Huge news! Marvel is taking the reigns to Spider-Man, to an extent, and will be integrating him into the MCU?! We obviously talk about this, the latest casting news in upcoming TV shows, and we finally complete our conversation on video games we would create if given the opportunity. Check it out, it’s Episode 24 of PALS Podcasts!
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Every video game generation, a war always begins, whether its Sony vs Nintendo, Sony vs Microsoft, or an all out battle between the big 3. This, being the 8th generation and a big one at that, we decide to discuss which console has been winning this war so far, and where you should play. Who’s got the games, who’s got the network, who’s got the power, and, really, who’s got your friends.
Then, we talk about 5 big trailers for upcoming movies we are excited about, or of some franchises we love, and give you our opinions on those. It’s episode 17 of PALS Podcasts!
Don’t forget you can find us on Stitcher on your mobile device or web browser, just click here
And now on iTunes here
Microsoft has filed for the Battletoads trademark, which means it’s time for your PALS to talk about the games that we played as we grew up, what stood out to us, and some of the memories behind those games. This is a little different than our News segments, we decided to bring something more personal to you, so leave us some comments here, on our Facebook page, Twitter, or via email here, on what you think, and some future topics for us to discuss. Get a shout out on our next episode is PALS Podcasts!
Don’t forget you can find us on Stitcher on your mobile device or web browser, just click here
I have been thinking a lot about video games lately; primarily what makes a gamer, a gamer. Growing up I played my fare share of games and I can still remember the Christmas morning that my sister and I spent unwrapping our Sega Genesis and popping in the “Sonic the Hedgehog” cartridge. I have fond memories of that blue fur ball racing across the screen—I also think it’s why I developed a fear of drowning. But now I know how hedgehog science works.
As I grew, so did my love of videogames. It’s safe to say that games defined my childhood, brought me a sense of identity, and gave my imagination room to grow—it’s why I love writing now. But this year I’ve noticed a strong decline in the amount of personal time I’ve devoted to gaming. It’s true that as we grow our tastes evolve, and our day-to-day responsibilities we hold ourselves to, in large part, trump our desire to do the things we wish we could devote our free time to. Gone are the days I can devote to leveling up in the latest RPG. And the countless hours of trying to find every little hidden artifact of value in the newest Platformer are over. It’s been nearly a year since the newest console generation has arrived and I can’t say that I’m in any quicker a rush to purchase an Xbox One or Playstation 4 than I was a year ago. Are there great games on both consoles? Yes—loads. But as I find myself playing less and less games in an ever-connected gaming world, one question still persists: Am I still a gamer? Don’t get me wrong, I still love the new and inventive ways publishers and designers are creating worlds in the gaming space. But as I’ve grown my willingness to pay a premium price for games and the time I can invest in them has changed.
Gone are the days when I would shell out fifty to sixty dollars on a video game and feel good about my purchase. I look at reviews more critically, I weigh my options, and I think about the time I’m willing to invest in a game that boasts a ‘seventy to eighty hour campaign experience’—games that don’t even include Downloadable Content. Games like that now-a-days don’t interest me, and I often think about the people who do play those games. I admire them on the investment of time they’re willing to make into a game that detailed and immersive, but at the end of a play through like that I would have stumbled out of my house in the thickest brain fog the likes have which have never been seen before.
Now I know for the sake of my health I shouldn’t play for that long—no one should, but deep down I can’t help but think that, much like a Netflix binge session of Breaking Bad, people will try and cram as much time into one day as they possibly can. Do I sound like an old man shaking his fist at the ne’er-do-well youth of his own generation? I promise it’s not intentional. I just can’t imagine going back to a world of gaming that is that immersive. I need time to enjoy my experience—to want to go back and play for maybe an hour or two, not feel encumbered by so much gameplay that it feels like a choir to play. Games should be fun, an escape, like books. I shouldn’t have to feel like it’s something I need to do on a daily basis to get the most out of it.
Video games will always define who I am, just like the music I listen to and the movies I watch. My tastes may change—fine tune as I get older—but as long as I make the effort to keep gaming culture in my life, I’ll always be a gamer. Heck, I may never be that guy who plays for six hours a day just to clear through every side-quest and mini dungeon, but if I can enjoy the time I put into it and feel like the investment was worth it, deep down I’ll always be a gamer.
It’s that time of year. Foliage begins to crackle and turn orange, the weather gets just a little cooler, and the days grow a little shorter. But in all honesty if you live in Florida like me and the rest of the PALS crew you’re coming out of your eighth straight month of summer and staring at the armpit stains of your shirts like they’re some kind of twisted Rorschach test. But—indeed—fall is here and it seems to bring out the giddiness from everyone in their early to mid twenties. Maybe it’s the excuse to wear this year’s best slutty-themed (insert something not slutty) outfit or all of the pumpkin-flavored…everything!
Whatever the case may be, Halloween has a hold on people. It’s the one time of year where—well—it’s okay to be scared. Fear is natural it’s something that we all feel. And there is a video game genre that lets us—nay!—beckons us to take one deep dark look down the dimly lit halls of our psyches.
Horror games are, in my opinion, a tough genre to actually nail down; particularly because it’s the only genre that bases itself on the player’s emotions. Here me out: First Person Shooters, Platformers, Racing, Role Playing Games—they all describe actions taken by the players themselves. It’s easy to say that in a First Person Shooter, like any one of the Call of Duty games, I expect to be shooting. But is it as easy to say that by playing a horror game, I expect to be scared?
Story Matters
Fear, like I said, is an emotion. It’s personal—it speaks to our identity. The common tropes of horror: masked maniacs, ghosts, monsters—they don’t all scare everyone. Often times when we play horror games we are left with a by-the-book representation of what the horror genre is: blood-stained walls, the echoed screams of an unfortunate soul from another room, you name it. Hell, my metaphor above about the human psyche is a perfect example! When our minds are force fed the underdeveloped ideas of what fear should be, we tend to balk at the idea that any and every scary game that gets released won’t live up to the horrifying things our mind conjures up late at night. But the opposite can also be true. When too much emphasis is placed on the horror aspect of a game, the gameplay itself gets left on the cutting room floor and the game becomes an on-the-rails haunted house ride instead something more sinister and complex.
A game should build around atmosphere and player development; especially in a horror game. Take Resident Evil 6 for example, the most recent game in the numbered series (excluding the subtitled releases) that originally built itself up from a humble Playstation game to an all-out genre-defining series. The first Resident Evil, now a classic rife with dialogue that could be categorized as “so bad its good” basically created the genre we know as Survival Horror, building upon suspense, mystery and gore. But since its inception the series has all but limped across the finish line, trading its trademark survival horror aspects—limited saves and ammunition and genuine scares—for cheesy melodrama, that no longer feels like a well placed tongue-in-cheek joke for the audience to enjoy. Capcom has been noted as calling Resident Evil 6 “dramatic horror”—something of a redundant statement if you ask me. Isn’t all horror dramatic? Take Telltale Games’ Walking Dead series, it offers up the utmost when it comes to story driven affairs, asking us to partake in tough thought-provoking choices with context and contact sensitive controls. Or take the Slenderman games: simple in design but sweat-inducing gameplay that builds slowly with high tension and atmosphere.
The Fourth Wall
Another crucial component of gaming that the horror genre must rely on is control and artificial intelligence built into the mechanics of the game. Take it from any gamer’s experience: nothing pulls you out of a game faster than flawed A.I. and cumbersome button mashing. I mean, they are the bread and butter of any great game worth playing, and once you strip those elements away you’re left with an isolated experience that makes you second guess every in-game decision because of painfully apparent and unintentional fourth-wall breaks in the design.
A good example of this is the recently released Alien Isolation, an atmospheric, clam-hand inducing experience developed by The Creative Assembly and published by Sega—a company with a very checkered past with the Alien franchise. From the standpoint of storytelling and atmosphere, this game nails the deep seeded dread one would feel if left alone on a space station with a bloodthirsty xenomorph.
But along the way the game falls short of wrapping the player in the atmosphere it attempts to create due to the xenomorph’s artificial intelligence. From moment to moment the game exudes fear, but given long enough, the random encounters created by the slick and slippery alien’s A.I. could cause it to descend upon you just as quickly as it left minutes before, leaving you not cowering in fear and a pool of your own urine, but puzzled as to why the game would allow such an immensely important and fearful sequence to play out over and over again, giving the player no room to catch their breath and plan for the next encounter. It’s a balance that must be met from both ends of the spectrum and any great horror game—matter of fact—any good game in general has a great balance of elements.
Final Thoughts
So what am I trying to say here? Well, the horror genre is a funny thing. Like I said, it plays on emotion—an innate fear of something at our core. Scary movies are one thing: two-dimensional representations of a 3D experience meant to frighten us for a short amount of time. But horror games are a completely different beast—they are in fact interactive and only persist as long as the player is willing to take part. The field is filled with different layers of fear-based gameplay. Genre defining games like the Dead Space series and The Last of Us (more loosely) ask us to dig into the morality of their worlds, at a deeper level than movies, to surround ourselves in places we wouldn’t normally want to interact with. Coupled with great gameplay mechanics and these two franchises have garnered lofty praise from the gaming community. As for me, I’m still waiting for a choose-your-own-scare, genre bending type of game akin to the R.L. Stein books from my childhood. But hey, those are just my thoughts on a genre.
Big week, as PAX East 2014 happened and we are bringing you some of the news highlights after what we saw over the last several days. Nintendo news? Got it. Games we’re excited for? You’re damn right we talk about them. Also, we recap Episode 2 of Doctor Who, “Into the Dalek”, a little Houdini talk, and some exciting cover announcements from DC and Marvel comics in the coming weeks. It’s Episode 7 of PALS Podcasts!
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