Games

11.08.09 | Games
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OK, so one of the first video games I played with any sort of seriousness was Fallout II. Admittedly, I never finished it, but one of my favorite things about it–one of the things I remember to this day–was the amusing, often tongue-in-cheek random encounters. Things like the bridge from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or the Guardian of Forever or  a crashed Federation shuttlecraft. In Dragon Age, just now, I came across a random encounter wherein a middle-aged man and his wife “Marta” discover a smoking crater containing a child and a strange ore. FUCK. YES. I love you, BioWare.

10.07.09 | Blog, Games
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People who “keep up” with the “news” in the gaming industry may have heard rumors of a game code-named (or named?) “Epic Mickey”, referring—of course—to Disney’s ubiquitous mouse. Early leaked documents and what is commonly referred to as “scuttlebutt” pointed to a game with a sort of steampunk aesthetic, where everything was falling apart, haphazardly constructed, or both. Even to someone like myself, who gives approximately zero shits about Mikey and his anthropomorphic brethren, the idea was intriguing.

Recently, it was confirmed that this game will, indeed, be happening. It will feature the titular mouse in a staring roll, where he is pressed into service to save his threatened world. No surprises there. What I did find interesting, however, is that Mickey is not fighting invaders from another realm, but instead old Disney characters, long since forgotten by our younger viewers. Lead by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit—whom I am sure none among you will not recognize as Disney’s first cartoon hero—these long-ignored creatures have banded together to take their revenge on the characters who have usurped positions which were once theirs. Apparently they release something called the “Phantom Blot”, which goes around using black ink to do…stuff(?) and “[make] all the colors of the world run together”, and the player is recruited to run around as Mickey with a paintbrush, paint thinner, eraser, etc, and make right what has gone wrong. But that’s not what interested me here.

When I read the first sentence of this article, where it discusses the forgotten characters that have been left to rot by a world that no longer cares for them, I thought “Ah ha! This does sound awesome! Surely, I will play as one of the estranged rebels, fighting desperately for the recognition and respect which I so richly deserve!” I’ve never been terribly attached to any Disney characters (with the possible exceptions of Mulan and Stitch), and so I found the prospect of fighting as the underdog against the representative of a massive, evil empire very, very satisfying. As you might imagine, I was somewhat disappointed to discover that this would not be the case. But there are other, more interesting this to discuss here, apart from my disappointment.

Stuff has a long history of putting the hero (or, in the case of games, the player) in the position of underdog. Star Wars in one of my favorite examples. For years, I had difficulty understanding that “Rebels” were not always the good guys. Pretty much every good story has the hero outnumbered, outgunned, outmaneuvered, etc. Most people (I think) enjoy playing the underdog, perhaps because we like the idea that something small—an analogue for ourselves—can triumph or something much, much larger—an analogue for the world, our jobs, making ourselves go to the gym, etc. Being the avatar of a massive multinational corporation, and wielding your significant power to crush any and all who stand against you seems somewhat less rewarding, and on some level, that’s what you’ll be doing in Epic Mickey, or whatever the fuck they end up calling it. Sure, I’ve no doubt that Mickey will be faced with what appear to be insurmountable obstacles, superior enemy forces, etc, because you need that shit to build tension. But at the end of the day, you’re the face of one of the biggest entertainment companies on earth, putting down creatures who’s greatest crime was, apparently, thinking it was kind of fucked up that nobody knew who they were or acknowledged their contributions. It would be a little be like if the President of the United States said “Hm, I think it might be a good idea for me to just destroy anyone who doesn’t do what I say or says I’m a dick”. OH WAIT. But who knows—maybe Epic George would sell like gangbusters.

You may think, at this point, I’ve mined this tiny article for all it’s worth, but you’re wrong. I can still talk about racism.

Now, it’s entirely possible that my white guilt is causing me to read too much into this, as well as my tendency to read to much into everything, but it seems a little weird to me that the premise of this game is the wholesale destruction of a minority, who’s only fault appears to be that they didn’t really like being a minority. Yes, they summon some kind of monster or something, but otherwise their summary execution would be a little bit harder to swallow.

Of course, I have to admit that this is really kind of reaching, and I know next to nothing about this game.  You could certainly look at this as an attempt to incite controversy or…something…but in all honestly, that’s not what I’m try to do. I just thought it was interesting that this game is apparently based on the idea that subjugated minorities are dangerous, and are desperate for revenge against us “normal” folks. And the idea that the villain is doing his villain thing by “making the colors of the world run together”? HMMM. Yes, well, we certainly can’t have that sort of thing going on, can we?

04.06.09 | Game Reviews
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So, I’m a Fallout 3 fan. I don’t really think I could say I’m a Fallout fan in general, since I never played the first game, and I never finished the second, but Fallout 3? Totally a fan. Not too long ago, I downloaded and played both of the DLC expansions, and figured I might as well write up a review of them. So here you go!

Holy mother of God… A review? From Ben? Believe it or not, it’s real. This time I’ll be tackling the two recent DLC packs for one of the best games ever, Fallout 3—specifically the PC version—although which version shouldn’t come into play too much here. We’ll do this thing chronologically, so I’ll start with Operation: Anchorage, and don’t worry kids—I’ll be sure to give you ample warning should spoilers appear.

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