sony actually do?
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THPS2 is one of my all-time favorites