3 posts tagged “games”

I've just finished Sam & Max Episode 1 in one sitting and it was great!! The writing was spot-on and full of pop culture references (even though I only got about half of them - as a non-American guy).
The game was pretty easy, but I guess that this is due to the fact that it is made for a new generation of gamers that

are not familiar with the genre (I think it's almost ten years since the rapid decline of adventure games). I believe that one of the reasons for the decline of adventure games, apart from the obvious ones (rise of 3D FPS, overlapping of RPGs and FPSs with adventure style elements), was that the genre was becoming overelaborate with increasingly developing puzzles and plots that lead to overly complex games, which alienated most gamers. This led to the genre to obscurity and I think Sam & Max is on the way to fix that. It may not be the new Monkey Island (which along with Sierra's games, got the genre to the mainstream), but it seems to do everything right and seems especially suited to the episodic format.
Hey couldn't you get Grumpy gamer do the 3rd part of Monkey Islad and tell us the secret at last?

After a month of quite intense Wii gaming, I'm quite sure that the console is a success and not a gimmick.
What I still want to see though is the kind of games that will transcend the control novelty.

So far I have played:

• Wii Play (It was designed to make you familiar with the controls, doesn't count)
  
• Wii Sports (natural fit!)
  
• Super Monkey Ball (natural fit in the single game, too gimmicky in the mini-games but maybe that's the point)
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbits (same as the Super Monkey Ball mini-games)
  
• Zelda (some reported that the Wii-controls were tacked on)
  

In my humble opinion apart from the warioware, cooking-mama, minigame style games, the Zelda controls (and from what I've heard Madden controls also) show the way to the future. Where Zelda's control scheme really shines isn't on slashing or fishing, but on multitasking -think of the mounted battles!). Being able to use two hands independently (not anchored to a gamepad), opens a new dimension. This argument can also be made for traditional computing.

While reading a draft from the first chapter of Donald Norman's upcoming book, and especially the part about symbiotic relationships between man and machine. The examples Norman uses are examples of embodiment and flow.
As always Norman focuses on the ways new technology will be able to augment existing ways of practice. I think that right now it is more important to think of ways in which new artefacts will transform existing practices. An interesting case is the Wii: we've had motion sensored controllers before but never in such scale. How will people approach the new artefact? Will it lead to new ways of thinking/perceiving games and human-computer interaction in general? This Wired article tackles exactly this point and shows how the evolution of input devices triggered new types of games. So the question concerning Wii is not whether it will support/expand existing genres -the endless debate about the better Zelda version- but if it will lead to new ones. It is also interesting to see how will players will try to "cheat" by doing moves other than the intended ones - i.e. shorter & easier - since the remote doesn't seem to register the whole motion (although I have to check that). I think these "cheats" (catachresis) and time will lead to new designs.

Will the new controller lead to tighter coupling? In isomorphic tasks it surely will - like bowling in Wii sports. The thing is whether this will happen in other genres like FPS. Most reviews until know aren't of much worth since the two titles so far (Red Steel & Call of Duty 3) use different setups and the reviewers are still just exploring the new platform as expert PC / PS/ Xbox users. I think we will have to wait for a more mature title like Metroid Prime 3 to see the true potential. Until then...Wario away!!!