A trailer has been released for the upcoming Watchmen game. The game is obviously an attempt to cash in on the film releasing in a few months. When 1Up first revealed the game, it sounded a lot like they were trying to convince fans that the game was going to be true to the graphic novel. Unfortunately, even if the writing and canon is true, that doesn’t mean the style of the film will be. Watchmen isn’t about superheroes fighting criminals, yet the game looks like it is going to be nothing more than your typical brawler. They took two characters from the comic and planted them into a game about beating up thugs on the street.

Of course, when I first watched the trailer, I didn’t realize this was the problem. Visually, it looks to have the style of the comic down pat, but that’s honestly not so hard. Especially since they are simply taking the visual style of the film, which has done a pretty good job of maintaining the proper visuals for the universe. Before the trailer, a few friends and I discussed that the best possible Watchmen game would actually be done in the style of a 2-D brawler, but with a twist. The game would open up saying “Veidt Enterprises”, and you would basically just play the sort of game that Ozymandias would have made in the universe of the Watchmen. This way it didn’t trounce canon at all, but would be more like playing a piece of what would exist in the universe itself.

Now that the trailer has come out, I’ve had the time to think on how one would make a real, serious attempt at a Watchmen game. When I thought back to the trailer, I realized that, even though Rorschach and Nite Owl certainly beat up criminals together as a team, the graphic novel was never at all about crime fighting or action. Granted, part of this is due to the limitations of a comic in conveying action, putting greater emphasis on plot, dialogue and characters. However, just because you change mediums doesn’t mean you need to change emphasis.

To make a proper Watchmen game, you need to look back on what is mostly a forgotten genre: the point-and-click adventure.

While originally it felt to me that the graphic novel was too closed off to allow for a story to be told outside of it, I am no longer sure of such a thing. You will never have a story that encompasses such complexity, mystery or desperation as the comic itself, but you don’t have to stick to the story of the comic. Of course, you don’t need to make a story outside of the graphic novel, either. It can be retold in the game. Either way, there is a character that is perfect for such a game already in the story.

Rorschach is the perfect protagonist for an adventure game based on Watchmen. The character has become such a fan favorite that he is almost as much of an icon as the bloodstained smiley. Fans of the game would certainly prefer to play in his shoes than the shoes of any other character. In addition, Rorschach is also the first character to speak, and continues to narrate a large portion of the comic. He is the only character in major action, and his activities all lend well to an adventure game.

Rorschach is very much a detective. He has a tools set, most notably his grappling hook, is able to improvise when necessary, and specializes in investigation and putting pieces together. His role in the comic easily transfers to a game designed for puzzle solving, thinking and story telling. Using the plot of the graphic novel, you can easily follow Rorschach’s steps throughout the process, with plenty of scenes available to explore, as well as work off camera to do some work unseen in the comic. If you wanted to write a prequel, there are also a couple moments in Rorschach’s background that could be used as build up to his character, seeing the transformation into what he is in Watchmen.

As for the gameplay itself, most people would not be too interested in a point-and-click adventure unless it was on the DS. Even on the Wii would it have a limited market, yet games like Phoenix Wright and Hotel Dusk have enjoyed moderate to great success on the DS. The genre’s traditional designs met with the unique capabilities of the system could easily open up to a pretty fun game that maintains the necessary atmosphere of the graphic novel.

Of course, if you wanted a game with a bit wider appeal than a point-and-click to play on Xbox 360, PS3 and/or PC, then you could simply remove the point and clicking, but keep a lot of the same ideas. I’ve found plenty of games have carried over elements of the adventure genre over into their own, particularly in horror titles. Resident Evil typically has simple puzzles, but the earlier titles are more about inventory management, key items and puzzle solving. The new Alone in the Dark, despite having plenty of control issues and some clunky design choices, also has plenty of ideas that would work great with a game focused on a character like Rorschach. With a set of good controls and a good designer, a Watchmen game in full 3-D with a quality budget could turn out well, and true to the original graphic novel’s ideas, characters and atmosphere.

But instead we’ll be getting an episodic brawler, focused on delivering action. 1Up has tried to soothe our souls, claiming that Alan Moore’s “teacher” is working on the story and that the editor of their site, a long time fan, has found it to be quite accurate so far.

As it is, I honestly doubt I’ll be giving the game a chance.

There are various arguments on the topic of whether or not video games are art. A friend of mine has recently mused on the matter after reading a discussion on the topic, where one debater proclaimed that one would not claim Tennis or Hopscotch as art, and therefore video games are not either. My friend then began to ponder on how art has embraced sports, and further down that train of thought.

I, on the other hand, fully oppose the concept that sports are not art. Of course, watching people play sports may not be considered art (though I’m sure there are many that would wish to argue that), but then again we aren’t discussing whether watching someone play Gears of War is art. We are arguing whether the game, Gears of War itself, is art. While games have a lot in common with novels and film, simply adding a layer of interactivity, it is not merely a different form of narrative that opens video games into being art. It is the process of design that does as well.

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Dead Space. Amazing game. As a game, it is designed incredibly well. It provides a nearly flawless experience, fun to the point that you don’t pay attention to any of the flaws.

That is, unless you’re looking for an actual survival horror. See, there are plenty of design elements that work well for Dead Space as a shooter, but horrible for it to be the survival horror that EA Redshores Studio labeled it to be. While on harder difficulties these matters are less of an issue, they still interfere with the horror aspect.

Granted, what games like Resident Evil and other survival horror titles had going for them is considered bad game design. Poor controls, no checkpoints, limited saves, incredibly limited inventory, these all contributed to the horror in a different way than just making you jump. You were actually afraid of the next encounter, because you’d have to deal with clumsy controls, and if you died you would have to replay half an hour or more. Not to mention you aren’t sure if you have enough ammo to be prepared, or if you even have the right kind.

Dead Space eliminates all of that. Granted no game would be allowed to get away with horrible controls these days, and there are still great ways to balance that such as A.I., where the enemies come from, how quickly they move, etc. However, just about any other problem, and more, are eliminated from the equation.

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There aren’t many sequels I can think of that feel so similar to their predecessor they may as well be one in the same. Gears of War 2 has the same formula and feel of the first title, so much so that it feels wrong to even call it a sequel. While technically it stands on its own as a game, considering the lack of depth to the franchise’s story and setting, it is better thought of as a continuation of the first game. It isn’t Gears of War 2, it is Gears of War: Part Two.

To give you a better understanding, think of the Alien trilogy compared to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The three Alien films tell the overall story of Ripley and her battle against the Alien, but each film has its own isolated plot and atmosphere that allows them to each stand on their own. The Lord of the Rings films, on the other hand, are all one larger story. The Two Towers doesn’t stand on its own, but rather it continues the tale started with Fellowship of the Ring. This is how Gears of War 2 feels overall.

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I was all set for this Fall release schedule. I had picked out a handful of titles I was going to purchase on day one, and had put titles I was unsure of aside to wait for a price drop following the holidays. Plenty of excellent games should be down to $40 by February, if not more so. I was going to grab the three or four games I really wanted, put the rest on a Christmas wishlist and grab the rest at a cheaper price in ‘09.

Then I played the demo for Mirror’s Edge.

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Just a notification to all those interested, the English fan translation of Mother 3 has been completed.

Everyone hates the new Facebook layout. At least, I don’t know a single person that enjoys it. Personally, I’m not much a fan either, though I don’t seem to hate it nearly so much as anyone else. Still, my first reaction was “How the Hell did this pass usability testing?”. Trying to find the familiar links was a pain at first, and the very look of it just gave a queasy feeling.

Yet whenever I tried to describe why it was so terrible, I found any truly good reasons to escape me. I couldn’t say “well, this here is a perfect example of bad design”. So exactly what’s wrong with it? Why is it such a terrible new layout? All I’ve really heard from people is “it is/looks horrible” and “I can’t find anything”, for the most part.

So let’s try and figure out what is really going wrong with it.

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It isn’t often that I get addicted to Live Arcade games. I don’t know why, but most of the games end up being fun for a little while, but don’t have any lasting appeal. I wasn’t even sure about grabbing Castle Crashers at all, but a friend of mine had purchased and given me a 1600 MS Points card with which to buy the game. Gratefully, I accepted and downloaded the game. I played it briefly single player, and found it to be enjoyable enough, but as usual didn’t find it to be all that amazing.

Then I played it with my roommate and his brother, and together we got the full Castle Crashers experience.

There are just some games that aren’t meant to be played alone, and Castle Crashers is one of them. This technically puts it in the category of “party game”, which is quite fitting. Not only is it great for multiple people to play, but it is entertaining for an audience as well. As I played with my roommate and friends, there was always at least one observer, and never did any audience member get bored and just walk off. I imagine watching isn’t nearly as fun as playing, but the art, music and humor all combines to be an entertaining experience to watch as well as play.

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It is typically in my nature to write impressions or a review of a game, but Too Human is a bit of a different case. There are plenty of excellent things that the game did, but also there are plenty of areas that could’ve used some improvement, and will hopefully be worked on for the second in the trilogy (assuming the first does well enough for a sequel to come out and not have the Advent Rising thing going on).

Firstly, I’ve completed the entire single player campaign, and it was in fact a very great game. It was fun, and the story was enjoyable. Screw the scores, it delivered a fun experience very successfully. Silicon Knights did a very good job creating a unique control scheme for the title, as well as taking  the monotony of constant mouse-clicking in your typical looting RPG into smooth combat. While there aren’t many particular moves available, they all become pretty necessary for survival, as well as vary the combat up. There is also so much loot in the game that it never gets tiring. It actually provides many rewards when leveling up begins to take longer, allowing your character to constantly become more and more powerful. It’s all a very rewarding experience. (more…)

There’s a series of videos posted onto YouTube called “Game OverThinker”, where a guy discusses matters of the games industry to various images. A few days ago he put out “Can it Happen to Us?“, where he compares the games industry to the comics industry. The idea is that comics originally focused on a young audience, though at some point their original readers had grown up. Around this time, Alan Moore and Frank Miller brought in Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, comics that were aimed towards the adult reader. They were violent, contained sexuality and possessed more complex stories than what you typically got out of a comic.

Since then, he states that the comics industry has taken the violence and the sexuality and pushed them into comics, aiming towards an older audience while abandoning the youth (as well as completely ignoring the complex stories aspect of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns). He looks at the comics industry as being in trouble, which it technically has been for a while. Or at the very least it hasn’t been selling as well. In the end, kids aren’t interested in comic books, and he blames it on the fact that they are primarily targeted towards an older audience.

He then ties this to the current video games industry. The most critically acclaimed games, as well as best sellers, of this day and age are most often M-rated titles made for adults and not children. The Game OverThinker states that games are, ultimately, toys and that the games industry could soon be seeing a similar end as comics have, where only the hardcore audience supports it.

In a lot of ways, the Game OverThinker is right in his comparison to the comics industry, but there is one vital area that he is wrong. Video games are not toys. I’m not going to say all of them are art, either, but they are very much an entertainment medium akin to books or film. They are certainly not toys, or at least not anymore.

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