A Convenient Solution To An Impossible Gaming Problem

I think 2000 went a little something like this.

It's terrifying to think that the year 2000 was an extremely daunting ten years ago now! My memory is a little fuzzy, but I'm relatively sure it was a simpler time for me back then, I didn't have to maintain this cool beard for starters and my gaming was happening solely on home consoles, the very concept of using a PC for gaming seemed way too complicated, installing a game? Pah! Had I not been a stubborn teenager I would have known that actually the PC was offering experiences way beyond what my Playstation was offering, especially when it came to Deus Ex.

A few years later I was wearing glasses, and therefore had all the necessary qualifications required to start PC gaming. Deus Ex was the first game that I bought for my super powerful gaming PC (featuring a staggering 64MB of RAM and a blazing fast 300Mhz processor) and I was absolutely blown away by the experience. In all honesty at first I was terrible at the game, I spent the latter part of the training mission having been liberated from my legs dragging my stumps towards the goal desperately hoping that I wouldn't be spotted by more angry robots. The game offered a lot more scope than I was used to, I could have hacked the robot, tried sneaking past it, or stood in front of it while it filled my knee-caps with hot lead, and while the option I chose was not the wisest it did provide me with my first gaming introduction to location based damage. Imagine my surprise later in the game when I was scolded by my boss for going into the women's toilets earlier, or when a character reacted to me having already having completed an objective before it had been issued instead of just going into a pre-recorded mission brief when I approached him. In fact Deus Ex completely changed what I came to expect from games, it had presented me with the ability to carefully plan attacks or completely bypass combat, and given me control over the dialogue and outcome of the plot in a genre that I had until then associated with running head on at enemies holding the trigger, and once I'd been presented with a such variety by one game I started to wonder why more games weren't giving me this sort of freedom. The bar had been set incredibly high, even Invisible War, the sequel to Deus Ex, failed to live up the the standards of it's predecessor despite being a fairly good game in its own right.

Now Eidos Montreal are resurrecting the franchise with a prequel called Deus Ex: Human Revolution. It's a daunting task for sure, I am certainly not alone in my high regard for Deus Ex, and many others like me are desperately hoping that this game will finally be the exceptionally high quality addition to the series we have been waiting for the last ten years. This must have been at the forefront of their consciousness when creating the trailer that was released recently, as it truly is a thing of beauty, the obvious stand out area is the high quality of the pre-rendered visuals, they may not be reflective of the final product, but it provides a clear look at the artistic direction Eidos Montreal have settled upon. It looks like a fantastic combination of Ghost In The Shell, Blade Runner and The Dark Knight, and would probably make an exceptionally good stand alone movie in its own right. Some have criticised that everything looks more advanced than it did in the original game considering it's a prequel set 25 years beforehand, but to be fair we have better technology in 2010 than they did in the original's interpretation of 2050, so this is completely forgivable. Having a strong art direction and an exciting cinematic trailer is all well and good, but it is the gameplay that will make or break Human Revolution.

The recent gameplay demo certainly has put a lot of fears to rest, and while it was a strictly hands off presentation the spirit of the original Deus Ex seems to be alive and well. There is no pre-set way to complete a mission, if you want to infiltrate a building how you'll do so is completely at your own discretion, burst in the front door guns blazing will work just as well as talking your way in or sneaking in, or maybe a combination of all three. Whatever option you settle on you'll have to be prepared for the consequences, the violence may result in a character being killed who may have proved to be useful later on in the game whereas the stealthy option may mean bypassing this person all together and will result in a completely different interaction with him at a later stage, those who believe that there is no situation that can't be resolved with conversation will find that they open up an even greater array of options depending on the course the conversation takes. There has been a fairly big revision to NPC dialogue which some may find a little frustrating, gone is the simple list of dialogue options presented in the original, in its place is something more akin to a mini-game the developers are describing as 'sparing dialogue' where the player has to read the NPCs expression and try match their response accordingly. If the player re-enters conversation with the NPC (assuming they haven't upset them to the point of turning violent) the dialogue will be completely different, so there won't any repetition or cheating by coming into the conversation pre-prepared.

The ability to add augmentations to your character to enhance their skills has always been a big part of the Deus Ex series, this hasn't changed any in Human Revolution, in fact they will be an even more of a focal point than ever before. Stealthy players will be able to equip abilities such as x-ray vision, stealth suits, or maybe even a couple of handy arm blades for some wonderfully brutal stealth executions. Those hoping to bust some heads will be able to chose from augmentations that allow them turn their arms into rocket launchers, or as was the case in the demo a 'claymore' augmentation that allows them to turn themselves into a human mine, which proved rather useful when jumping into the middle of a large crowd of enemies. As the 'skills' option from the original has been removed there will be a greater element of balancing to the way augmentations can be applied, the player could choose to have lot of low powered abilities or they could instead choose to specialise in a select few. It appears that for every feature Eidos Montreal have removed or simplified they have made sure to improve upon an existing one.

The game is certainly looking really impressive at the moment, although it is a little to early to call it either way for sure, but that hasn't stopped a lot of people online deciding that the simplified dialogue options and occasional switch to third person will make this game will be the worst thing ever. As I have mentioned before it is easy to feel a sense of entitlement from a series that we hold dear, and it will be nigh on impossible for many to look at Human Revolution with objectivity. Everything I have seen so far however does look absolutely amazing, it seems possible that unless Eidos Montreal make some incredible mistakes of the next six months Deus Ex: Human Revolution may finally be the game that is able to meet the most of the fans expectations.

Play Me A Story

Recently I discovered an amazing piece of literature, a weighty tome that held the answers to many questions that had been plaguing my mind; how the world was the world created? How will it end? If I hold Ctrl and Right Click what will happen?

Of course all the literary scholars among you will know that I'm referring to the incredible instruction manual for Sid Mier's Sim Earth. Not so long ago you would feel short changed if a PC game you purchased didn't feature over one hundred pages, partly this would be because it would be hard to work out on your own that B+Y+Alt = Walk Forward, but also because this is where the meat of a game's story could be found. However, despite liberal use of expository paragraphs in these gargantuan manuals PC gaming had the upper hand in presenting games as a medium for story telling for a long time, and it is only in the past ten years that home consoles started to surpass their all powerful brethren.

Generations ago on consoles such as the NES there would be no clues in-game as to why your 8-Bit dude was making widows of hundreds of  lady goblins, any story would be explained in broken English in the manual, or would have to be left to your own imagination. Even the home gaming power house Super Mario Bros. had no in-game explanation of what was happening beyond "our princess is in another castle", for all we knew Mario could have been an assassin tasked by the princess to commit numerous acts of regicide in a brutal coups d'etat that left countless brown mushrooms squished and turtles de-shelled. Maybe developers were too busy pushing the gameplay side of things to get too wrapped up in the intricacies of story telling, or maybe back then the media wasn't up to the task. Gaming has come a long way since those days, now more than ever the medium is poised to weave plots far more complicated and intricate than anything you'd be able to find in a booklet, the focus is no longer just on gameplay. Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain are four games that have this heavy focus on story telling, they also happen to be some of the best new releases available on the two major platforms. What is fantastic about these games is that they each deal with the task of telling tales in very different ways, but none of them feel inferior to the others.

Alan Wake is a fully guided experience, it's no surprise that a game about a writer has a lot in common with reading a novel, in that the story isn't open for interaction; the player has no more control over the plot than a person reading has when running their finger along the page. This may sound like a negative statement to some, but the story is so carefully paced that interaction would have done more harm than good. The story also relies heavily on mystery and suspense, the torment that Wake experiences is not optional, there's no 'be badass' button to press, all the player can do is continue to steer Alan down this path. The lack of interaction creates a far better sense of the unknown, not having to a preconception at the back of your mind as to how you want things to play out adds to the foreboding and claustrophobic atmosphere.

Red Dead Redemption takes a similar format to Alan Wake, the plot is pretty firmly fixed and doesn't allow any interaction. However outside of the cutscenes the player has complete control over the characters personality, if they want John Marston to be the most notorious outlaw in the west then they are free to do so, similarly they are free to turn him into a shining beacon of honour and justice. Often the sub-plots will allow moral choices to be made, for example they can choose at one point to give to a nun collecting money for an orphanage or they could choose to tie her to the back of their horse and go for a little ride, then loot the corpse. Neither of these decisions will effect the way or the path that the main plot takes, the morally just player will be on the same quest for revenge that the wicked outlaw is on. Thankfully the characters and writing of these set moments are so fantastic that it doesn't feel like a burden that you have no say in what is happening.

Heavy Rain evolves the concept even further; the player has control over the characters actions and dialogue throughout the game, and is able to effect the plot in small ways, but there are some elements that will remain the same regardless of their actions. The plot always plays out in the same way; the identity of the Origami Killer is going to be the same on every play through, the order of the investigation will always be done in the same way, there is no way to adjust the flow of the game. As with the Red Dead Redemption and Alan Wake this doesn't harm the game in anyway, the linear nature serves the same purpose of driving everything forward to the exciting conclusion, if anything the game would be much less fun if in the first few minutes you could point out the killer and bring it all to an early and unrewarding close.

Mass Effect 2 presents story telling in a completely different way, there are a few moments that will happen regardless of player input, but the vast majority of the plot is in the hands of the player. Every line of  Commander Shepard's dialogue is under direct control of the player, as is the order and outcome of the missions. All of the major decisions are made by the player, it is at their discretion if Shepard commits genocide, who he is loyal to and ultimately who lives or dies in his crew. Despite being able to choose how the adventure plays out the story of the game doesn't feel fractured, and still captures the same immersion as Alan Wake's 'set in stone' plot.

As I mentioned previously these four games are some of the absolute best titles available at the moment, and despite being so different from each other in their methods, have some of the most engrossing plots in gaming today. It should also be noted that all four have extremely high quality voice acting and direction, and that goes a very long way in making the experience more engaging, take a look at the newly released Alpha Protocol for an example of a decent plot let down by unenthusiastic voice work. They also have something else in common, they are all incredibly enjoyable games just to sit and watch, a viewer without the interaction can get as much pleasure from the experience as the gamer. The days of the single player straight up no-brainer game are coming to an end, as consumers we expect more for our $60 / £50. The production values of games are meeting and exceeding those of major films, so it is only natural that the quality of the experience should meet that of a major motion picture.

In fact some game plots are so fantastic they could be turned into full blown novels, and while they're doing that they could print the controls in the back of those novels and put them into the games box...

Play. Create. Share.

Most gamers will think at some point during their digital lives 'I could have done this better' or 'what I would have done would have been', it's one of the unwritten rules of gaming. Of course for the majority of people who have these thoughts they will always remain thoughts only, programming requires both time and effort, something that games also require. Maybe this is why games that allow us to easily generate our own content are so popular, we can shape assets of an existing frame work, but retain the feeling of control over our creations. It is this spirit of freedom that Sony has plans on embracing with the games that fall under their 'Play. Create. Share.' banner, and currently features two of the most impressive titles on the PS3; Little Big Planet and Modnation Racers.

Little Big Planet currently features over two MILLION user created levels, that's the equivalent of over 55 thousand copies of Super Mario Bros (Ironically about a million of those LBP user generated levels are World 1-1 from Mario). It goes without saying that while that's an impressive figure for advertisers to throw around, the actual number of quality levels numbers in the thousands, which is still insanely impressive. The level of innovation that the community has shown is frankly astounding, from the offset there were levels that took the creation tools far beyond the games intended platform gameplay, such as The Little Big Computer with it's mind boggling mess of wires, magnets and switches that some how formed a fully working calculator. Every log in to the game will reveal hours of new content, the relative simplicity of the controls mean that LBP is in many ways the ideal party game, with four players even the worst levels can be insanely entertaining. The majority of the 'bad' levels are more a case of being unfinished and unrefined rather than being awful from conception, and this is in part due to the complexity of the tools. While it is possible to create basic levels fairly simply, mastering the provided tools requires a lot of time to be invested to create something that can stand along side the best levels.

Modnation Racers, the latest addition to the PCS series takes a far more user friendly approach to creation. The tools are deep enough to allow hours of time to be put into the creation of a single track, but the tracks made in a few seconds don't stand out as the game has some really clever auto population options to flesh them out. The scope for the variety of game types is limited strictly to racing, but this focus actually works in the favour of Modnation, allowing people to refine their own perfect racing experiences, and the wonderful thing about it being a racing game is that it severely limits the number of world 1-1 remakes we'll be seeing. Some prefer to make 'traditional' kart racer tracks with sweeping corners and shortcuts, some are recreating real world circuits, and others are making highly challenging twisty precision driving courses. The character editor is also being used in really creative ways already, there are some fantastic Helgast as well as other classic characters from gaming, even the least customisable element of the game, the Kart editor, has far more options than most racing games. 


While Little Big Planet is perfect for creating platformers and Modnation is perfect for creating racing games Little Big Planet 2 intends to be the best at both, and then some. In LBP2 the focus isn't on creating levels, it's on creating games, creations will be able to be packaged together and released online as uninterrupted coherent gaming experiences. An example of the games potential to be more than just a platformer are 'Sackbots'; programmable NPCs who can be tweaked and adjusted to fit into whatever style of game you'd like to make, they can act as bystanders, enemies or allies, with AI routines and actions designated by the creator, meaning no more cardboard cut-outs providing instructions or rolling menacingly towards you on wheels. The far more adjustable camera will also play a big role in how creations turn out, turn the camera on it's side and you've got the potential to make a vertical scrolling game, or maybe you fancy yourself as a bit of a director and want to create your own cutscenes, by combining Sackbots with customisable camera cuts you will be able to flesh out your creations with as many cutscenes as you like, or maybe you want to skip the game part entirely and just make movies? That's an option too! It's still fairly early days at the moment and there will no doubt be a lot more exciting features being revealed fairly soon, but even from the small amount Media Molecule have announced so far it looks like LPB2 is going to be an utterly amazing game.

It's not just official Play. Create. Share games that are getting in on the fun, initially the concept of a Toy Story 3 game reeks of a quick and cheap cash in, but when you hear that Pixar are working extremely closely in the development of the game it's hard not to be a little intrigued. Essentially Toy Story 3 is going to feature a LBP Lite mode called the toybox, that allows users to create and customise their game world in the same way that we see Andy playing with his toys in the movies. The tools aren't as deep as Little Big Planet or even Modnation, but they serve as a wonderful introduction into the world of user generated content. The 360 has an often over-looked indie game called Kodu, which offers a wealth of options for creating a variety of games with complex AI routines and objectives presented in a bold and easy to understand interface. There are many more games on the horizon that offer present a lot of customisation options no matter what your creative skill-set may be, and while they may not all fall under Sony's Play. Create. Share banner, it is a mantra that more and more developers are taking note of. It's an exciting time to be a gamer, its an even more exciting time to be a creative game.