Dear Esther

Dear Esther started as a source mod several years ago and has been tuned up and re-released on Steam earlier this week using the Portal 2 engine. I first learned about Dear Esther through some incredible reenshots released on Duncan Harris' DeadEndThrills website and after 'finishing' Dear Esther last night I find myself in awe of this incredible piece of work.

It would be difficult to classify Dear Esther as a 'game' - it all depends upon your definition of what a game is. Sure, you can go to Metacritic and see a bunch of reviews but I think if you applied current standards of interactive entertainment to Dear Esther then you'd find the experience wanting.

Rather than a 'game' in the most conventional sense, I think Dear Esther is an interactive poem. You walk around an island in first person as parts of the narrative are revealed through excellently acted voice-overs but also through the sights and sounds of the island itself. Further narrative details are abound, if you choose to look for them. I completed the story in about 70 minutes but spent the next few hours contemplating the haunting and incredibly touching narrative. Dear Esther is a story about loss and intense regret.

From a technical standpoint Dear Esther is stunning. As you can see from the screenshots the game is absolutely gorgeous and just as impressive is the audio, from the aforementioned voice acting to the music and haunting ambient sounds.

At $10 I don't know if Dear Esther is for everyone. It depends what you want or are looking for in an interactive experience. There are no fail-states, no conflicts, no puzzles, no explosions and yet the story stayed with me long after I had shut my computer down. I've certainly never experienced anything like it but adored every second.

Lavan

It's 2012, your $60 game should have this.....

I recently started playing a second-hand copy of Singularity (360) that I had bought more than a year ago. Apparently, this first person shooter has a very entertaining narrative and some decent shooting and time manipulation mechanics. I say ‘apparently’ because I’m about an hour a bit in and am almost bored to tears. 

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about was that within 5 minutes of playing the game I realized -there are no freaking subtitles! That’s right, no option for subtitles whatsoever! 

These days, I do pretty much all my console gaming late at night when my wife and daughter are asleep and since we live in a condo I can’t have the volume cranked up. Subtitles are key to me enjoying the narrative - I don’t have the volume on mute but when characters speak softly or whisper it helps to have the text on screen at the same time. I’m amazed that I game released in the past 10 years doesn’t have this option.

This got me thinking about a few other annoying things that should be made mandatory in all games.

1) Subtitles

For the reasons I outlined above. Even if you don’t game in a quiet environment it’s sometimes nice to have the text on screen so you can make out what people are saying. And if you’re hearing impaired it’s a no-brainer.

2) Pause-able Cut Scenes

Batman: Arkham City reminded me of this one as I was recently in the middle of some juicy plot exposition when my daughter awoke and started crying. No problem, I just hit pause and go and get her. Wait.....pause does nothing? 

Absolutely ridiculous. Do developers think we play games in a vacuum with no telephone calls, no knocks at the door, no interruptions whatsoever? I wish.

3) Skip-able Cut Scenes

The opposite of #2. Yes, I want to have my cake and eat it too. The cake cost $60!

A lot of times if you’re playing through something the second time you don’t want to sit there twiddling your thumbs.

Fortunately, this is now much more prevalent in games developed in the last few years. Except Zelda Skyward Sword....

4) Save Anywhere

It’s 2012, even in console games I should be able to save anywhere. This is the sole reason I’ve yet to play Persona 4 and host of other Japanese RPGs. Persona 3 is one of my favourite RPGs of all time but I just can’t play a game anymore where you have to play for an extra 20-40 minutes just to get to a save point. I would love to play the sequel but it’s just not feasible. 

I hear that Final Fantasy XIII-2 (whomever names the Final Fantasy games needs a psychiatric evaluation) finally has the ability to save anywhere. Congratulations, Japanese RPG developers! Welcome to 1997! 

Hopefully Atlas adopts this ‘feature’ as well for their next Persona game. 

How about also adding this feature to sports games? Anyone? Bueller? 




In other news, did anyone check out the Binary Domain demo for the 360? It’s being directed by Toshihiro Nagoshi (of Yakuza fame...that’s Yakuza the game series, not the organized crime syndicate) but if it wasn’t I don’t think anyone would give two shits about this title. It just seems like a very mediocre 3rd person shooter with cover-mechanics and an odd trust mechanic. After playing both levels of the demo my opinion hasn’t changed.

But it does have subtitles.......


Lavan
(done being crusty for today, going to go play some Little Racers STREET to cheer me up)

Batman doesn't kill....but he WILL maim...

I finished the main story in Batman Arkham City a few nights ago and came away very impressed. While it didn't blow me away like the original Arkham Asylum (which really came out of nowhere and was undoubtedly one of the best games of 2010) I think Rocksteady did a great job building upon the solid foundations of the original. 

If you've read much of my blog you'll know I'm an absolute sucker for open-world games and I think the open-world format of Arkham City was a solid addition. The central story conceit behind Arkham City is that it's supposed to be a 'prison city' and I think the developers did a good job making the city feel claustrophobic and oppressive. Countering that feeling is the great gliding/flying mechanic that not only allows you traverse the city rapidly but also engenders a sense of freedom.

Of course, the city merely acts as a framework for the indoor levels which is where the majority of the gameplay takes place and Rocksteady maintains the excellent gameplay triumvirate of puzzle solving/exploration, stealth and combat that made the first game so good. 

Speaking of combat, I love the fighting in this series. Along with the simple-to-learn-but-hard-to-master mechanics I love the way the developers use a finely crafted combination of camera work and sound effects to give an incredible sense of heft behind each punch/kick/headbutt/knee/elbow. The sense of brutality is (pardon the pun) striking - you really feel like you are beating the the shit out of Gotham's goons. Batman may not kill but Rocksteady's Batman routinely puts people in wheelchairs!

Like its predecessor, Arkham City's voice acting and writing are top notch. The narrative does falter a bit near the end (I would say more but I don't want to spoil it) but overall I really enjoyed the game. I still think the number of Riddler trophies is ridiculous, and unfortunately you have to find all 400 of them to finish the Riddler story thread, but the other side stories and the Catwoman content are all really well done.

I'm not sure Arkham City would make my Top 10 Games of last year (see previous posts) but that doesn't mean it's not a great game nonetheless. 

Lavan

GTA 3 is $0.99 on iOS...

The headline says it all; for this weekend Rockstar's perfect iOS port of Grand Theft Auto 3 is a dollar. While I think the controls are fussy at best (infuriating at worst) I am still amazed that one of the defining open-world games is available on my phone! The fact that the game is only 99 cents is another reason why I just can't imagine the Vita succeeding in the long term in the handheld space.

Anyway, if you enjoyed the original GTA 3 (and if you didn't, what's wrong with you?) the iOS port worth checking out for a trip down memory lane - especially for a dollar.

Lavan

Arkham City - too much of a good thing?

After finishing Rayman Origins (what a brilliant game - that last level is absolutely phenomenal) I finally started Batman: Arkham City and am quite enjoying it. One of the things that I really enjoyed in Batman: Arkham Asylum were the Riddler challenges and trophies. They added a really neat side-narrative as well as collectables and puzzles. 

Arkham City sees the return of the Riddler stuff as well as a shitload of side missions and activities. I believe there are more than 10 different side mission story threads and more than 400 Riddler trophies. At some point it becomes a bit overwhelming - I often don't even know where to start. I actually finished all the Riddler challenges and found all the Riddler trophies in Arkham Asylum but, as much as I want to, there is no way in hell I'm going to find all FOUR HUNDRED trophies. Even just a quarter of the trophies and side stuff would have been just fine.

In case you thought my love affair with iOS games had cooled, Ghost Trick recently came out for the iPad and iPhone. It was originally a Capcom Nintendo DS game released last year to solid critical acclaim (it has an 83% rating on Metacritic). The game features the first two chapters for free and you then buy the whole game for $10 which is less than a third the price of the DS game. The interface works excellently well with touch screen and the game also features cloud saves. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Lavan

Reckless Racing 2 (iOS)

Wow, another iPad/iPhone game and all this after I went on a rant about how I don't play that many mobile games......

I quite enjoyed the first Reckless Racing on the iPhone and Pixelbite recently released the sequel on the iTunes Store for five bucks. Since I'm a sucker for top-down racing games in the vein of Micro Machines I picked it up immediately and I'm glad I did.

One of the issues with the first Reckless Racing was that while the racing was a lot of fun, there was no structure to the game. You basically had a number of tracks and you could either do a single race, a hot lap, or a 'delivery' race. The game's sequel takes the same basic gameplay (to be honest I didn't notice that much of a difference in the racing itself) but adds new tracks, new cars and, most importantly, an excellent career mode. 

Much like Gran Turismo you start off with a small amount of cash with which to buy your first car, you can the race in one of the available Cups (each with several races) and earn prize money to either upgrade your car, buy a new one and also unlock more Cups. The career mode isn't super in-depth but it's enough of a structure to keep you more involved in the game. There are 24 new tracks - 6 different locations with 4 tracks on each.

Because of the warped (but wonderful for the consumer) economy of the iTunes store $4.99 can seem like a lot for an iOS game but if you're a fan of the first Reckless Racing I think it's definitely worth a look.

L

Smash Cops (iOS) and Little Racers STREET (XBL Indie)

Do you remember Micro Machines on the NES? Top-down 2D racing with neat, inventive tracks - it was a ton of fun. That type of top-down driving probably took it’s next evolution in the original Grand Theft Auto on the PC which added a city and traffic rather than just a race-track.

I bring up those two titles because over the past few days I’ve been playing two games that definitely channel those two classic titles; Smash Cops on the iOS and Little Racers STREET on the Xbox Live Indie channel.

I downloaded Smash Cops for $2.99 on iOS after seeing screenshots on the iTunes storefront. As you can see from the screenshots it looks like a really nice high-res version of the original Grand Theft Auto and the game’s title pretty much describes what you do in the game; you’re a cop and to stop fleeing suspects you have to smash them with your car, Chase HQ-style. There are 22 missions/levels that are divided into three basic types; pursuit levels where you have to chase down a suspect (or several) and smash their car to bits to stop them, time-trial levels which are basically check point races against the clock, and other time-trial style races where you have to navigate obstacles (cones or traffic on the highway) within a certain time. The pursuit races are obviously the most fun and the further you get into the game the more hits opposing cars require before they stop. At the end of each mission you’re given a grade out of five stars depending upon how quickly you took down suspects, how much damage you suffered and how much damage you caused. You then use the stars you’ve earned to unlock new levels and also new vehicles. Much like a lot of ‘freemium’ games you can also unlock missions by purchasing them with real-world money (barf).

As I mentioned before, the screenshots are what prompted me to take a closer look and they don’t disappoint, particularly on the iPad. The graphics are crisp, clean with bright vivid colours and the frame-rate is rock solid. The audio is also enjoyable with an 80s TV show-style theme tune.

Even the controls are pretty neat; to get your car moving you basically hold your finger behind the car and that propels it forward, if you move your finger to the left of the car it turns it right and vice-versa. A second touch of the screen triggers your nitro which allows you to launch forward and ‘smash’ other cars. It’s a very simple control scheme but it works very well.

Unfortunately, despite all these great things the game falls flat because of samey mission design and uninspired city layout. I tend not to play iOS games in long stretches but even after a few short play sessions missions in Smash Cops would start to get pretty boring. Compounding things is the fact that the city itself, despite being very pretty, is uninspiring in its planning with mostly a basic grid design largely devoid of jumps, hills, wide highways, winding roads and so forth. It’s a shame because this is a game I really, really want to love but in the end it`s just nearly as good as it should be.

At the other end of the spectrum is Little Racers STREET, an Xbox Live Indie title that is much better than it has any right to be. Developed by Milkstone Studios, a three person Spanish development studio, Little Racers STREET is a top down racing game in the vein of Micro Machines or Pole Position. What instantly grabbed me about this game are the fantastic controls and driving model that are so wonderfully tight and responsive.

There is also a brilliant career mode inspired by Gran Turismo wherein you start with a certain amount of cash, have to buy your first car and then work your way up five different car classes. You win money with each race which can then be used to buy upgrades or brand new cars. There are 30+ different cars based on real-life models and a dozen or so different tracks with various weather effects.

The game is an absolute blast to play and I found myself playing this little indie game despite having half a dozen full price 360 games on backlog. The best part? Little Racers STREET is a dollar! That’s right, it’s just 80 Microsoft Points which makes it a no-brainer. There is a demo available but the demo track has you using higher level cars which are much more difficult to drive without practice and if anything the demo almost put me off the game but at a dollar I took the plunge and am absolutely glad I did. Get this game!

Lavan