Shopping for the mainstream gamer: 5 games they need to play.

‘Games’ by Ian Dick is licensed under CC BY 2.0

If you’re reading this, then it’s likely that you’re in the market for a gift to a close gamer friend or family member for the holidays or looking for something new to play. It’s also likely that you’re somewhat stumped as to what to buy for them, or what to play.

Now, I can only assume that you, or the person you’re shopping is fairly familiar with AAA games and the regular mainstream games we see on the shelves every year. (ie. Call of Duty, FIFA, Assassins Creed) It can be hard to break through the big releases we see on all the advertisements and the big shelves at the front of stores, but there are a plethora of titles hiding in the corner of GAME or deep in the bowels of Steam or PSN.

These are the top 5 games that I would consider must-plays due to their cultural significance and impact on gaming in general. Whoever you’re shopping for, these are games that are simply unmissable, and will help you or the person you’re buying for break out of the brown sludge that is the mainstream gaming space 😉

 

5. Paper’s Please.

Paper’s Please screenshot. (Taken by me)

It’s hard to sell Paper’s Please to someone. You play as a border control officer on the borders of a fictional communist state called Arstotzka. You are quite literally tasked with checking and approving the paperwork of citizens requesting passage into the country based on a series of ever increasing guidelines and papers as the country becomes even more wary and paranoid of terrorist activity.

There’s more to it than that, however. Making mistakes costs you money. Spending too long checking a person’s papers costs you money. Breaking the rules to help people in need costs you money. Your money heats and feeds a household housing your family. Or rather, it won’t depending on your performance, moral compass, and activity regarding the game’s terrorist group.

This game in an intelligent commentary on politics, the nature of morality in a video game and quite simply one of the most unique and surprisingly fun games I’ve ever played. Both harrowing and charming in its atmosphere paired with intelligent and witty writing culminate together to create a war ridden world that exists as a stark contrast to those we see in the likes of Call of Duty.

 

Paper’s Please:

Price: £6.99

PC/Mac/Linux (Can run on even the most ancient of computers) and coming soon to Playstation Vita. 

Where to buy: Steam 

 

4. The Stanley Parable

‘Stanley Parable at A MAZE. / Berlin 2014’ by Iwan Gabovitch is licensed under CC BY 2.0

What started out as a simple modification for Half Life 2 quickly became a cult classic. The Stanley Parable is as much a witty comedy as it is an in-depth look at the sillier tropes and mechanics in video games today.

You control an office worker named Stanley, and one day you find your workplace abandoned for no apparent reason. From there, the tiniest decisions you make regarding what you do, where you go and so on provide you with distinctly different story lines, each with their own things to say. As a narrator speaks to you, and narrates your every action, you’ll be confronted with some of the funniest, saddest, harrowing and inspirational moments a game could ever offer to you in one single package.

The Stanley Parable offers dozens of story lines and endings, and encourages multiple playthroughs. It’s hard to talk about without spoiling the genius of it all (And you certainly don’t want to be spoiled), but this is a game that just can’t be missed. I cannot recommend this game enough, this is hands down the smartest video game I’ve ever played. (If you can call it a video game, see here:)

 

The Stanley Parable:

Price: £9.99 (A free ‘demo’ is available. I recommend you check it out before playing) 

PC/Mac/Linux (A kind-of-decent laptop/computer necessary to play)

Where to buy: Steam

 

3. Transistor

Transistor Screenshot (Taken by me)

This is the most recent release to be on this list, but damn is it something worth playing. If you, or your gift recipient has shown even the slightest interest in sci-fi, this is a game for them.

In Transistor, you play as Red. An influential musician in the ambiguously located, sort-of virtual city of Cloud Bank. A political attack from a leading family of self proclaimed ‘royalty’ targets you, and many other culturally significant people with a race of artificial intelligence known as ‘The Process’.

Without spoiling too much, a personal attack on you leaves an unnamed friend or family member trapped in a weapon known as the ‘Transistor’ and Red’s voice in ruins. With this weapon, you embark on a mission to free the man in the Transistor, rescue the digital essences of dying civilians and stop the Process and their creators from destroying Cloud Bank.

It’s a vaguely told tale, to say the least. While the plot is most certainly a strength of the game, Transistor is all about presentation. Fantastic visuals, flawless art design and the best soundtrack I have ever heard in gaming ever. Fans of immersive sci-fi universes and beautifully composed electronic music will sink hours into Transistor, on their first, second and third playthroughs and beyond.

An expertly crafted combat system graces the plot and presentation, also. Created by Super Giant Games, you can expect similar gameplay to Bastion (Call that an honorable mention.) or Diablo. However, the game gives you the ability to freeze time and queue up movements and abilities that will be executed in sequence instantly. Not only this, but each of your abilities can be customized and combined with other abilities to construct entirely new moves.

(ie. Crash() is a melee move that leaves targets stunned and vulnerable and Breach() is a powerful ranged ability. Combined, Breach() can become an exceptionally strong ranged ability that leaves targets stunned, but loses some of its range in the process.)

Quite simply, Transistor is my GOTY (Game of the year) and should not go unplayed.

 

Transistor:

Price: £14.99 (And I highly recommend picking up the soundtrack for an extra £7.49 also)

PC/Mac/Linux and Playstation 4.

Where to buy: Here 

 

2. The Walking Dead: Season 1.

‘The Walking Dead Game Series on PSN’ by Playstation Europe is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Chances are, you’ve heard of The Walking Dead TV show. It’s also likely that you and/or your gift recipient have had at the very least a fleeting interest in the zombie genre at one point or another. It’s also VERY likely that anybody who spends a lot of their time watching people stream games on Twitch or Youtube has seen at least a snippet of an online personality playing (And probably unnecessarily screaming at) Telltale’s The Walking Dead.

Probably the most popular game on this list, The Walking Dead game deserves to be played. No, not watched. I don’t care if you watched someone play the entire game and/or season 2. No, watching a game being played is NOT the same as playing it, and you are everything that is wrong with the world.

*Eh hem*

The Walking Dead is a rather grim exploration into the realities of being a person in post-apocalyptic America. Surprisingly enough, this isn’t a game about the zombies; this is a game about the people you meet, talk to, protect, kill, live with, die with and so on. In The Walking Dead, you play as Lee. A criminal arrested for murder, you are set on a course for survival as fate sends you a little girl named Clementine to protect in a world beset by the undead.

This is a game about decisions. Who do you save? Do you kill them? How are rations distributed among your group? Who do you trust? Who trusts you? How will your actions make the people around you react to you? Do you tell the truth? Do you lie? Are you in it for yourself? Or do you protect the people you care most about? It’s not an easy game to play. For all of its basic gameplay mechanics, the challenge of choice can present more difficulty than any boss battle.

The Walking Dead may not be much of a ‘gamey’ game, but it is excellent. 2012’s game of the year was one that surprised many. The Walking Dead: Season 1 is a game that was in many ways a pre-cursor to the kind of emotionally impacting, zombie orientated story line you (probably) played in games like The Last of Us. And I’ve heard everybody wants more of that.

 

The Walking Dead: Season 1:

Price: £18.99 (On PC, prices will be different for console and mobile)

PC/Mac, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Playstation Vita, Xbox 360, Xbox One, iOS, Kindle Fire HDX, Android.

Where to buy: Location will vary depending on desired platform.

 

1. Spec Ops: The Line

Spec Ops: The Line by Joshua Livingston is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Spec Ops: The Line is a game even the most casual of shooter fans can play. It’s a simple, yet robust third person shooter with all of the necessary check boxes ticked in order to offer a functional shooting experience. Decent cover mechanics, challenging enemies and everything you’d need to lose yourself in some mindless violence.

‘Then why would you put this seemingly average game on your number one spot?’ you may be thinking to yourself. That’s a fair question, but believe me when I say: Spec Ops: The Line has the most important story to tell of any game of the last generation. There’s a point being made in its bland game mechanics, a harrowing message being put across about violence in gaming that all gamers need to at least be aware of.

Inspired by works such as Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now,  Spec Ops has you assume the role of a soldier known as Captain Walker. You are tasked with a recon mission into Dubai after a catastrophic sandstorm demolishes the city. What starts out as a fairly ordinary story of a squad searching for a surviving American Soldier known as Joseph Conrad amongst other things, turns into a horrifying exploration of humanity, morality and violence.

I know this all sounds like fluff, but I mean it when I say Spec Ops is more than anything a horror game: It delves deeply into the natures of morality in war, the relationship between player and character, the role and validity of a ‘hero’ in war and our desensitization to military violence in video games in ways that emulate the same psychological horrors found in the horror genre.

Specific scenes throughout the game made me realize just how unaffected we have become to violence in war, and made me feel physically sick at just how horrific war is. A particular scene had me put down the game for days, and made me feel personally guilty and responsible for an action I took during the game. If that’s not impactful, I don’t know what is.

Spec Ops is something you, your brother, your sister, your friends, even your dog if it can NEED to play. No video game story has ever been so relevant to the medium, and is especially relevant regarding the shooter loving crowd. If anything, buy this game for your friends and family just so you can watch their faces as they are taunted by the loading screens for being fans of the shooter genre. They may never pick up Call of Duty again, but I guarantee that they will love it.

At the very least; The ending will blow your mind 😉

 

Spec Ops: The Line

Price: £19.99 (On PC)

PC/Mac, Xbox 360, Playstation 3.

Where to buy: Steam, online retailers. (Game may be hard to find in stores)

CCP Games and the World of Darkness franchise.

Jeanette Voerman from Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Screenshot taken from in-game.

Before you ask, no. They don’t sparkle.

It’s bad enough that CCP Games (The developers of EvE Online) cancelled their World of Darkness MMO earlier this year after almost a decade of development and PR silence, but now they go and squash a fan-made effort to reinvigorate a much beloved game because it’s ‘breaching’ the terms of their ownership of an IP they’ve been sitting on for ten years now.

But before that, some context is necessary. Back in 2004, a modern day take on the vampire focused roleplaying universe of The World of Darkness was brought to us by Troika in the form of the game ‘Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines’. As broken and half finished as the game was, it’s arguably considered one of the most compellingly dark, harrowing, atmospheric, funny and well written universes ever brought to the RPG circle.

A cult following followed this game to the point where the game today has been supported so heavily by the modding community, that the game has essentially been bug fixed, finished and beyond by fans of the franchise. Even today, 10 years after release, you can expect to see the game in the ‘most popular’ category of every Steam Sale that includes the game in its list of price cuts. You can read more about the history of Troika, Vampire and the game’s 10 years of continued bug fixing and mod support right here.

So, as you might expect: Fans wanted more. After the dissolve of Troika. CCP games ended up acquiring the rights to video game depictions of the World of Darkness universe. It was announced they were to develop a massively multiplayer online game. While many rolled their eyes at this, the game promised a plethora of innovative features such as beginning the game as a human (Which had its own viable meta-game) with the option (Or lack if you find yourself within the gaze of a so inclined vampire) of turning.

World of Darkness screenshot from http://bit.ly/126v4mB.

Players were to choose from a multitude of bloodlines of kindred, each with their own traits, advantages and disadvantages, and players were to be the sole guiding star for the game’s rules and structure. For example, an elected player would exist as the ‘prince’ of a city, and with the aid of their player controlled advisers, would have been able to permanently execute players they found to be breaching their way of running things. The game would have essentially been a sandbox for player driven political disputes, Second Life-esque social mechanics and support and a world completely open to a player’s desires and aims in what they would have wanted out of a truly open World of Darkness.

As the years went on, we heard remarkably little about the MMO’s development. Some tech demos here, a brief interview there, even some leaked screenshots from time to time. Then, word of completely scrapped alpha builds, and multiple reboots of the entire project began to surface. Lay-offs and employees being diverted from the project to EVE Online began to occur. At the beginning of 2014, CCP expressed desire at taking deep inspiration for sandbox games such as Day Z and Rust, and we all thought that the project was still moseying along at its own steady pace. We were patient. It was the most innovative sounding game I’d ever heard of, and I was willing to wait. I had faith. And boy, was I wrong to keep clinging to the hope that it’d ever see the dark of night.

CCP announced earlier this year, that the project had come to a close. We were sad. The WoD and Vampire community unanimously expressed disappointment at the long-time-coming close to such an ambitious project. While I was angry, having waited so long with so little for nothing, I understood. It was TOO ambitious. Especially for a developer with an already ambitious MMO to sustain of such a small user-base as EVE. This was okay. (A brief history of the World of Darkness MMO can be found on Wikipedia here, and a more detailed look at the game’s rocky development can be found here.)

What wasn’t and isn’t okay? Sitting on an IP with no expressed intention to do anything with it. CCP still own all rights to the World of Darkness, and there seems to be no sign of intention to develop or sell the rights to other studios. There is popular demand for this theoretical spiritual successor to Vampire: The Masquerade, and nothing seems to be happening. Disappointed, many turned to fan-led creations. There, just for a little while, there seemed to be a glimmer of hope: Project Vaulderie.

 

Project Vaulderie Screenshot from http://bit.ly/1vSnHgk

A small group of people announced an ambitious recreation of Vampire: The Masquerade within the Unity engine. Graphical enhancements, more content, polished game mechanics and even a multiplayer mode in the same vein as the WoD MMO – albeit at a much smaller scope. While the project went along slowly, it showed promise. It had an audience, it had an increasing amount of contributors, and it had momentum.

Then it happened. Last week, CCP shut the project down.

‘It appears that Project Vaulderie is now engaging in the unauthorized creation, use, and sale of products bearing the name of CCP’s registered intellectual property, Vampire: The Masquerade, without any license, authorization or permission of CCP.’

Notice the use of ‘sale of products’. A free, fan creation for the fans CCP refuses to cater to, despite sitting on the rights to is being shut down. DESPITE the project not breaching these terms anymore than the hundreds of Vampire mods that already exist, CCP used legal scare tactics to shut the project down despite having absolutely no right to.

I am so angry about this blatant abuse of copyright. There is no legal backbone to this claim, and I would urge the developers of the project to dispute these claims if I didn’t understand the fear behind just a few loosely connected individuals challenging a company as large as CCP. It’s absolutely sickening that CCP would scare a small group of loyal fans into forfeiting a fan creation that they had every right to create and share with the world just because they own a franchise they apparently don’t want the world to play anymore.

I expect more games from the World of Darkness universe will surface should they still be wanted, but I don’t expect them soon. Once more, we as fans are expected to wait patiently, oh so patiently… Oh well. I only hope that other developers, AAA, indie or otherwise see this void left in the market by CCP and act accordingly. Then again, the last time I hoped for anything, I was not rewarded.

If anything, this situation represents a growing issue with the state of copyright and copyright holders regarding intellectual and creative properties today. Tomorrow, I will be writing about a growing, more open alternative: Creative Commons.

‘Walking simulators’ and effective game design.

“The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (4k)” by Gronkh is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

A new ‘genre’ of games has quickly arisen on the PC gaming space over the past few years, and has been the subject of much debate since its debut. The ‘walking simulator’.

It’s not clear what actually defines the walking simulator beyond extensive amounts of walking as a main gameplay mechanic, but the general consensus seems to be a game where there’s little to nothing to do, but walk and take in scenery, exposition and events you have little ability to interact with. The debate amongst gaming journalists is whether these ‘games’ can actually be considered part of the gaming medium.

“Dear Esther (2012)” by RMA2kay4 is licensed under CC by 2.0

The first game to spark these debates was Dear Esther. An indie game released in 2011 that originated as a mod for the Source Engine several years prior. The game revolves around a man with an unknown background making his way to a mountain in the middle of a mysterious island. You the player, guide this man around through different environments, finding items, places and other ‘things’ (No spoilers) whilst the protagonist spouts randomised exposition that differs every playthrough.

Aside from the game’s extremely ambiguous narrative that never really comes into its own (Or make sense), can it really be considered a good game? Or even a game? Does walking around in a 3-D space emulating an experience more like a novel or a film fall under the category of actual ‘gameplay’?

Put simply? It depends. In traditional terms, a game is defined by the existence of some kind of “fail state”. Which means that the ability to fail or lose the game is the key trait defining it as a part of the medium. Even this definition has sparked controversy, as many consider never reaching the end of Dear Esther (A game with no traditional fail state) as a fail state in of itself. Proteus and Gone Home are two similar ‘games’ in the genre that are worth checking out if only to help your understanding of the criticisms placed upon the ‘typical’ walking sim.

Two recent releases, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and The Stanley Parable do the walking sim in ways more deserving of the title ‘video game’, however and have been recognised as such by the gaming community as well.

“Stanley Parable at A MAZE. Berlin 2014” by Iwan Gabovitch is licensed under CC by 2.0

The Stanley Parable is an expertly written work of genius that exists to be a commentary on the gaming medium and all of its typical tropes. While there are no gameplay mechanics beyond walking and the occasional button press, it has numerous endings (Going into the double digits) with various types of ‘fail’ states depending on what you did what you were told by the narrator. The game gets away with its lack of mechanics by being almost a critique of the genre as well as itself.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter however, is a mystery game that most typically resembles Dear Esther with its forest based setting and beautiful aesthetic, but actually contains some complex gameplay mechanics within it. You are tasked with finding clues, using supernatural powers to put events into chronological order as well as myriad of different logic puzzles to undertake. Not only that, but it has a ‘fail state’ in that you can fail to uncover the entire plot if you fail to decipher clues and events correctly. Unlike the former mentioned, Ethan Carter manages to incorporate lots of walking in pretty environments as well as some complex game mechanics.

So, is the walking sim a genre of video game? If you were expecting a definitive answer, you’re not going to get one. It depends. Some of them are lazy, unimaginative and lacking in all things required to be a video game at all. Some of them, like Dear Esther are trying to be something beautiful, minimalist and artistic in their exclusion of typical game mechanics, but ultimately fall into a very difficult grey area of classification by doing so. And very few, the exceptional ones within the genre, manage to be games in their own right, as well as be classified as a walking simulator.

But even if it’s not a game, does it matter if you enjoyed ‘playing’ it?

Feminism in the game’s industry: Part 1

Rant time.

If you’ve been at all paying attention to some form of game’s journalism over the past few months, you may have heard a multitude of things regarding feminism in gaming. Articles ranging from how game developers need to make more female protagonists, to internet personalities being attacked and sent death threats over what many consider to be misandry (The male targeted equivalent of misogyny) and radical “feminazism”. While these people are wrong in the way they’re expressing their disdain for these feminist based views and are absolute scum for treating people this way under ANY circumstance; I see where they’re coming from.

This all started with a very influential internet personality: Anita Sarkeesian. She is well known for her videos dissecting the various sexist tropes towards women that exist within modern gaming. While she has maintained a large following for several years, the recent rise of awareness regarding feminism both in and out of gaming has garnered more attention than she would have liked. Sites dedicated to gaming news such as PCGamer, Kotaku and Destructoid have been posting articles quite firmly siding with her opinions for quite some time now, and while the journalistic gaming media are content in singing her praises, the majority of the non-journalistic gamers have responded VERY negatively to her views and the influence she will inevitably have on the gaming industry.

Why? You may be asking. The most prevalent criticism brought up by Sarkeesian and the media is the number of playable female protagonists in gaming and how they’re presented. Ubisoft holds much of the responsibility for this uproar having announced the lack of playable female characters in the upcoming Far Cry 4 and Assassins Creed: Unity. And while if main female characters were non-existent, or portrayed in a sexist manner, I would agree one hundred percent, but I ask you: How can you criticise a developer for choosing to create a story led by a male over a female any more than you can bash an author or director for doing the same? By telling developers that they’re in fact sexist for choosing male characters over female ones, you are not only trying to restrict a game studio’s creative freedom and integrity as well as their freedom of speech, but you are essentially turning the sexism cart right around on the male gender by saying that one gender is better than the other. That’s just wrong, no matter how you look at it.

“Bioshock Infinite” by jit is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

There are many female led games in the medium these days: Tomb Raider (2013), Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us, Mirror’s Edge, Alice Madness Returns, Bayonetta, Beyond: Two Souls, and dozens more. These are all games that have come out in the past 10 years that have important, if not playable, characters that are portrayed as strong, independent women who within their respective games, overcome any male antagonists they encounter. With the exception of Bayonetta (A character who’s independence and strength is directly tied to her sexuality and her use of it to manipulate male characters within the game), only Beyond and Tomb Raider feature any form of sexual violence or abuse or in fact, anything of sexual nature, and these games are restricted to single scenes.

In fact, Tomb Raider’s implied rape scene ultimately ends in being a completely non-sexual murder scene that the player can respond to and prevent. Beyond’s attempted rape scene is a consequence of player choice that is ultimately portrayed realistically and gives the subject matter the respect it deserves, as it is shown to scar and damage the protagonist’s potential sexual advances with her partner later on in the game. Anita even states in her videos that sexual abuse of this nature is okay to use if it is used as a main theme or plot point to be explored by the main game if portrayed realistically and respectfully and not as a throw away prop – But more on that later.

It makes even less sense as to why developers are being labeled as sexist regarding their character choices when you take the settings and themes of these respective games into account. Assassins Creed: Unity is a game about assassins in the French Revolution. A time period where women still lacked the same basic human rights that men had, a time where women would be viewed as unworthy even by the self proclaimed “freedom fighters” because of the time period the game is trying to accurately replicate and represent. Far Cry 4 has less of an excuse, I admit, but the main themes of the franchise involve the use of male power fantasies and violence, their place and effect on mental health and morals in real life scenarios. And I firmly believe this is a kind of narrative device that could NOT be replicated with a female protagonist. If anything, Far Cry is sexist in capitalizing on a male stereotype that men desire to be violent, dominating and want nothing more than to hold power over others.

Ultimately, I disagree with the belief that there are “too many” male game characters. No developer should have to sacrifice their creative freedom and potentially compromise a game’s quality because they are bound by the need to be “diverse”. No. I believe that there is room in the industry for more powerful female characters in gaming. That’s for damn sure. Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite is one of my favorite characters in all of gaming. A princess-trapped-in-a-tower stereotype rescued by a man, only to transcend her vulnerability to ultimately become the most powerful being in the universe. A clever, inspiring use of something that should have been nothing more than a sexist cliche that laid the foundation for an amazing character and narrative. MORE female characters does not, and should not mean “in place of male characters”. There is room in the industry for more female driven games without compromising or binning the iconic and amazing male led franchises we already have. While I see Sarkeesian’s and many others point in this matter, I do believe that they are failing to see the bigger picture regarding both gaming and feminism in general.

In my next article, I will continue to comment on Sarkeesian’s videos. I will be moving from the most popular view on gaming feminism she has put across to the most controversial: The use of women as background decoration in gaming, and why her video represents a growing trend of a very narrow minded form of women-only feminism.