Category: Viewpoints

After the Xbox One X’s showing at E3, it seems quite a few people are eager for Sony to (now) show off the PS5. Whether this is because they want a new experience or they just want Sony to have the most ‘powerful console’ on the market again, I’m not sure. Just so you know, I’m not eager for their next console at all. Yes, the inevitable rumors to come may seem exciting, but this urgency to surge forward to the next-generation of consoles is shaping the attitude of its consumers.

Ever since the release of the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube, there has been an exponential growth in the video game industry; distributing new game titles and expanding on old ones. Soon enough, video games were not just for stress-free fun anymore, it became a market, a race, a business.

Just take a glance at developers investing their titles on a specific video game console. Both companies invest in one another to produce more capital. Even now, most Facebook games operate on a pyramid scheme which prevents a player from advancing unless they recruit their friends and family. Therefore it is no surprise that we have already begun because it serves as a bridge to rapid consumerism; creating a new wave of gamers that are impatient and greedy.

More so, the gaming community itself is empowering this which generates a factual hearsay; turning inklings into truths. 2017 is not even over and we’re already hearing that some gamers are clamouring for the PS5 – do you really want another console right now? Seriously? All of this sounds too familiar, like a scandal excerpt running aghast across cashier aisles; displaying the same gossip on different magazines.

Another thing: when I look at my current library of games to complete, I’m pretty shocked at the sheer number of them. There are some that will take weeks to complete, some even months, that’s not to mention quite a few of these have DLC on top of the base game. I’ve spent a lot of money on these games… they need to be completed before I move on. It’s just a waste of money if I don’t finish them. Surely there are many people in a similar position?

As for the next generation of consoles, they can can wait. 2017 already has a wonderful lineup for new video games to come. So relax, the consoles we have now should suffice for a good while yet. Patience is a virtue, and instead of leaning towards the precipice to catch a glimpse of what’s ahead, everyone should take a step back, slow down, and enjoy the present view. It’s quite pretty.

What do you think? Are you ready for the next wave of consoles? Or is it too soon?

Sometimes it is freeing to lay down on soft soil and gaze at the ever-expanding universe above; feeling all the stress unwind from our bones and evaporate into the midst of the night. Granted, such an event is peaceful and relaxing, but busy people often deprive themselves of such natural gratification. Some might even find it outlandish and bizarre that their fellow men and women cluster stars and label them after mythical creatures. But who can blame their dry logic? Yet, matching a gaze across the eternal abyss is not the only method in relaxation. There are so many others…

Yes, here are some video games that relax your senses. Break free from those cigarette breaks, and just pick up one of these titles. Your GABA (a chemical in the brain that induces relaxation and helps eliminate stress) receptors would be very grateful.

Ecco the Dolphin

Published by Sega, developed by Novotrade International, and released in 1992, this game provides a vibrant mesh of the 90’s color palette. There is already another dolphin game on this list (HINT: it is also set under the ocean) and I seriously considered if I should add Ecco the Dolphin, but this game is just too brilliant not to add on this list. So voila! Going back to the color scheme, at times it may look pretty harsh to the eyes – it is from the 90’s – but overall Ecco the Dolphin’s gameplay would unease and relax the high-strung mind.

The main protagonist is a bottle-nosed dolphin, Ecco. Players will plunge into the ocean using Ecco as he traverses the depths, looking for the root of the storm that killed his fellow sea friends. Feel free singing to fellow clams and other sea creatures, and back-flipping in the air to your heart’s content.

Pokémon Snap

What is it with me and Pokémon? No, what is it with us and Pokémon? Ever since Nintendo announced that we can collect and pocket our own monsters, everyone jumped the wagon. It became a global addiction-pandemic, and that is why a Pokémon game is on this list, just for the sake that it has caused a macro obsession… right?

With that said, Pokémon Snap takes home the cake for its peace-loving ways. What is so different about Pokémon Snap is its method of catching Pokémons. Instead of enslaving these creatures, Pokémon Snap uses a camera to capture images of them in their natural state. My heart flutters whenever I snap a picture of Butterfree, I can almost empathize with the Pokémon as it quietly exclaims its liberty that it is free from buttery human hands. And yes, our hands are buttery, okay maybe not butter, but our skin produces natural oil (Sebum) to keep us moisturized.

Blueberry Garden

Winner of the Seumas McNally Grand Prize for ‘Best Independent Game’, at the 2009 Independent Games Festival, scoots in Blueberry Garden. It also won ‘Best Innovation’ for the 2008 Swedish Game Awards. Alas, this delectable montage of awesomeness is developed by Erik Svedäng, and personally, I feel that its soundtrack made Blueberry Garden even livelier. If it were not for Daduk’s composing prowess, this game would have been just another independent game amongst Steam’s stockpile of undeserving games.

If you want to soar through the sky and forget about your worldly troubles, then pick up Blueberry Garden, because when a game does not bother you with its plot and you find yourself playing it regardless, then it must be doing something right. I, for one, did not even get vexed about where I had to go, I just solved puzzles left and right as I led Mr. Pelican-Man through lavender skies and gentle grounds. I also remember dying in this game, and man, they made drowning look like he was sleeping on a tempur-pedic mattress.

flOw

Developed by Thatgamecompany, Jenova Chan and Nicholas Clark originally released flOw as a free flash game in 2006, which I vaguely remember playing back then. Fast forward to 2007, flOw was made available for the PS3, and later on SuperVillain adapted the game and released it for the PlayStation Portable as well in 2008. The free flash version received 100,000 downloads within the first two weeks. Such hits would only mean that flOw is definitively breathtaking or utterly stupid; good thing it’s the former.

Back in the hay days when Nokia phones were shaped like block-sized adapters, there was once a game that thrived within that cellular phone, and it was Snake. The simple concept of Snake is emulated by flOw. In the game, the player starts off as a molecular snake-like parasite – a very tiny one. Once he or she scoffs down other parasites in the cytoplasm, his or her parasite grows another segment; elongating the body until the player ceases to stop playing the game itself. Ultimately, you are the main predator in the game and everything else is prey, and without having to worry about other opposing adversaries, flOw makes for a very relaxing game.

Spore

Usually in most video games (especially in RPGs), they give players a lot of room for customizing their characters, from lime-green beards to ice-blue cataract eyes. But I feel there is always a limit with just accessorizing these characters with physical attributes, a true customization should start from the very root of life: the cell.

Published by Electronic Arts, Spore gives us that option. Now, players have the ability to develop their own species in the infinitesimal biological level. There are five stages in the game: the Cell stage, the Creature stage, the Tribal stage, the Civilization stage, and the Space stage. Each stage has a specific objective, and players must complete this objective in order to advance to the next evolution. Unlike previous games in this list, Spore has a main goal, and that is to reach a super massive black hole and obtain the “Staff of Life”. In the back of my mind, I am starting to think this game is really fitting for anyone suffering from delusions of grandeur or god complexes, then I chuckle to myself because in the end, everyone wants to be their own God one way or another.

You can look forward to more ‘Games that Relax Moods’ in Part II coming soon! Which games relax you reader?

Many gaming communities pride themselves on being “inclusive”. While one can endlessly discuss what that term actually means, I have to chosen to focus on a certain type of inclusiveness: game accessibility – the one that should be way more evident than it actually is. With a quick search on Google, there is no reason to doubt the existence of articles and websites that offer information and measures on accessibility in games. However, I personally was not aware of how extensive this issue was. If you’re in the same boat as me, I encourage you to continue reading.

Recently, a friend showed me a YouTube video of Naughty Dog, PlayStation, and Josh Straub, one of the spokespersons for gamers with disabilities, talking about some of the efforts being made in the video game industry – it was essentially about how these small achievements make a huge difference for these gamers.

“What developers need to realize is that these games do more than just entertain the disabled. First of all, they provide an escape from the doldrums of being disabled. And second of all, they provide a social space where instead of being judged by physical appearance we’re purely judged by the action that we do and the things we produce in the game.” – Josh Straub.

Since there are so few gaming companies out there that don’t acknowledge the problem that not everybody can play their games, I believe there are more people out there like me who are not aware of this.

According to PR Newswire, 20% of casual gamers, that means one in five, have a mental, physical or developmental disability. Keep in mind, we are talking about disabilities ranging between bipolar, dyslexia, blindness, broken arm, and cerebral palsy – in other words, when they made this survey, they had a very wide grasp of the word “disability”. Either way, I still think it is important to acknowledge any type of disability, as it affects in a larger aspect how exactly we perceive games.

An example could be the development of virtual reality, which is a major step forward in the gaming world. However, when we think about the accessibility of said VR, it is not that big of a step. There are many who aren’t able to try this revolutionary way of gaming because of a disability rendering them unable. Furthermore, this does not just apply to this new way of playing games, but also the traditional way too. While this is a subject that one could write a dissertation about, I only choose to highlight some important points.

According to the PR Newswire survey, games relieved disabled gamers of stress, it lifted their mood, and served as a distraction from issues related to the disability. It also functioned as a way to improve concentration and mental workout – each benefit varied from the type of disability. Upon acknowledging the fact that we all live different lives, have different life stories, we therefore obviously play games for different reasons. While many non-disabled gamers might relate to the same benefits of playing a game, and perhaps play games for the same reasons, I think it is important to acknowledge the fact that the same source of outlet has a major difference in accessibility.

“When I turn on a game like Uncharted, I’m not confined to a wheelchair. I’m a swashbuckler treasure hunter like Nathan Drake. That brief period of escape is why accessibility is so crucial, because the more games that offer that, the more people with disabilities will be able to escape and have better lives.” – Josh Straub.

Slowly, but surely, more developers are starting to listen. In a dialogue with Straub, Naughty Dog and PlayStation took what they heard into careful consideration, and started to introduce some important changes. Keep in mind that these are only a few of the many changes they introduced:

• They added a color-blind mode in the multiplayer section of the game
• The camera has lock-on features – this focuses on using only one joystick controller
• Upon pressing down one button, the game will act as though you are pushing it down repeatedly

Naughty Dog should be proud of themselves for stepping forward as a role model when it comes to accessibility, making games available for as many gamers as possible. This goes to show how some video game developers are able to be considerate of their audience, by working towards the goal that every player should receive the same gaming experience. While there are still a lot of developers that could do a lot better in this regard, it’s good to take what we can get at the moment, and help bring the discussion into the light.

In my opinion, the fact that huge gaming companies that work alongside Naughty Dog do not talk loudly enough about this angers me. It creates an unnecessary unfairness that wasn’t meant to be there in the first place. 

As more game developers take into consideration the fact that people require different means of accessibility, the inclusiveness of the gaming community will expand. I think that with the right attitude and awareness, the goal is easily achievable. With further development, games will be available to a wider audience – everybody wins. We would thrive on a community where everybody receives an equal gaming experience. There are so many fantastic games out there: let’s include everybody in the fantastic world that is video games. I will never take for granted the opportunity I have to play any game, however I want, ever again.

You can read more about why and how accessibility matters here. You can also find the AbleGamers Foundation’s Game Accessibility Guidelines here.

FIFA is finally coming back to a Nintendo home console. Yes, it’s been a long time Nintendo fans, just about five years to be exact. After FIFA and Madden both sold poorly for the Wii U, EA sports pulled support for the console. That was all the way in 2012, but with the recent release of the Nintendo Switch, EA is giving it another go. This time they’re taking a more cautious route, and are only releasing FIFA 18 for the Switch. Which honestly looks like EA is taking a test run with the console this year, and the downgraded version of FIFA they’re about to release shows just that.

With the announcement of FIFA for the Switch came a decent amount of anticipation from sports gamers, who are looking for a quality sports gaming experience on the go. But, it did not take long for the bad news to start leaking out. Literally a couple of hours after the Switch version was announced there was a rumor that it was just a port of the 360/PS3 versions of the game (thank god that turned out to be false.) Secondly, came the news that the game will NOT run on the Frostbite engine like the Xbox One and PS4 versions do. Instead, FIFA 18 for the Switch will use a “custom-made” engine to adapt with Switch’s different methods of play.

This is concerning. FIFA for the Xbox One and PS4 didn’t even start feeling like a “Next-Gen” soccer experience until they upgraded the engine for FIFA 17. So, straight off the bat, FIFA for the Switch is not only going to look worse (as expected) but play dramatically worse as well. The Frostbite engine upgraded the visuals, the AI, the ball and player physics, the atmosphere, the look of the pitch, etc. The ‘switch’ from the Ignite engine to the Frostbite engine really has changed the game of FIFA for the better. Also, the Frostbite engine was able to run on the Xbox 360 and PS3, which the Switch is clearly more powerful than. Now, obviously the Xbox One/PS4 version of Frostbite EA is using couldn’t work on the 360 and PS3, but the fact that Frostbite could run on the 360 and PS3 just shows how scaleable that engine is. So why can’t it run on the Switch? Just some food for thought.

Thirdly, the Switch version of FIFA 18 will not have the game mode called “The Journey.” Which is a cinematic story mode where you take control of a young teenager, named Alex Hunter, and guide him through the English Premier League. While I was not a fan of this mode, and thought it was essentially just a rip off of the movie Goal: The Dream Begins, I won’t deny its wide appeal. EA says this mode is linked exclusively to the Frostbite engine, so it wont be on the Switch version. Well….. my question for EA is: why not? If you can make a custom build of the whole base game and all its other modes for the Switch, why can’t you guys do the same thing for the “The Journey” as well? This just makes EA look lazy or too scared to put money into the Switch version of the game.

Lastly, and my main concern for the game, is how it actually plays. I started playing the series back with FIFA 14 on the Xbox One, and I can tell you, gameplay is all that really matters. I was hopeful with their new custom-built engine that they were going to keep the action on the pitch as close to the Xbox One/PS4 versions as they possibly could, but from what I’ve been reading from the E3 demos, that does not seem to be the case. Gameplay is king, and if FIFA 18 on Switch really does play like the 2014-2016 Xbox One/PS4 versions, then unfortunately I will not be buying this version of the game. Which is a shame, because if FIFA 18 sells poorly on the Switch, it would not surprise me to see EA pull the product from the console. Just like they did with the Wii U and Vita versions.

Just to be clear, I would never expect FIFA 18 on the Switch to be a like-for-like with the Xbox One and PS4 versions. The Switch just isn’t powerful enough for that. But, that shouldn’t give EA permission to put out a half-assed product. This puts Nintendo fans in a hard spot because if they don’t buy this version of FIFA for the Switch, then they might never get another version of the game. I own a Switch and an Xbox One, I’ve considered buying both versions of the game to support the Switch. But, for the same price point of $60 for the Switch and Xbox version, I cannot justify spending the same amount on a much lesser version.

So, Nintendo and FIFA fans, what are your thoughts on FIFA 18 for the Switch? Will you be picking it up or will you not support it at all? Let me know in the comments down below!

If there’s one thing I have a habit of doing, it’s not finishing my games before moving onto the next. It’s something that I’ve never really thought of before, but I recently cast my thoughts to my pile of shame. Being honest, we all have one, some larger than others, but we’re all guilty of leaving one or more games unfinished. When I look at mine, there are some games on there that you wouldn’t expect either; GTA V, The Witcher 3 and Mass Effect 3 to name but a few.

So why is it? Why can’t I finish a game before moving onto the next? When you look at the three that I’ve mentioned, it’s clearly not because of their lack of quality, so what could it be? The common denominator for those three would be that they are all games with long stories and feature many hours worth of gameplay before reaching a conclusion. With that in mind, are they too long and are other games for that matter?

Now this is probably a question that isn’t asked too often when we see far too many games that don’t overstay their welcome. But with that in mind, is a game that lasts between 50-100 hours as off-putting for some as those that last 10 hours? Dedication of time to gaming is something I suspect most gamers will struggle with these days, and some games can feel disjointed if not played continuously. There’s nothing worse than playing a game and coming back to it at a later date and not knowing what’s going on, (agreed, ed). So is that the problem; is there not enough draw in games these days to keep you hooked to the end?

Think of it this way: how many games share a similar control scheme or share the same mechanics? A number of games lend ideas from one another, giving the industry an air of familiarity regardless of the genre. You need to feel lost when starting a new game to keep you learning how to play it, so if you start a game with a sense of familiarity, your interest levels are bound to drop.

I recently started playing Horizon Zero Dawn (I know I’m way behind here) and since starting it, I’ve never once felt comfortable. By that I mean I have a constant sense of anxiety when entering a new area of the map; I never feel like I have the upper hand over the mechanical beasts. Robotic animals and dinosaurs are something new, something we’ve never seen before so require different tactics to overcome.

This is what keeps us coming back to a game, not one that has rinse and repeat enemies whose design took less than five minutes to finalise. I can honestly say Zero Dawn is one of my favourite IPs on any console to date and it’s not just any old open world game. I could easily forgo other games until I finished it, and there are a number of other games out there that could fight for a spot in the disc drive.

That in itself is a problem – look how many games get crammed into the same release calendar at any one time. If you look in particular at the holiday season, everyone fights to be the number one seller at Christmas. Of course, games need to generate revenue but surely a game needs to be launched to give people enough time to savour it? I don’t think enough games launch over the course of the infamous ‘summer drought’, which would be a perfect time to give people exposure to a new title.

The selection of games we have to choose from isn’t a complaint as such, it’s great to see so many, but I think we only suffer as a result. I love getting excited about new games just like the next guy, but I always question when I’m going to fit them in given that games are getting longer and longer.

Just look what we have coming out from October onwards; Assassin’s Creed Origins, Shadow of War, Super Mario Odyssey and Crackdown 3 to name but a few. These are all games I want to play, and will at some stage, but it’s impossible to have them all going on at any one time. So this, most of all, is the main reason why I don’t think we complete games as often as we used to before moving on.

Having new games is great, but they need to be released to give us, the gamers, enough time to enjoy them to their fullest. It’s no surprise that many opt to wait for games to drop in price before picking them up, which is a shame, as this does not support the developers as much as we should be able to.

What do you think reader? Let us know in the comments below, if you please.

It’s hard to argue whether or not final bosses are necessary in video games today. They’ve been a part of gaming for so long that they’re essentially the modus operandi in the overall design of video games.  It’s always about getting to that final boss and rejoicing at the sight of rolling end credits; as they slowly roll down the screen you reminisce about your tantalizing journey and everything it took to take that sucker down. It’s a great feeling but as innovation continues to grow in the gaming industry, the whole “final boss” complex seems tired and outworn. Especially when they’re not fleshed-out and come off as anti-climactic or uninspired.

Look at Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception.  You went through so many epic moments, from a burning chateau in the middle of France to falling out of a moving airplane and yet you’re greeted at the end with a less than impressive final boss that has you fist-fighting against Talbot, who isn’t even the main antagonist but a trusted henchman of Katherine Marlowe. It was bland and disappointing especially when the events prior to that confrontation were so larger-than-life and filled with adrenaline. Did Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception need a final boss or at least one in the traditional sense? Games these days quickly resemble Hollywood-like production values, Uncharted series is proof of this and their becoming more and more sophisticated as time goes on but they’re losing their touch with final bosses. Do we even need final bosses?

Portal 2 was a tour-de-force, combining laugh out loud scriptwriting with intuitive gameplay mechanics, it also had a simple yet hugely entertaining final boss that still resonates with me to this day. The reason why this final boss worked was because it had you use many of your acquired abilities that you have been using to get to this point and it remained relevant and consistent with the story. Not to mention it was uproariously funny to play.  Many games these days fail to reach this stage of quality because they usually, manipulatively, shoehorn a final boss at the climax just to make the gamer feel some sense of closure. We need more games that utilize the “final boss” sequence as not just a way to just end the game but to successfully conclude a story and involve the player in this experience.

Of course, some games organically require final bosses or else it just doesn’t “feel right”, a good friend of mine says that “a game like Metal Gear Solid without some sort of ending boss wouldn’t feel right.” Understandably so, games like Mario or top-down shooters stick to this formula because it’s a trend that has been established since the very beginning. A game without a final boss often gets criticized and accused of being a rushed game and it’s quite ludicrous. A game that closes with an ambiguous ending like the Coen’s Brothers’, No Country for Old Men or Sean Dirkin’s Martha Marcy May Marlene would be refreshing, and if done right, could be really impactful and far more meaningful than a dull, lifeless quick-time event.

Perhaps we’re not up to that stage yet where developers are ballsy enough to deviate from the exhausted formula but we’re getting there, slowly but surely. That’s not to say all final bosses this generation are bad, but I would like one day to see a different approach, a fresh new take on ending a story that makes me feel like I did something important and impactful. Whether it’s a game like Heavy Rain or Halo, it’s imperative that the game must end memorably and not end just because you reached the final stage.