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September 16, 2005
Art and Gaming
It's Friday and I'ma write about video games. Anyone who has a problem with that is invited to bite me hard.
Anybody who pays attention to gaming media outlets has seen the massive hype campaign over Shadow of the Colossus. The game, which comes out Tuesday, is from the same team that made Ico which was a big-time sleeper hit, and has been wideley praised by gamers with a taste for the artistic. SotC looks very much like it will continue in the Ico mold.
Basically, the story involves some guy who has to go around and kill some number of really big beasties in order to save some girl. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Where it gets interesting is in the presentation. The game is absolutely gorgeous. The expansive, beautifully rendered environments are totally engrossing, and the utter majesty of each colossus imparts a measure of tragedy into every victory.
There are innovative elements to the gameplay, as well. Given how big your quarry is, most of the game is spent figuring out how to fell each behemoth. Also, to tide gamers over until the new Zelda comes out, there looks to be rather a lot of horseback combat.
All of that said, it doesn't take much time hands-on time with the game before you realize that the gameplay is very much in service to a greater artistic vision. In part, that's a roundabout way of saying that a lot of gamers are going to be very bored by this game. Maybe not even so much bored as just generally put off by
This is significant, since it points to the development of an almost avant-garde movement in games. It started when console technology first allowed developers to incorporate greater cinematic elements into their games (Metal Gear Solid being the clear paradigm here). But now as they're squeezing the last bits of muscle out of current generation platforms and gearing up for the next-gens, the movement is towards putting gaming elements into the cinemas. What's important to notice, however, is that instead of pushing games back to a fully action-oriented model, the trend has been to stake out a third way where cinema and and gameplay are almost completely integrated. SotC is very much at the leading edge of this trend. As are Capcom's wildly divisive Killer 7, and (I hope) Indigo Prophecy.
Naturally there will always be shoot-em-ups, and beat-em-ups, and racing games, but with the way things are going now in the twilight of the PS2/Xbox and the impending next-gen, there's a lot to be excited about as gaming stakes a legitimate claim to being a form of artistic expression.
Other Gaming Stuff
Speaking of next-gens, I can't think of too many things in this world that I hate as much as the recently unveiled controller for Nintendo's Revolution. Wow. The more I read, the more I become filled with hate.
It's worth pointing out how awesome a release day next Tuesday will be, with SotC, Indigo Prophecy, and We ♥ Katamari all set to drop. Too bad I can't play any of them until after I take the damn LSAT on October 1.
Lastly, GameTrailers has the TGS trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4!! You'd better go look at at it now before Sony makes them take it down.
Posted by matt at September 16, 2005 01:05 PM
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