Poor game mechanics: swinging

I recently bought a pile of used games for the original Xbox. One of the games was the comic-based XIII. I had been looking forward to play this game mainly because of its distinctive visual style. So I played a few levels and while I wasn't stunned or anything but I thought the game was a mediocre shooter. Then came a part where I was supposed to use a grappling hook for the first time.

First of all the instructions the game gave we're really poor so at first I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Eventually I figured how to choose to grappling hook from the inventory. So I fired the hook to the spot it was supposed to and I climbed (or more like reeled with this really slow dumbass device) up. Then I thought I have to jump from the rope and I can grab a ledge that was in front of me. So I jumped and dropped to the ground and died. So I watched a loading screen. Another try with the same method. Dead again. Loading screen again. Then I figured maybe i should go all the way to the top of the rope so I can jump from a better angle. Well I couldn't go all the way to the top (I have no idea why) but I went as high as possible and saw the roof where I was supposed to go below me. So I jumped. Dead. Loading screen. So I tried a new approach. I climbed high and started to swing on the rope and jumped while the swing was at the apex. You guessed it. Dead on the ground again. So I said fuck it and turned off the Xbox. The final method I tried was probably the right one but I somehow managed to fuck it up too. I'm not very likely to spin that disc again.

This is just a very simple example of bad game mechanics of a really simple task in the game itself. On top of that the game didn't bother to give me good instructions so I tried all the normal approaches and everyone of them failed. This reeling or whatever isn't fun at all nor does it play a crucial part of the game. So why make a mundane on boring task fucking hard and even give a possibility for the player to die in a situation like that?

Another example of a bad swinging mechanics is Call Of Juarez. I died like ten times before I got the hang of swinging with a whip. And while I was supposed to be learning this I was constantly being shot. Pretty fun eh? And even when I know how to actually use the whip to swing it's still not fun. Also you have to stand in some very special distance to the object you're trying to swing from to activate the mechanic. Even though the whip clearly reaches the object from a considerably longer distance. And the fucking loading screen again every time you fail the swing. Goddamn!

Lego Indiana Jones and Bionic Commando actually manage to make swinging fun. Two very different approaches to the swinging but are both easy and smooth to execute. In Lego Indiana Jones you just have to stand in a right spot and press one button and there! You just executed a swing with a whip. Bionic Commando's mechanic is more challenging but it's still easy because you have an auto-aim for the spots you can grab and you can grab them from a varied distances. I mean if you can't make a game mechanic fun or valuable to the experience somehow then don't fucking implement it! I could have easily played happily through XIII without thinking "boy does this game need a swinging mechanic really bad".

Some observations of GTA IV

Last mission of GTA IV really ruined the whole game for me. Basically the game differs from the previous entries of the series by being more "realistic" and toned-down. And most of the missions are pretty believable (in the context obviously) where you drive to some place and kill somebody etc. But then the last mission just says "fuck it" to all of this. You follow some car for 10 minutes, you kill a hundred guys at some warehouse, you follow a boat with a dirtbike, you jump to the helicopter from a ramp, you duck rockets from the boat, you crash land the helicopter, and finally you get to kill the boss guy. I mean just what the fuck is this? Did they seriously say at some mission design meeting "Okay this is the last mission so let's just fuck the whole mood of the game and really make it as shitty action movie-like as possible". I would have loved to hear that discussion.

I really enjoyed playing GTA IV until that final mission. Obviously the game could have been more versatile and customizable but that really didn't bother me since I wasn't really into San Andreas at all. Allthough San Andreas was ruined by the hardware limitations of the last console generation. It could have been great but now it was just blah. But anyways I never forget to mention the shittiness of the ending when someone asks me about GTA IV. Nor do I recommend the game to anyone. It probably wouldn't be so annoying if the mission would have been put somewhere in the middle of the game. But being the last one it's the mission that leaves the final impression of the game and totally stains it.

I also don't like this DLC or downloadable content thing. I'm not ever going to buy a single add-on from Xbox marketplace (well I'm not putting my foot down on this one..). Basically it's a nice concept but the problem is that I like to actually physically own the product. And besides what happens if someone hacks into Microsoft's database and deletes some accounts or fucks it up somehow. Or someone just makes a human error that alters the information somehow. Everything you've bought just vanishes and you lost your money. So no thanks! I'll just have to wait until they release both of the DLC's for GTA IV on a disc sometime next fall. If I somehow manage to remember that I actually had some fun playing GTA IV..

Thoughts on environment "twist"

There's one design choice that really annoys me in most videogames. This happens in good games as well, but usually it is implemented a little differently from the bad ones. I am talking about the environment "twist" that will eventually happen (usually about 60-70 percent of the game walkthrough).

Let's use Bionic Commando as an example of this. This happens in a lot of games but Bionic Commando is still fresh in my mind. During the first half of the game you are gradually given all of your abilities. Some of these include throwing or punching objects from the levels at the enemies with your bionic arm. So you get used to using this method of taking down enemies when you want to preserve ammunition. Boxes, rocks and other stuff like this is scattered around the levels pretty generously at first.

Then at some point you'll start to get in to these "miniboss" fights where you're fighting regular soldiers and 2 or 3 different kinds of biomechas at once. So at first you have the boxes and stuff lying around so you can use them to take the mechas down. But as the game progresses suddenly when you meet these biomechas there just isn't anything to throw at them. This is frustrating as hell. Not because it's overwhelmingly difficult, but because now the game tells me how to play. So I can't choose my tactics anymore because my only option is to duck their attacks and try to attack their backs and wait for some heavy weaponry to drop from the sky in a pod. This feels unfair and it's like the designers are artificially raising the difficulty level. And it just isn't fun when one of your attack tactics gets taken away.

And you really can't even explain these with the environment design or something. This starts to happen in somekind of Harbour and Oil Rig levels. So there really isn't any boxes or other shit in real harbours? And it's really great that the levels are filled with all sort of pipes and ventilators and who knows what but you just can't grab them. I mean really? Why the fuck can't I grab anything small enough and rip it out with my bionic arm and then thrown it against the enemy?

Bottom line, JUST DON'T FUCKING DO THIS EVER AGAIN!

Random thoughts about games part 1

Is it just me or do modern games feel like they're just not quite refined as they should be. I really don't recall ever thinking that Deus Ex, Baldur's Gate or Diablo are lacking something. But now the thought pops up while playing just about any game. This lack of refinement can be seen in the amount of bugs but also in bad design choices. Some games don't know what they want to present the player with and some just mix as much stuff as possible together and suck at every part.

Let's take Mirror's Edge. The main concept of running around in and on tall buildings is cool as hell and different. But they decided to add a half-assed combat system that just isn't fun. So now even the basic running parts aren't all that fun because you're constantly being shot at and just waiting when is the next MANDATORY fighting sequence going to come along. This was really a game I wanted to like, but sadly it's just bad. And the most annoying part is that I can't help but to think how awesome this game could have been.

The only games that seem to be consistent are racing games. Take GRID or Sega Rally or PGR 4 or whatever but they are what they are from the beginning to the end. Not once have i thought that GRID would be better if it had like explosions and some quicktime events and some sexy dialogue. It's consistent so even if some parts are weaker than others they really don't stand out and it offers a wholesome experience.

Don't get me wrong, there has always been bad games but the difference is that now there are really bad prestige and AA-class games. And usually the concept of the game is great, but then it's just fucked up during the design and implementation. It reminds me of the movie industry and the serious emergence of independent movies from 60's onwards. I think there is a similar trend going on with games at the moment.

I guess we're living in a phase where videogames are evolving in their cultural and business context. It's like the business part forces games to be published unfinished and not fully thought through and the developers aren't really artistically ambitious enough to fight back. Hopefully this will be just a phase that can be set aside in the future. In the end it would be best for everybody that games would realize their full potential.

Bionic Commando

I just finished playing through the new game from Capcom called Bionic Commando. I'm sure you've heard about it so I'm not gonna go into any details. I purchased it right at the day of its release and got a cool Bionic Commando action figure with it yay! I usually don't buy games when they come out but rather wait a few months so I can get them cheaper. I am a student still so the money isn't really flowing. I did make an exception with this one since I got it at a great trade offer.

First impressions of the game were very positive. The menus look awesome and set the tone right from the start. About eighty percent of the game is really fun but the last twenty started to feel a little forced. The greatest and hardest bossfight comes right at this interval. The real bossfights of the game are boring and uninteresting and really not that hard. But this giant robot worm is really a stand-out point in the game. And propably the thing I'll remember first when I'll reminiscent this game somewhere in the distant future. The game also features two pretty useless parts. These are of course the plane-hopping and vulture-hopping parts of the game. They feel kind of out of place and are really uncalled for. So maybe the team should have spent the time implementing these to seriously improve the level design and the save-system.

Also I'm not really sure Mike Patton was the right choice for the voice of Spencer. I mean I really like Patton and he did a great job on The Darkness, but he comes off a bit weird in this game. It's like they didn't really tell him what they wanted from the character. Now Spencer sounds like a weird-funny-angst-filled teen or something where as everyone else (except the ridicilous german accent of Groeder) sound pretty convincing. So the contrast is quite striking.

All in all the game is pretty good but it's in no way awesome. It could have been much better but then again I really wasn't expecting a lot so it was a fun experience. On a scale of 1-to-fuckinghypercool this is a solid 8.