terça-feira, 22 de abril de 2008

Old but relevant

For your viewing pleasure, Meet the Scout



The people who created the character types and designs for Team Fortress 2 must be feeling really, really, REALLY proud of themselves right now. It still impresses me how characters so simple and with virtually no backstory (there are like 5 or 6 lines of story for each character, I think) can be so catchy, feel so alive. My favorites, in case you are wondering, are the Scout, the Heavy and the Demo, even gameplay wise.

Seeing this new "Meet the" video made me rewatch some of the old ones and remember some discussion about gameplay versus story on videogames. Which one is the most important? Well, even being an aspiring writer myself and loving reading these stories, I have to concur that, in most of cases, gameplay and design are more important.

A good personal example of that is Castlevania: Curse of Darkness, for the PS2. I'm totally insane for Akumajo Dracula. I can spend hours discussing the storyline, the recurring themes, the hunters (even the one that never appeared as selectable characters) and all that. Seeing how Curse of Darkness is a direct sequel to Castlevania III, one of the best, I decided to play it. But the game is so bad, so terribly bad, ugly and broken, that I couldn't bear to put more than 3 or so hours in it - even if I was dying to know the truth behind Hector and how legendary badass vampire hunter Trevor Belmont (because 'Ralph C.', his japanese name, just doesn't make him justice) was involved in all of this. But I just couldn't. The two first Tenchu games are also good examples.

And still I can play Halo with no problems at all. Sure, it's "My First FPS for Dummies" and Master Chief is a complete joke as a character but it's fun to shoot aliens with lasers guns even if you're not really interested on Arbiters, Convenants and whatnot. Bite me, Halo fans.

I like to believe in a world where gameplay, design and story mix themselves in just one incredible soup of awesomeness. Out of my head I can think about the Metal Gear Solid Series and just about anything by Suda 51 (from the excellent Killer 7 and No More Heroes). Him and Kojima can do this so well it's not even funny. Their creations are not just games, they're complete experiences. And that's what I think it's the real challenge for the people making games today: to create something that transcends .

...and that's what you get by trying to write something while craving furiously for a bed and some sleep.

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