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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So some organization of Atheists have decided to go up in arms over a nativity scene in front of Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington. If it was simply a matter of “there is supposed to be a separation of Church and State”, I wouldn’t mind so much. However, instead it is an organization very aggressively pushing the concept that God does not exist into people’s faces, and then claiming that they are doing no wrong. In fact, the nativity scene is the aggressor!

While I typically get irritated from Atheists acting so smug about not believing in a God, these people grate on my nerves in a different way. They are trying to claim that the nativity scene says “if you do not bow down to our God, you burn in Hell”. This is an argument that has always confused me, as well, as Atheists shouldn’t even believe in Hell. Why would you be bothered by the concept of something you don’t believe in?

The fact of the matter is, there is an agenda these Atheists are trying to push, and they are doing it in the most absolutely wrong way possible. You do NOT put out a plaque that says, as if it is fact, that there is no God and religion is the cause of all the world’s troubles and claim you are not the bad guy. You are directly attacking the core beliefs of others by claiming them not only to be false, but to be harmful.

Of course, the Christians aren’t tackling it too well, either. “We will call upon our supporters to stop this Un-Godly campaign!”. See, just by saying “Un-Godly campaign”, you reveal another agenda. The issue here shouldn’t be that it is an “Un-Godly” campaign, it should be that someone is taking their freedom of speech and making irresponsible use of it. Our freedom of speech is intended to allow us to discuss matters of the Government publicly without being arrested or silenced unjustly. However, if you decide to try and exercise your right to speak freely in a manner that disturbs the peace, then you aren’t looking to speak freely. You are looking to create a stir in the community, and such a stir does not have peaceful or rational intentions.

I don’t care if a nativity scene is taken down from a government building. If there are Christian employees that want to have a nativity scene, they are free to place one in their home or on their lawn. However, this organization is just as bad as any Christian community or organization trying to ban gay marriage or abortion. They aren’t arguing for true freedom, they are fighting for their agenda to become the majority. They are actively seeking to piss off Christians and trying to get others onto their side.

I do not care what your organization stands for, such methods are wrong and consequences should be paid for such a thing.

The Deadspace video game may not have had an instant classic in terms of story, but overall it was executed pretty well with some good dialogue. The recordings sounded like genuinely freaked out people in the midst of a disaster, some of them a bit disturbing, and by the end of the game they have some classical psychological stuff going on as you realize the game has been messing with you a bit. Even outside of the recordings, the dialogue between the characters was real, and while some of it was cheesy it was overall pretty decent.

Doesn’t exactly hold the same for the animated feature.

Of course, it is also pretty apparent that the animated feature isn’t even written by the same guys. They likely wrote the outline, but they didn’t write the script. If they did, then they cared little for consistency. There are a couple of scenes in Downfall that you get to see in the game, only they occur differently. Often enough, the scene in the animated feature is much more dramatic. For example, the captain seems to be going completely paranoid and insane in the film, whereas in the game he seems much more cool and calm. He is simply too obsessed with what he feels is his duty to do what is right for the crew.

The entire film also seems to move way too quick compared to how events seem to have played out according to the game. Listening to the audio logs from the ship’s crew, it sounds as if the alien infection spread much more slowly than a couple of hours. There were crew members reporting odd growth in certain sections of the ship, the doctors having to take care of many injured from both the colony and the ship, crew trying to send a signal out for help but getting cut off by the captain, and even crew capable of fighting back. The movie, meanwhile, would have you believe the crew got taken by surprise and fell immediately, going down in just a couple of hours.

One of my biggest issues with Deadspace: Downfall is the writing. In a lot of ways it could be pretty decent, but for some reason they just insist on using foul language to a ridiculous extent. Now, I’m no prude. I love Quentin Tarantino movies just as much as anyone, but there’s some point where swearing so much just begins to sound fake and forced. It could be the writing, it could be the voice acting, it could be both. However, they simply used a lot of foul language for the sake of using foul language. Same goes with the gore content. There are some shots that seem as if they were used because hey, blood is cool, right? They go so far as to have a scene in a locker room just to show a bunch of people get killed. They are not important characters at all, and only appeared for the sake of dying. It didn’t even reveal anything new about the alien monsters to anyone not yet familiar with the game. It had absolutely no purpose.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the animated movie is bad. If you have played Dead Space, I would say give it a watch. I would not advise watching it beforehand, though, as it will give you a false impression of how certain things work or went down in the game. Still, it is interesting to see elements from the game used in the film, as well as provide some extra fluff and understanding. However, a second viewing simply makes all of the film’s flaws much more obvious.

If that wasn’t enough of a reason to give it a rent, the DVD is also incredibly poor. The only special features are some trailers for the game and the DVD itself. There is nothing on the making of the film, working on adapting elements of the game into the film, or of the Dead Space universe. It is a cheap DVD that should be in the $6.99 bin at Wal-Mart.

Play Deadspace, and if you want give it a rent. Just don’t spend any real money on it.

For those of you not aware, an employee of Wal-Mart was killed the morning of Black Friday in New York, and two others were shot at a Toys ‘R’ Us in California, one of them the age of six. It is the result of people so focused with greed that they do not care for anyone but themselves. All they care about is THEY are the ones to get the latest deal, or THEY are the ones to get a present for their friend/spouse/child/relative, and they will fight anyone else tooth and nail for it.

Or at least, that is how the stories typically go.

I’ve already heard our capitalistic society being blamed for this behavior, as well as the commercialist holiday of Christmas. I do not believe either of these things are to blame, though, and that is the real tragedy. After all, I love the concept of capitalism because it has a history of breeding innovation in the face of competition. Just look at the past 100 years of our society. Or, for an example anyone reading my blog can relate to, look at the latest video game consoles. Microsoft came in with online gaming to try and get a real hold on the market, and has since evolved what that means for a gaming console. Nintendo came up with a new method of play, as well as learned to focus on a completely different market. Without fans nagging Sony to have a “real online presence”, they would have stayed with the same strategy they had for Playstation 2. Because all three companies are in such strong competition with each other, they each are forced to evolve the market instead of letting it stagnate.

As for Christmas, I must admit I am a bit biased since I have some religious investment in the holiday. However, just because I like Christmas doesn’t mean I like seeing commercials for it appearing the day after Halloween, or the massive crowds at the malls. I especially hate the mall crowds, having lived in a densely populated area of New Jersey where the roads aren’t built for such traffic for most of my life. That doesn’t mean that the holiday itself is horrible, or its traditions. I love buying gifts for friends and family. I don’t ask people what they want, but look around and find things that just scream out their name. When I give someone a gift that is a genuine surprise, I am filled with delight. I find more joy in giving than I do in receiving, in addition to all the spiritual value I find in the holiday.

The reason why Black Friday tragedies occur, as well as others during the season, is not because of Capitalism or Christmas. Companies have learned that people can be manipulated with these sales and advertisements. If people can be manipulated, then there is something wrong with the people.

It should also be worth noting that this madness does not occur everywhere. My mother went out in the morning while I stayed home to take advantage of the sales online, avoiding the crowds and crazy folks willing to crush me. She came back with no gripes or complaints, as none of the stores she went to had trouble. Kohl’s was crowded, but the shoppers weren’t rude. K-Mart was practically empty (probably because everyone was at Wal-Mart). The mall and Best Buy were stuffed with customers, but none of them were pushing or shoving to compete for a deal. It was merely crowded was all.

My purpose in writing all of this is to just point out that it isn’t a problem with the system, the holiday, or even that this kind of tragedy occurs everywhere. The real problem is that these events and ideas have revealed a darker side because of the people in our society. That such things can happen is not the fault of Christmas or Capitalism, but the fault of greedy, uncaring people that cannot learn to live without. These ideas were not taught by the corporations having the sales, or in the countless films or television specials about Christmas.

Make sure that when you blame something, you know who it is you ought to blame.

By now you should be aware that Robotech is one of them things I be lovin’. While at this stage I would never choose to watch it over the original Macross television show, it still holds a fond place in my heart. When I was a young’un, I knew all about violence and death, and could easily spot when a television show was trying to fool us kids with parachutes and friendly terms like “send you to another dimension”. Yet Robotech was the first show that didn’t play around. Parachutes weren’t launched as a plane blew up. People died every episode, and they made sure you knew.

It treated me as an intelligent human being, not a dumb little twat wanting an animated toy commercial.

So along comes Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, Harmony Gold’s attempt to cash in on its twenty-to-thirty-something year old fanbase by providing an “ending” to the show and some blood and foul language to match the age of the audience.

Somehow they took the unique feeling of Robotech, which didn’t feel like “just another anime”, and made it “just another anime…in space”.

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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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I am fully aware of all the current controversy going on between tabletop roleplayers and the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Most of the folks complaining simply look like old men complaining about “the good old days”. They are told if they don’t like it, then they should just stick to 3rd or even 2nd Edition. Meanwhile, on the other side of the argument, all the people that do enjoy 4th Edition are looked upon as the World of Warcraft players that are ruining gaming.

Ultimately, there are three groups of tabletop roleplayers. The Gamists, the Simulationists and the Narrativists (those familiar with the GNS Theory will already be familiar with the idea). These three sectors often enough cross over, similarly to a Venn Diagram, but most often the goals of the Narrativist and Simulationist collide with that of the Gamist. The Narrativist and Simulationist goals are to experience a world and story that cannot be provided through other mediums, such as video games or novels. The Gamist, on the other hand, has the ultimate goal of simply winning, especially if they can maximize their character for any situation (see Pete from Darths and Droids).

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