The Last Express

"Narrative to me is an area that's evolved the least in games over the past 10 to 15 years. They're more beautiful than they've ever been, they're more fun to play, the controls are better, and they're more fluid, and yet they're not telling better stories. They're not better at telling stories than they were 15 years ago, and I don't feel like they're trying."

From an interview from a couple of the leads on Jordan Mechner's The Last Express, the 1997, critical success that, for other reasons, ended up being a commercial failure. I had never heard of the game, but its art nouveau rotoscoped style, it's emphasis on real-time gameplay and ambitious interactivity (having to be in a certain place at a certain time to hear a certain conversation, for example) has caused me to look the game up on ebay. I'll post something after I've played through it.

The article is here.

Immersion

An interesting art/research project by Robbie Cooper.

"There is an account, apocryphally, from medieval times, of a person walking into a room and being confronted with the sight of a man transfixed. The man in the room is holding something in his hands, staring at it. His eyes are glazed. His lips are moving soundlessly. His soul is elsewhere. The onlooker, unsettled, concludes that the man has been possessed by an evil spirit. In fact, he is simply doing something the onlooker has never seen done before: reading a book..."



The full story is here.

Speed vs. Combat

Dare I make a comparison?



and





I've played the Mirror's Edge demo and I've concluded, as I have with some beloved Sonic games, that I enjoy running more than fighting.

Someone in the editing room likes Sigur Ros

A couple of trailers of fresh games that both feature the icelanding band.

I wish I were the moon.

(play it here)

An adorable indie game featured at the TGS '08 Sense of Wonder Night.

The developer's site is here:

http://www.ludomancy.com/blog/2008/09/03/i-wish-i-were-the-moon/

2 games with windmills

Here's a game that had a windmill:

Ico.

Here's a game that's coming out that also has a windmill:

Prince of Persia.

Here's something else they both have:

Characters that hold hands.

At least some of the time.

What I've seen of Prince of Persia exudes fantastical mystery. I welcome another game that contains two characters travelling with an environment that's a character unto itself, with its own secrets and history.

Let's hope the Prince's witty one-liners and the acrobating fighting he and Elika share help them approach the tremendous, wordless bond that Ico and Yorda had. It's a tall order, but maybe I just want something to tide me over until Fumito Ueda's team announces their next project.

Being a Bad Gamer

I confess that I'm a bad gamer. I'll prove it to you. I haven't played any of Hideo Kojima's games. There. I'm now unworthy to be among the ranks of the astute. Which games do you think are of the "must experience" category? For some it seems like it's assumed that if you are a gamer, you've played certain games, like Ocarina of Time, for example (of which I've only played a few hours). It's funny because we're more forgiving of others not having seen TV shows or read certain novels or heard of certain bands (to the extent of taking pride our appreciation of obscure music). Games are certainly as diverse. Perhaps it's because we identify with games differently? I'm not quite sure. Anyway, I admit to appreciating Michael Abbott's Metal Gear Primer over at The Brainy Gamer. Even after watching hours of cutscenes, I still feel like I'm missing something. Maybe that's not such a bad thing.