State of the Blog

Once in awhile I will be doing these 'state of the blog' posts to shed some light on changes or see how it has evolved since I first started this. I do these because it expands on my own idea of what this project will turn into, and will help guide my future posts in being more in line with that idea. So as I have reviewed these games, so shall I review myself in regards to my criticism. The way I see it, this will be either enlightening, or self-loathing, either way you win!

One thing I have noticed quite prominently since I've started is that I have an opinion. That's not surprising in itself really, I have pretty strong opinions and most people don't agree with them. However, when I started this I wanted it to be an objective view on art in the medium. Sadly, that hasn't panned out exactly how I thought it was and it could be because of a few things.

The strongest theory I have is that art in itself cannot be criticized without some sort of opinion on your part. Think about it, what makes people believe that a completely abstract piece is art? When others only see a bunch of shapes and lines and just mutter "My five year old could do that". Are they both considered art? Should they be qualified as art? Who the heck says what is art and what is not? One might think there is a board of art directors out there somewhere making judgment calls a-la Illuminati shadow heads and trickling down information as to what is really art.

Now if we take off our tinfoil hats I think we'll start to understand that art really is subjective. You cannot objectively criticize art. It is a nebulous form of emotion that only applies to certain characteristics. It could be as simple as 'I like art to be completely unchained from reality'. That person would dislike landscapes and art based on real things, why? Well it could be for a yearning to escape reality, or just the though that art should transcend it. Again, it is simply subjective to who is viewing it. I could get into the various forms of visual, textrual, audio and taste that could be used in art, but that would simply reiterate my point.

As is almost everything about humans, Art is contextual, it serves one person differently than it does another person. Why this is? I'm not smart enough to know, but I will continue to insert a little of my opinion in the review process while trying to keep in mind the cons of my opinion. Objective view of something as emotionally attached as art may have been a folly in the first place.

Where is Mankrik's wife?

The next installment of art talk with Skeleton King has to do with a game that is a little different compared to the previously reviewed ones, World of Warcraft. Yes, you've probably heard of this game, I hear it's quite popular.

Commonly called World of Warcrack due to it's addictive nature (for good reason may I add), this game is a bit of a challenge to review. Why so oh Sultan of Skeletons? You may ask. Well that's because in all normal conventions it's graphical value is almost nil. I lamens terms this means that the game isn't particularly good looking considering today's standards. But, within that ugly exterior is the beauty of it all. World of Warcraft may not be a pretty game when compared to say, Uncharted 2, but it is fantastically artistic in style. The people who work on this game are masters at making due with the available graphics. This is especially true in the newer expansion places like Northrend and Outlands.

Though the texture resolution isn't great most of the time, they use interesting artistic tricks to create a great looking game. This is apparent in some of the new looks druids get when they turn into cat and bear form.



The graphical power needed hasn't changed much, and yet the new models look leagues better than the old ones.

As for story, the game is pretty light on it for the most part, of course this changed with the new expansion as well. Where it used to be that every quest was fetch x and bring y to z. Now there is new twist on the old formula, most of the Northrend quests have an interesting component outside of the formula, like say flying on the back of a dragon and bringing him down with only a spear in one hand.

This is not even to mention the epic happenings at the Wrathgate. This story chain seems like a normal quest at first, till you reach the end of the line and suddenly a in-game cinematic plays and a part of the world is changed completely. This is called 'phasing' and its newly implemented in Wrath of the Lich King. What phasing does is change a small part of the landscape for you when you reach a certain point in the quest. People who have done the quest will see it as you do, and people who haven't will see it as it was. It is an ingenius way to move story along.

The audio in WotLK is pretty good, the music scores are fantastic, and many bosses are voiced to give you a sense of immersion. It is not necessarily the most amazing audio in the industry, and I would say that this is one of the failings of WoW's otherwise addictive nature. Most people I know listen to their own music during play anyway.

All in all WoW was an interesting project, as I am currently playing it myself and now count myself among the 'wow zombies' as a friend of mine put it. None the less it is a great game, and if you can find a good server, the community can be generally nice. Just stay away from the kiddies an the immature people, they can completely ruin an otherwise great experience.

Welcome to the madhouse, Batman!

In respect to video games based on comics, us gamers get the short end of the stick sometimes. There have been some mediocre games out there in recent years, the Spider-man series, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, Hulk Ultimate destruction and Wolverine Origins. And then of course are the complete train wrecks like Iron Man, Superman, and Fantastic Four. In theory these games should be fun, and cool. Who doesn't want to be a super hero and run around beating up bad guys and flying/jumping/swinging your way around huge cities?

But, what happens when you take the most human super hero, get rid of those giant open ended cities, and stick him in an asylum with his most dangerous nemesis? Absolute gold is the answer. To say that Rocksteady, the developers of Batman:Arkham Asylum, have created the most critically acclaimed super hero game in the industry to date, is no lie. The game as reviewed well, and is widely considered and fantastic take on the caped crusader. But, how will it hold up to artistic scrutiny? READ ON TRUE BELIEVERS! (I know wrong universe.)

Holy Graphical Quality Batman!

Oh how I wished the team who worked on the models and environment of this game worked on every game. The textures are beautiful, skies and vistas are enthralling, the bat cape, oh the bat cape! I think they had one person working on the bat cape for the whole development schedule! The way it moves, the way it's textured, the way light reflects off it. The cape seems to have the right weight and despite a few glitches with it clipping through things it is one of the most realistic pieces in a game to date.

The only thing I would detract from the artistic visuals of the game are that often most of the characters seem to be meat heads. Batman is so buff it looks like he would have a hard time raising his hands over his head, and so are most of the goons you come across. I wish that were the only thing, but a mechanic that is in itself interesting and quite fun, destroys a lot of the art. Detective mode covers the world in a filter meant to help batman sniff out the bad guys. It works well within game play mechanics, but it must have made all the hard working artists cry a little when they saw what it did to their beautiful landscapes.

Holy Audio Batman!

The voice actors, oh the voice actors! Forgive me if I gush but Mark Hamil and Kevin Conroy (the voice actors from the much acclaimed animated series) voice Joker and Batman respectively. And they do a fantastic job. Batman keeps a somber and serious tone, speaking confidently and quickly of a situation, Joker throws insults and jests left and right cackling all the while. It is a great take on the characters, and tugs at the heart strings of the little kid in us who used to watch the animated series.

The musical score is good as well, though not as appropriate as Mass Effect in most cases. The score is well deigned and hits the right notes between combat and exploration. It does its job well when trying to create suspenseful moments during moments when you are the predator, and causes the right amount of excitement when you are caught or in battle.

Holy overused jokes batman!

The story is very well developed. I can't say much without revealing a good amount of spoilers, but let us just say that Scarecrow couldn't have been put in a better role. And the way the story moves along despite Joker just being an ambient voice over loud speakers is a testament to the overall game. The final confrontation however, brings a lot to be desired, and left me with a bit of disappointment.

Overall this game is more than just an acceptable video game, it deserves all the credit it gets and has fantastic overall artistic value. If you haven't checked it out I recommend you do.

Sometimes crazy is the best way to go.

"Why Skeleton King!", you say with mouth agape. "That game is almost two years old, why are you analyzing this!?"

Well, I would tell you that I am because the market today moves so quickly that it barely focuses good games that have gone by and exclusively on everything new and shiny in the world. Also, that I as a great researcher feel it is my duty to take a look at all these magnificent games that are a little aged, and bring them to the spotlight so I may share memories with those who have played, and expose people who haven't.

But, that would be a lie.

Fact is, as a poor college student, I don't have many resources available to me to review many new games artistically. And although I will be taking some newer games into account, I have to pace myself with my money, since other options *COUGHDOWNLOADINGILLEGALLYCOUGH* are not open to me. That is not to mention that I know the game pretty well, having played through it a couple times, and enjoyed it. So I think it's a good start to my little project here. Fasten your seat belts folks, it's gonna be a funky ride!



Ah unreal engine 3, how I love your pop up textures and weird plastic muppet human models. Mass Effect would do so much better with a little overhaul when it comes to the human models, maybe it is something to do with the imagination of the designers, but the aliens look much better than most of the human models. It seems like the faces had been made out of some sort of plastic, molded over a skeletal structure and the moving parts are jerkily animated by thousands of tiny clockwork gnomes. It's no secret that the human body is very hard to get right, so I can't complain too much about this part but I can surely point out its faults.

Other than the human models, and the pop-in textures that appear when loading a new area. Mass Effect pulls off the look of a space drama quite well, all the ships of the different races look very unique in style. The alien races themselves are imaginative and even likable in some cases. Although, they do sometimes fall into the 'various human personalities' problem where the races are characterized by standardized human psychological personalities. This kind of takes the edge off at first, but when you start to delve into the stories behind each race then you start to realize how amazingly detailed and different they are.

And this brings up one of the major strengths of Mass Effect, Story. When you first start the game you are fed a little data, and can get a feel for the universe around you. However, you don't delve in, you aren't immersed till you find out all the little details. When you first find the Codex, and you realize that there is a ever expanding encyclopedia of knowledge at your fingertips. It only gets bigger as you go further in the game and almost all of this is fully voiced. I cannot tell you the benefits this adds to the overall feel of the game. Sure you can read faster than the voice actor can say the text, but it gives you all the experience of a sci-fi universe. Everything is presented in a sleek and easy to use fashion within the codex. And it helps show you how deep the makers of this game have gone to make a very lively and rich world.

Another strength of Mass Effect is the music. At first some might be put off by the odd synth music that greets you at the title screen, its not like most sci-fi presentations now a day. However, it quickly gives you a sense of uniqueness for this game, it isn't just another space marine shooter with grunting men and aliens to blast away left and right. On the contrary, you can even form a romantic relationship with one. The music keeps a good temp and beat through the entire game, and helps move the action along with great effect.

Now comes one of the most disappointing parts of this game, the exploration levels. Once you are free to move about the galaxy, you get a feeling of freelance agent that can find all these wonderful and interesting worlds. This however, is not the case for the most part. The side-missions often send you to barren worlds, devoid of any life and dotted with things you can salvage and nodes you can mark. All these things serve to disappoint you. The worlds have no true schemes of their own, they are very barren for the most part, only offering you a couple color palettes, and some mild weather effects. Overall these sections are the most 'game-y' parts of the title and offer no real value aside XP and items.

With Mass Effect 2 coming up soon I hope they revisited these parts of the game, and improve an the already fantastic musical score and story. If I had my way I would have revamped human models (So their hair doesn't look like molded play dough) and breath some sort of life into the side-mission worlds. They have a world with a very rich history on their hands, all they need to do is feed it some more vistas, colorful textures, and realistic models. Let the environment artists go crazy, and let us explore another universe that seems just as real as our own.

And so it begins...

This blog is an experiment of sorts, mainly a way for me to try out my own little way of writing a research paper. Why am I doing this on a blog might you ask? Well then, I'd be obliged to tell you that I was just curious as to how the blogging dynamic could affect someone writing research about a certain topic.

At first I thought, how could a student sit down for hours on end and write line after line of text in a mind-numbingly boring fashion without growing some sort of pattern, or cutting some corners? Well I don't think they can. While you can take little breaks to relieve some of that monotony, there is no way to guarantee that once you get back into the grind, it'll just be the same old same old till you can go do something fun.

So I thought it would be interesting to try blogging. Now, I know this format isn't what it used to be. Blogging used to be the twitter of the internet, just more long winded. It was a place where boring people talked about boring things, that nobody cared about. But, it's evolved into something a little different, to get people to follow your blog you have to do something most people aren't.

Be Interesting.

And that is what I will attempt to do, now I'm not touting the fact that I'm more interesting than other people(maybe a little weirder)but, I can try to make this somewhat entertaining without causing the reader to fall into a coma. So I hope that you'll enjoy this short little foray into the art in video games, and maybe a little of myself as well. (Not too much don't want to scare you off)