In Third Person

Over these past few weeks of unemployment, the game that has monopolized my time is Modern Warfare 2. Having played multiplayer for just over 24 hours, a lot of that was "not fun". I say that in the sense that for every time I killed someone, I died about 2.5 times. There were games where I would kill two people and die 20 times. The core mechanics of multiplayer are fantastic, but the competition is hella fierce. Most of these people also have an extra two years of Modern Warfare 1 experience as an advantage on me. As far as I know, the game doesn't do anything to keep low-level players from playing high-level players, so you pretty much have to play the best-of-the-best every time you hit the battlefield.

Being a hardcore gamer and one with experience playing other first-person shooters, I was able to analyze my play, recognize my mistakes, do my best to correct them and equip my character with the right load-out to fit my style. Now when I play, I regularly score over 1,000 points with a close-to 1:1 kill/death ratio. Sometimes, I even dominate the field. The game has become a lot more satisfying and fun to play now that I can play at a level I'm happy with. Granted, I wouldn't consider myself "good", but I can get by. I had to go through this same curve when learning Street Fighter IV. I lost a lot at first, but was willing to put in the work to get better until I did.

For others though, I can totally see how this is a very unappealing experience. In the grand scheme of things, you shouldn't have to play a game like you're training for a sport. I've heard so many people talk about their avoidance of playing online first-person shooters with the general public because the level of competition is just too high. Usually the story goes, "I die, then I re-spawn and immediately die again before I even have the chance to move!" I got lucky with Modern Warfare 2 clicking with me in a way that I can get by. Most of the time when it comes to competitive online gaming I'm not so lucky.

Over the past year, I've been following any media I find on Heavy Rain for the Playstation 3. At first, I only knew this as the game that introduced me to the concept of the uncanny valley. And even though the game's Quick Time Event based gameplay doesn't excite me enough to buy a Playstation 3, I really hope this game sells well because Heavy Rain means a lot to the future of mature games.

When I say "mature", I don't mean it in the classic "Mortal Kombat" sense. Thanks to the general perception that video games are a kids medium and the perception that "mature" in video games means blood, gore, swearing, and sex, video games are still very much a "juvenile" medium. There is nothing "mature" about Mortal Kombat. There is blood and death, but the context and execution of the game is done in a juvenile way that aims to appeal to teenage boys. Most games that are labeled "mature" by the ESRB are only mature in the sense that they have gore, swearing and sex in them, not because they deal with mature themes and subject matter on a mature level.

Video games as a medium is still in its infancy and its still trying to find its place in this world. Up until the mid 90's, video games were seen almost exclusively as a kids-only medium. We have made strides for more mature content since, but on a commercial level, most games that are classified as "mature" are just as juvenile as the original Mortal Kombat. I don't need to stretch far for examples of this. Is Gears of War truly "mature"? Is God of War? The Dead or Alive series? I could go on, but I'm sure you get my point.


The one major blockbuster game that I think most people will point to as a counter-argument is Modern Warfare 2. I'm pretty sure you know what happens during the beginning of the game, but if you don't, skip the next two paragraphs. One scene in particular at the airport features you as an undercover agent running with a bunch of Russian terrorists as they massacre hundreds of innocent people. You, as a gamer have the option of shooting innocent civilians if you want to. I understand what Infinity Ward was trying to go for in terms of making you feel bad for the brutality of terrorism, but I feel like that entire scene did not fit the game, was poorly executed and overall didn't have the weight that the scene should have had.

I don't think Modern Warfare 2 "earned" that scene. For a game that just before the airport asks you to ride on a snowmobile and shoot guys, then follows the airport scene with increasingly bombastic and ridiculous tasks and plot points, the one "serious" scene feels horribly out of place. The game never tries to make you think about it on a more serious level after that scene, instead going back to the core mechanic of shooting thousands of dudes. The ultimate failure of that scene though, is that it doesn't make sense. Shepherd's main goals is to take out Makarov, so why doesn't he have you do it right there? Sure, it would ruin the entire plot, but at least what was left of the plot would make sense. Should you try and kill Makarov in that level, the terrorists will kill you, causing a fail-state, and you having to try again. In a scene where you're supposed to die anyway, the only reason for the level to not end there is because the creators of the game want you to play through it all the way, regardless of how it breaks the story to the player.


To bring this all the way back around, Heavy Rain has been hyped as truly mature game. The overall story and the way it unfolds is done in a way that appeals to an adult on a mature level. I can see the kids who play Modern Warfare 2 cringing at the thought of playing a game where you have to help your son do his homework and tuck him into bed at night, but I like knowing that this experience isn't for them. Are there enough people interested in playing a game like Heavy Rain? That's the million dollar question.

Heavy Rain could potentially be a notable step forward for video games as a medium if it is a sales success. By proving that gamers will buy games with truly mature content, major publishers and developers could decide that it's worth it to make more truly mature games. Maybe then the medium will move a step closer to universal acceptance. But if this game flops, then it's further proof that people aren't ready to play truly mature video games.

I don't think Heavy Rain will be the "Citizen Kane" of video games. But as someone who wants to see this medium grow, it's hard for me to cheer against what Heavy Rain is trying to do. I applaud Quantic Dream and Sony for backing up such an endeavor and hope for the best.

With the year winding down, many gamers have been discussing the best games of 2009, mostly to debate which game should be honoured "Game of the Year". I think it's impossible for any media outlet or any individual person to make a list that will make everyone happy. However, what I can do better than anyone else is speak for myself. With that said, my choice for "Game of the Year" is not the be-all-end-all opinion you have to believe in. Feel free to give me your picks for "Game of the Year" and "Game of the Year" nominees.

So...where to start? I guess so that we're all playing on somewhat common ground, I would cover off a few games that have been consensus "Game of the Year" nominees among many video game media outlets and go from there.

Uncharted 2

I've heard all sorts of wonderful things about the game's cinematic experience and super-fun gameplay. However, I do not own a PS3 as of this time, so I've never played it or the original. In the event I ever get a chance to play it, I will definitely give it a shot.



Assassin's Creed 2

Many critics of the first game had their gripes fixed with Assassin's Creed 2. Because of the criticisms of the first game, I decided to pass on the experience completely. However, with the great word-of-mouth and the "12 Days of Gaming" sale at EB Games (I got it brand new for $30), I thought I would give it a shot. I'm just over half way through the game and it's blowing my mind. The game does a fantastic job of making you buy into the life of Ezio. In terms of plot and setting, I haven't played anything this interesting...possibly ever. It's arguably the prettiest of all the open-world games out there right now. There's also a ton of fun stuff to do outside the great main quest. My only gripe with it is that the controls sometimes leave a bit to be desired when Ezio doesn't make the precision jumps you want him to because of the game's auto-correct jumping mechanics.



Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Up until I won this at my mom's work Christmas party, I had never played a CoD game and thought I never would. Man, was I missing out. So far the game is a ton of fun to play and really feels like an evolution on the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark era of FPS games that I am fond of. The only major sticking point to me is that the game feels kind of hard on normal difficulty, but maybe that's just because I'm a newbie (and not that good). I will definitely put more time into it in the new year.



New Super Mario Bros Wii

I don't think any game this year captures pure fun like New Super Mario Bros Wii. As a single player experience, it feels a lot like Super Mario 3 and Super Mario World, arguably the best two games in the series. It's also not a piece of cake like the DS version, so it will provide a great challenge for even the most seasoned Mario veteran. What changes the whole dynamic of the game though is the co-op play for up to 4 players. With 4 people in the screen, it's absolute madness. It's a testament to how universally awesome the game is when I can play it with my cousins together and we all have fun, and they're 11, 7 and 3 years old.



Batman: Arkham Asylum

At the time of release, I bought this only because of the great reviews and the sale price at launch. What I didn't expect was this game to live up to the hype. Batman is the definitive super hero game. It totally captures what it is to be Batman while being enjoyable throughout. I wholeheartedly recommend this game, even at full-price and I eagerly anticipate the recently announced sequel.


I would also like to put in an honourable mention to The Beatles: Rock Band, which was I think the definitive exclusive-to-one-band game. I'm sure that many more will come, but none will be made with the same love and care (and awesome music, but that's a personal taste) as the Beatles game was.

Are any of these my game of the year? No. My game of the year is one that came out very early in the year and I'm sure many people have forgotten to consider it because of that. Even with that against it, 2009 Game of the Year is a pretty easy choice for me to make. No game beat it in terms of the total time invested and total fun I had with it. It inspired me to get back into a genre of game that I felt abandoned me in 1995 and got me so back into it that I now actively follow the professional scene behind this game.

All things considered, my 2009 game of the year is Street Fighter IV.



I'm still an insanely huge fan of the Street Fighter II series. I've poured in countless hours of my life throwing hadokens and giving the business to M. Bison and company. To this day, I still play the original Street Fighter II. I even left a copy of the Super Nintendo version of the game at her house so I could play it when I'm visiting and she's doing something else. However, after Super Street Fighter II, fighting games got way too complicated and I stopped playing them completely. When Street Fighter IV was announced, it was being hyped up as a return to the series Street Fighter II roots, which is all I needed to know before jumping back on the bandwagon.

Did I get what I asked for? Yes and no. Yes, in the sense that I got a more accessible fighting game that I can play and enjoy at my skill level. No, I didn't get a carbon copy of Street Fighter II. I got an extremely modernized and fluid fighting game that at it's core brings back feelings of the classic. However, it doesn't come off as a rehash of Street Fighter II. Nostalgia be damned, Street Fighter IV is a better game in every respect.


I've invested over 200 hours into this game, mostly testing my chops against the best (and worst) XBOX Live has to offer. While the online systems weren't great, once you were in a fight, things generally ran as they should. I spent a lot of time trying to get better through training. It got me interested in trying BlazBlue (which is cool, but I'm still not sure I'm willing to invest the time I need to learn it). It also got me regularly following the tournament scene. It's been awesome watching the likes of Daigo and Justin Wong play this game at another level and then trying to implement their styles into how I play the game. It's almost like Street Fighter IV has transcended the world of "gaming" and moved into "sport" for me. Even almost a year after its release, the only thing I see stopping me from playing this is the release of Super Street Fighter IV in the spring.

Will there be enough new magic in SSFIV to make it my 2010 Game of the Year? We'll find out next year. But for now, I'll go back to catching scrubs on XBOX Live with my mean Raging Demon setups. Street Fighter IV is my game of the year.

During the early days of the World War II shooter (early 2000s), controlling a character from first person and shooting dudes was not really something I wanted to do. After games like Perfect Dark and Goldeneye sucked away hundreds of hours of my life, there wasn't really anything out there like it that I wanted to play. None of the FPS games of that generation appealed to me and I couldn't get a handle on playing these styles of games using dual analog sticks. Yes, that means I even missed Halo 1 and 2 in their prime. In the case of Call of Duty, I couldn't handle a dual stick FPS and I didn't want anything to do with WWII. Both of those elements combined for a series I had 0 interest in ever playing.

Ever since I invested in an XBOX 360 though, I've since played a number of FPS games. Heck, literally half of my game stash are FPS games, even though I still don't consider myself that big of a fan of the genre. By the time the Modern Warfare games took off, I had overcome my problem of dual sticks. But did I care for a more realistic war setting for a game? Not enough to go out and buy the game on my own.

As the hype train built up to critical mass for the release of Modern Warfare 2, I started to think that maybe I've been missing out on something special all along. I would often look around to see if I could get Modern Warfare 1 for cheap and at one point almost caved.

Luckily for me, my mom won a limited edition XBOX 360 with two controllers and a copy of Modern Warfare 2. I'm still not sure exactly what to do with the second 360, but I'm sure my brother and I will find a good use for it as well as all the other stuff it came with. We immediately busted the box open to play Modern Warfare 2 and see what the hype was all about.



First off, I should address my initial problem of being disinterested in the story/setting. Has the game changed my perception on "realistic" war? Not really, no. I still don't care that this takes place in the somewhat present. I read through the story of the first game and beat the campaign of MW2 and still don't care. Even playing through the "No Russian" level didn't really do anything for me. I appreciate the effort they put into this to try and make it as "Blackhawk Down" as they could, but it just doesn't stroke me the right way. Until I played as Soap, the game never really gives you a good sense of who you are, why you're hear and why you're doing the things you're doing. Ultimately, it feels like a Hollywood action movie that's big on excitement and short on substance.

Does any of this take away from the game for me? Not really, no. Behind it's setting and bombastic plot is arguably the best FPS game I've ever played. The core mechanics of moving and shooting guys feels just right. All of your shots feel like they have the appropriate impact and everything reacts the way you think it would. There's no shortage of guns and weaponry that adds layers of depth to the game. Do you arm yourself with a machine gun or a shotgun? Do you choose a rocket launcher and become vulnerable up close? Do you take a riot shield to protect you in exchange for a gun slot?

Movement from walking, running, crouching and crawling is easy enough to do and adds a lot to the game. Where the game takes it above and beyond are the extra weaponry, such as the AC130 and Predator missiles. Dropping a huge bomb or shooting hundreds of bullets from a helicopter at soldiers on the ground never felt so awesome.

In campaign mode, every stage is exciting to the point of ridiculousness. Every scenario seems to have been carefully thought out to provide maximum impact of adrenaline. Due to this planning, the story can take a back seat to riding snowmobiles or defending a burger joint from Russia. Maybe the experience would have more of an impact on me if I cared for the story, but I'm fine as is shooting guys.

The new mode introduced in Modern Warfare 2 is Spec Ops, which is sort of a mix of co-op campaign and Horde mode from Gears of War 2. Instead of a full blown co-op campaign or straight-up Horde mode, Modern Warfare 2 takes the best bits of campaign mode, adds co-op, and provides players with a scoring system to track your progress. While I still would have preferred straight-up co-op as well as this, Spec Ops is extremely fun to play and a great addition to the overall package.

As for multiplayer, not much more I can say about it. With the number of modes, options, perks and RPG elements, it's easily one of the best multiplayer experiences ever crafted. For me specifically, I think it's wonderful that 4-player split-screen was added. I know that the feature is antiquated and hardly anyone uses it anymore, but I still love using it when I have people over at the house. We all grew up on Goldeneye, so splitting a screen four ways is no big deal. The only thing that could have made it better is the inclusion of bots when you're not online.


Now that I know what this whole Modern Warfare thing is all about, I feel almost sad that I've been depriving myself of this experience for the past two years. Has it changed my mind enough to try the Treyarch Call of Duty games that come out every other year? I'm not sure if I would go that far, but I look forward to putting in many hours into this one.