Ok, yeah, it's still technically Spring but it feels like summertime here in the old buckeye state. Ohio State really is a sight to behold when it's warm out. The buildings look a lot cleaner, the greenery is gorgeous, and people just generally seem to be happier. Another thing I've noticed is the abundance of hot women that frequent my campus. I've always known that OSU had good looking women but I never knew it had this many. What? Why am I still here when I should be trying to court 90% of them? Good question.

Oh and N3MO was right, Phantom Dust does indeed kick fair amounts of ass. It's almost like playing a really, really fast turn-based RPG (can't really describe it as a card game since I've never played one). The graphics are really sweet too. This game actually makes me wish I had XBL to find some living opponents. If you have $20 to spare then go pick this game up. Also Phantom Brave is only $20 now at EB if you're interested.

End pointless post,

Systems_Id

So...I'm idea-less for DFAD3. I was going to complete the project that I was currently working on but it just seems so, mundane. If/When I finish it, it will be a fairly traditional adventure game with a few twists to make it interesting. Last year this would have been good enough for an entry for my standards since the real test is to see how far you can go into turning it into as close to a working game as possible. For this year however, it's simply not good enough. I want something truly brilliant to come from my head and it's simply not coming out.

I guess the reason I'm being so hard on myself is simply because I want to know that I am capable of great things when I do make it into the industry. This contest to me isn't really about the money, it never has been. It's an outlet for me to get my ideas out there for others to see and it gives me a reason to put something together in an orderly fashion. Alas Saturday is almost gone and all I have are pages of sporadic notes on four different concepts. If something doesn't hit me by Sunday then I'll probably call it quits since I start school on Monday. Hopefully that won't happen.

Edit: Nevermind...an extremely prententious idea just popped into my head.:D I just hope I have enough time to flesh it out. Damn I'm indecisive.:lol:

Systems_Id

Recently I have been pondering the role of dialouge that it used through out video games. Games such as Final Fantasy and Metal Gear Solid are known for their hundreds of pages worth of dialouge to engulf the player into their worlds. Personally I believe that Metal Gear Solid 2 has the most realistic conversations ever written in a video game. Sure there was vast amounts of techno-babble about Arsenal Gear and it's "Purified Hydrogen bomb" but the real prize was the banter between Rose and Raiden that could take place between any two people. Dialouge in itself has become almost a necessity, not only as a means to give depth to characters but in some cases, as a means to plot progression. However, I haven't been pondering if we need dialouge or not but rather how much of it we actually need.

This idea flourished a month ago when I watched The Animatrix's "Beyond" and was mesmerized. Never before had I seen such an elegent, beautiful and simple piece of media in my life. The story is fairly simple and easy to understand. Yoko, a teenager, loses her cat and sets out to find. When she does find it, she also finds a haunted house and a group of kids playing in it. The house itself acutally isn't haunted, rather a glitch in The Matrix but the kids aren't aware of that. As they explore the house, they discover that they can perform inhuman feats such as falling and stopping in mid air and other acrobatic feats not possible under normal circumstances. Yoko herself even takes advantage of this glitch by falling to the side and stopping in mid air in a position similar to if one was lying on a bed side ways. The short story ends with agents locating the house and repairing the glitch. The next day, Yoko and the kids return to the house but instead find a parking lot were the house once stood.

The one aspect of Beyond that struck me hardest was its lack of dialouge. While the three Matrix films made a name for itself using it's philosophic babble to confuse movie goers who were only in it for the action, Beyond's use of words are both slight and very easy to understand. All of the conversations that took place were simple exchanges that anyone would use in a similar situation. The real prize of this short film was the character movements and the music used that evoked such an emotional response out of me. The fluid, child-like animation of the characters gave them a since of innocence while the music was almost something straight out of someone's dream with it's sutble vocals. This sense of atmosphere is something that I would like to see more of from game developers from now on.

One game that pulled this off beautifully is the much praised ICO. Again very little dialouge is used here but the characters probably have just as much depth as you would see in a heavily story-oriented game. The dialouge spoken between main characters, Ico and Yorda, is quick and extremely easy to understand (well not entirely easy since Yorda's speech is never translated into english). To get the most out of these characters though, players are required to pay attention to their actions and movements rather than their words. Yorda herself seems as graceful as a princess should be, although frail at times. Ico carries himself as a courageous young boy out to save both of them from what it seems like an eternity of eternal damnation within the confines of the Queen. The music is a mix of the environments own natural sounds and a haunting musical score. My favorite piece, Entity (played during the final fight with the Queen), is a shining example that excessive amounts of dialouge isn't needed for story telling. The music itself seems to tell her story, with the vocals remnicent of the tortured souls she commands seemingly crying out for a saviour. Maybe I'm reading too much into this but that is what I got out of it.

Storytelling in video games need not be hours of dialouge and text. A character should not have to repeatedly declare the words "I Love You" to another character. It should be uttered once and shown later down the roads in their actions.

Happy Gaming,

Systems_Id

What does Fable + R-Type Final equal? One hell of a weekend! I don't believe I've had this much fun gaming since I was about 12 or so. Friday I played Fable for at least 6 hours straight although the I can't remember the actual time. The game clock says I beat it in 7 hours and 23 minutes so it had to have been 6 hours since I had played only an hour the day before. Then again game clocks are screwy. As you can tell from my time, I pretty much rushed through it since it has to be back at Blockbuster in a certain time but I still had a blast. Watching your hero (or villain) grow from a scrawny nobody to someone to be reckoned with is quite rewarding. I also though the story, for the most part, was really done. The music is gorgeous and very atmospheric. Probably my only gripe is with the animations, which are a little stiff at times. Overall though, this is a great game and one that I will pick up once the price goes down.

I picked up R-Type Final last night and all I have to say is wow! This is THE most fun I've had with a shooter in ages. Granted I suck at the game (I can only get to the third level, and that's on the kids setting) but holy hell this game is fantastic. Probably the most ingenious play mechanic ever introduced into the vertical shooter is the ability to attatch your force in front or in back of your ship. This makes for some interesting design choices and enemy placement. Do you keep your force if front and double your fire power? Or do you move it to the back and take out those annoying enemy fighters? This game, in my opinion, is a couple of steps up from Ikaruga and probably the best shooter of all time.

Another thing I'd like to share is my choice to become a budget gamer. Recently I've been finding it extremely difficult to justify spending $40 -$50 on a single game. When I picked up Ratchet & Clank: GC when it first came out I wasn't very fond of the game. Last night though I bought it new for $19.99 along with R-Type Final for $19.99 and I haven't regretted it yet. Strange isn't it? So from now on I'll probably be either renting on waiting until most games drop in price to buy them save for the huge ones like Halo 2 and Metroid Prime 2.

Happy Gaming,

Systems_Id

If any of you have read Donutta's excellent diary entries then you know partly where the inspiration to write this came from. However, this has to do with my own thoughts and feelings on the subject of gaming and being a "gamer."

I have been gaming now for over 15 years now. From the time I picked up the NES controller to force Mario to burn that Goomba's sorry ass off of the screen, I knew I had found something special. I had found my passion in life and I have stuck with it up to this very day. Hell I knew I wanted to become a designer at the age of 7, a dream that I still hold very dear to my heart and will accomplish. For the past couple of years however, all that had change. The euphoria I had been experience was beginning to wane.

At the age of 14 I began looking at games in a far more analytical and almost elitist manner. It was the age of the Dreamcast and I was riding the wave like a pro surfer. From launch until this very day I loved every minute of the gaming bliss it provided me. Never before had such a console captured with its unique games and overall refreshing feel. It was like the 16-bit days reborn again. It seemed that I had it all, I had reached gaming nirvana. Perhaps the game that mostly fueled this perception was Jet Grind Radio. When that game first landed I swear it was almost as if God himself made that game. The graphics, music, gameplay and just the overall feel changed my life forever. Coupled with the like of Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Skies of Arcadia, Grandia II, NFL 2K1, Soul Calibur, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Samba de Amigo and other classics that reside on the DC, it was the equivilant of the gates of gaming heaven welcoming me into its arms. Sadly bliss cannot last forever.

When the DC died, it hit me pretty hard. "How could such a fantastic console fail? It was the casual gamers who killed it!," was the mentality I had adopted from that point on. Coupled with the fact that I had taken an analystic attitude at the time, I was in for a rough ride. I bought my first PS2 along with Twisted Metal:Black in the summer of 2001 on my 16th birthday. Mind you I was impressed with TM: Black but it left me with the feeling of "This is it? This is what everyone was drooling over? Updated versions of PS1 games over the great original content that Sega provided?" From that point on I had written off this generation as full of rehashes and moronic casual gamers. The people that stole my passion right from under my nose. The reason why Sega had failed despite mending every possible mistake that they made with their previous hardware. I became bitter and part of me is still a little bitter to this day. By then I had lost what it mean't to be a gamer.

It wasn't until earlier today I had rediscovered of what I was missing. In the middle of a breathtaking jump on the Ruthless Ridge course in SSX3 I had a vision. I had an epiphany. It is people like ME that was holding back my enjoyment. It is people like ME that refused to simply enjoy a great game ragardless of what name is on the box. I was the one holding back my love of playing games. Through all of my analyzation, arguing about how gaming will never be as great as it was in the 16-bit days, and brooding about how the people who have no idea what bump-mapping even is are running this industry, I had lost the very feeling of simply playing an awesome game. I could only see "damn this game is soooo mainstream, I'm so much better than that!" instead of seeing "Holy crap this game is fun. Did you see what I just did? WHOOOOO!!!!" It wasn't that a part of me died when the DC died, it was simply that I locked that part up and threw away the key for three long years. It's all so clear to me now.

Anyone who says the 16-bit days had more quality games than the consoles now is simply lying to him or herself. 2004 will go down in history as one of, if not, the greatest year of gaming ever seen. So far we've got The Chronicles of Riddick, Pikmin 2,Tales of Symphonia, Burnout 3, Onimusha 3, Ninja Gaiden (Even though I personally didn't like the game, I'd be lying if I said the game wasn't overall quality), Psi Ops, Doom 3 with Fable on the way and other titles that I can't think of right now. This fall however, is when these magnificant consoles will really shine. Name me one year that each console recieved four, count em, FOUR heavy hitters in a single year. I'm talking Metal Gear Solid or Legend of Zelda: OOT big here. GTA: San Andreas is guaranteed to be huge on its own but November will be, what can only be desribed as, orgasmic. MGS3 + Halo 2+ Metroid Prime 2 = Gaming orgasm. Hell we'd be lucky to see three games of that maginitude within a single year let alone within the span of a month. Don't forget smaller promising titles such a Bloodrayne 2, Demon Stone: Forgotten Realms, Paper Mario 2, Baten Kaitos, and other less known titles. You'd be hard pressed to find even seven titles from the 16-bit era that stack up to these games.

What's my point of this entry? Well I guess my point is to just enjoy your games. Take off those rose tinted glasses back from the old days and enjoy what you have now. Accept the fact that gaming has evloved for the better. Anyone these days can pick up a controller and find something they like. Whether it be a Mario game, Resident Evil game, sports title, futuristic title, there's something for everyone. That's something that not even the 16-bit consoles can claim. Gaming is as open and accessible as its ever been. Stopping wishing for more ICOs and Beyond Good and Evils when you have your Psi-Ops's and Wind Wakers right in front of you. Be glad that the entire world has seen that video games are a sight to behold and a wonderous treasure.

Happy Gaming,

Systems_Id