Should Reviewers Care About the Details?

Below are my thoughts after reading Ben Fritz's article in Variety regarding reviewers obsession with the game details and downplaying the game's overall "big picture.":

Video games are unique because they combine other classical forms of entertainment and allow the player to move through these mediums literally and figuratively through gameplay. Gameplay is the driving force because gameplay is what separates video games from other mediums such as television, paintings, books, etc. (Sorry for the Captain Obvious statements.)

Books can make us laugh. Movies too. So can T.V. Video games make us laugh as well, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. If our interactive medium, video games, has done its' job, we were made to laugh because we caused it to make us laugh. Our inputs resulted in an output that caused us to evoke a type of emotion. That's pretty powerful. Instead of passively watching a movie, we were in control and actually physically invested (albeit only with our hands and fingers mostly) into the outcome of our inputs. It took some effort to reach that emotional outburst.

The point I'm trying to make is that gameplay, controls, input/output feedback, AI...the combination of these systems unique only to video games need to, at the very least, collectively be equal in quality to the theme, the art style, the story, the writing, and whatever borrowed mediums are used in shaping the game's vision. They need to be equal because the combination of these systems enhance (or detract) from the game's artistic expression/goal. If anyone of these systems isn't up to par to current systems, the suspension of disbelief will be broken. Flow is broken. Many gamers have been conditioned to sort of recognize what is established quality of any video game system. If any system is out of whack, the artistic goal of the game could be quickly dismissed by the player.

I do agree that there are way too many great scores nowadays. I attribute that to sequelitis as well as "groupthink" as one journalist mentioned in one of her blog posts. At the same time, however, I believe mechanical problems and concerns should be at the forefront of the review as well as the game's "big picture" and the developer's attempt to push the medium into a more well rounded direction. Like you mentioned, there doesn't seem to be a good balance of this as big games don't get called out for obvious, obvious sub-par systems. For example, GTA is notorious for horrible combat systems, gun or melee, but yet inundated with 9s and 9.5s.

Video games are the art of electronic interacting and without the solid mechanical/gameplay/control foundation to drive the intuitive feel of the player, I believe the game's vision is already at a disadvantage of being realized.

Kids Deserve Better

I played Wall-E this weekend for the following reasons:

• I briefly, briefly worked (2 months) on the pre-production prototyping basic environmental interactions
• I heard from around the way that there were many, ahem, odd decisions made during the development of this game
• I still had hope the game would turn out ok because I somewhat enjoy playing movie licensed kids games
• If it did turn out bad, playing a “bad” game is good design exercise…and I haven’t played a really bad game in a while
  

When I think of the type of consumer that will most likely purchase this game, I think of my aunt and my nephew. My aunt is pretty much one of the best aunts on the planet as she is pretty much an acting mother to my nephews as well to me back in the day. She gives the kids as much love as possible and makes them smile and spoils them in a good way. My aunt will take my nephews to see the latest kids’ movie during the movie’s first week release. And she loves buying the kids the most popular toy characters out there namely anything with the Pixar brand name on it: Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E.

And if my nephews were a bit older and had the latest and greatest video game consoles, I know for a fact she would buy them the latest and greatest video games based on the kids’ movie they just watched. She would buy the video game because she would think it’s cute because she thought the movie was cute. She’d buy the video game based on the movie of the same name because she wants to bring a smile to the kids’ faces. She would buy this game because she thinks the game would evoke the same type of smiley, wonder, charm, fun and warm fuzzy feeling the movie just gave them. She would buy them the game out of love.

So is it too much to ask for the game developers making these types of licensed kids’ games to reciprocate the love and inject the same type of tender loving care into the quality of the product they release?

I’m not going to go into detail about what’s wrong with this game. There’s simply too much to say in that regard. The point is: Is there anyone thinking of the kids and the mothers (or aunts) when these types of games are being developed? Sadly, the answer is usually no.

The Little Things Add Up And Begin To Detract From The Overall Experience Rant (Yes, when I spend $60, I have every right to nitpick)

I want to experience many things in my day besides playing video games all day. I spend most of my video game $$$ on experience-based games as opposed to skill-type or mechanic based games. I want my experience to go as smoothly as possible while providing me some kind of flowing challenge. As I get older, my playing patience and tolerance starts to dwindle to the point where every little thing affects the overall experience. Below are just some nitpicky ranting items that I have started to have a more keen sense for as I get older. I'm not saying it's good or bad design to have have/not have these elements. And, yes, I know this has been written about ad nauseam on the interwebs, but I don't care. Anyways, I'll probably just keep adding to this list

• Save spots: I pay $60 for a survival horror experience. Please allow me to save more often. I have other things to do in my day than to spend time reaching a save point
• Health pacing: Before an encounter, put some health in easy-to-find spots
• Health Cheat: Starting a save with very little health makes for one night of shirt ripping and controller throwing. Throw the player a little bone by giving him just a tad of pity health when he restarts. Just a tad. A teeny weeny tad.
  
• Skipping previously viewed cutscenes: I saw it once; I don’t need to see it again
• Combat Camera Zoom: Bringing the camera in closer when a monster appears works in a fairly open space, but not in a room with two monsters
• Cheap Hits: It's no fun getting hit during reaction
  
• Camera Connected To Character's Turn Speed: The camera rotation isn't independent of the character makes for one slow rotating camera. Adds to the fear as well as the frustration
  
• Suspension of Disbelief 1: The main character just came face-to-face with a zombie and then the next cutscene he’s calm and wondering where his brother is…and doesn’t mention that fact he just tangled with the undead? This happens numerous times where he’s oblivious to what just happened.
• Suspension of Disbelief 2: He goes home to his mom’s house (pre-zombie encounter) but he opens some doors by shoulder ramming them and some by turning the knob? I want my player character’s demeanor and movement and actions to reflect his current knowledge of his surroundings and past
  
• Suspension of Disbelief 3: Pre-zombie encounter, I cannot un-equip his knife..and I’m in his mom’s house
• Huh? Started off in a nightmare, but still can keep my weapons I found in the nightmare?
• Is this next-gen?: The path is blocked…by a teeny weeny pile of debris but I can't climb over. Classic gameism. (I’m not for or against this, just stating it)
• Argh! In this day and age, there is no invert camera option?????????????????
• Menu Combat: Weapon selection: instead of holding left or right to rotate the weapon stash, I have to aim and then hold a precise analog direction towards the weapon to highlight...Many times, I miss selecting the weapon of my choice
  
• Visiting Menus: Can’t seem to quick select a weapon (w/out going into a menu). Not a big fan of constant menu visiting
• Why? I can't cancel into map select during gun aim mode
  

Licensed Movie Games: The Silver Platter Phenomenon

Licensed Movie Games Lesson 1: Resist The Urge to Use Band-Aids

Cliffs Notes On Licensed Movie Games: COMING SOON!

Video Game "Nutrition" Facts

Around 20 years ago, The FDA mandated that most food products be labeled with a nutritional label listing various elements such as fat, cholesterol and protein along with their measurement per serving. This informational addition to the food product spawned a new sector in the food industry that marketed their food products as low-fat, low-calorie foods. Suffice to say, the nutrition label has had a major impact on food companies and consumers alike by creating certain groups of consumers that would only buy a food product based solely on the contents of the nutrition label.

So what if video games had a similar "nutrition" label based on the core elements of that video game? For instance, would consumers be less inclined to purchase the next best 3D action-adventure combat game based on more core system-specific hard data such as the inclusion/frequency/exclusion of individual combat system elements?

This was one of the random thoughts that popped into my head when I was thinking of a clever way to list the core ingredients of an accessible combat system. By no means is this particular "nutrition" list comprehensive or even weighted correctly. In the future, I'll be going into more detail for each of these accessible combat system elements and also regurgitating some of the topics written about by these guys.