The Return

Historically, I've been a quitter.  Books - I didn't finish any non-required reading until college.  Film - I fell asleep; okay, I still do half the time.  Games - I'm known for starting them all (usually all at the same time), and finishing almost none.  Shit, I thought I had nearly quit this blog.  To the six of you I kept waiting, I apologize.

Times have changed.  Recently I started finishing games consistently.  I used to discard anything that didn't mesh nearly perfectly with me from the get-go.  Recently I finished the excellent (?) L.A. Noire after a dreadfully irritating start.  Next I plan to finish up the totally disappointing Bioshock 2, and (hopefully) finally finish a Pokemon game with Pokemon White.  These games all have their ups and downs, but the downs used to be the kind that would turn me to quitting - control issues, inferiority to predecessor, caves…

 

All desire to quit has been washed away as of late though.  I just want to finish - everything.  While this is part of a very legitimate excuse for lack of posts, it also seems a good place to start for the resumption of regular posting.  There's a lot I have to say (really, I've had ideas for three or four essays) about L.A. Noire.  I also have some thoughts on the popularity of online competitive play, especially with the new multiplayer darling Words With Friends (and also how multiplayer gaming can recreate the accomplished feelings one gets when finishing a single-player experience).  Then there’s the inevitable something that will come out of finishing Twin Peaks and playing Alan Wake again.  For now, this is all you get.

Many go back to old games to relive the magic of childhood gaming (you know, Roller Coaster Tycoon, or Ocarina of Time for the sixth time) and others continue with classic, sometimes stale series years after their prime.  I've stumbled upon my own way of reliving these experiences.  It’s a method that many game nerds have been utilizing for quite some time to varying degrees of satisfaction.  I stopped being so judgmental and just started playing.

Back in the golden days of the N64, young Ross would play anything, and for as long as he could in most cases.  Not fun?  Maybe it’ll get better.  Too hard?  Try again.  Ready for bed?  Just a little longer.  People, in general, seem to have a soft spot for pretty much every game they played as a kid.  It’s not just the typical, “A Link to the Past is awesome; VII was the best Final Fantasy,” business either.  Once a friend brought up Chameleon Twist and I got excited.  Chameleon Twist.  I had to see numerous lists of all-time worst games to realize that maybe I wasn’t bad at Superman 64, but it was bad at itself…

The point is this – I’ve been playing games again, really playing games.  I’ve been playing things just for the joy of interacting with digital interfaces, progressing through a story, and just to be able to say that I finished.  I’ve wanted to post something for weeks, but I’ve been too busy playing games with damn near all my free time to do so.

So often people let reviews, friends, gameplay footage, and a slew of other things dissuade them from simply trying games.  This wasn’t the case with me, but I had what might be a worse problem.  An example: Let’s say I paid full price for a new game, but then hastily decided that I didn’t like it and trade it in at Gamestop only three days later.  Now let’s say that that actually happened – and it did – with Red Dead Redemption.  Imagine my surprise when I finished the (in every way) inferior L.A. Noire with a general sense of satisfaction.

This is the first post in a long while, and it may take me a couple weeks to get another one together.  In the meantime I have homework for the readers (yes, the aforementioned six of them).  Play a game that you quit, never tried before, didn’t have time for, or that you let yourself believe you didn’t like.  Pick something on the shorter side and actually finish it.  It’s really fun.  I'm going back to grinding for levels in Pokemon now.

Pokemon: beating a dead Ponyta, err... Blitzle

One of the best examples of classic (stale) Japanese gameplay is Pokemon.

No matter what anyone says, Pokemon Black and White are the same games as Pokemon Red and Blue.  Every Pokemon game is a re-imagining of the past games.  I find this problematic.  Playing a new Pokemon game, for those of us in our late teens and early twenties, is a nostalgia experience.  We know we're not getting anything new.  We just want to see the new Pokemon, catch the cool ones, grind for hours on Pokemon that we deem to be lesser, and wreck the tough trainers at the end of the game.  The only reason that there are any changes is that it's now easy and economically feasible to make them.  Think about how ridiculous it is that there are 'remakes' of Pokemon games.  Fire Red?  Soul Silver?  What you're buying is more up to date gameplay mechanics paired with the classic creatures you love.  I haven't played the Pokemon remakes, but I admit there is some significant, albeit illogical, appeal.  Part of me wants to believe that I'll have an equally memorable experience as when i first played Gold.  There's no chance of this since the 21 year old me has less time to get an Evvee happy enough at night time (and doesn't that sound sexual to the 21 year old me?) to evolve it into an Umbreon.

The most common opinion of Pokemon fans is that Generation I (that's when Pokemon exploded) had the best Pokemon.  Generation II had a lot of great creatures and enough gameplay tweaks to warrant the purchase.  Generations III, IV, and now V all have some decent designs but many are often lacking, and seldom is there ever a new Pokemon that replaces a classic creature in the eyes of long-time fans.  Game Freak Inc. could have kept putting out games with monsters of deteriorating design quality without any complaints - if they kept the gameplay fresh.  The release of Black and White saw an improvement in battle pacing and surprisingly, story line.  I no longer have to turn off battle animations just to get through a fight in a reasonable amount of time.  This is a huge improvement, as one spends about half of their gameplay time in fights with wild Pokemon and trainers, who have hilarious things to say to you both before and after battle.  Team Plasma's "animal rights" approach is probably the most realistic aspect of any Pokemon game ever and made me finally care about the motives of the enemy.  

Complaining about games is pretty widespread among all players.  Sometimes they complain about things that are unreasonable or unchangeable, but my complaints against the Pokemon series are so elementary I feel completely justified in making them.  All of my areas of complaint are intermingling.  I want new controls that take advantage of every button on the DS (and now 3DS); I want better use of both screens; I want menus that are streamlined.  Not being able to flip between sub-menus with the L and R buttons is pretty much unacceptable.  Often there is a completely blank screen when one is in use. Getting on your bike isn't a one button affair.  These are all negative aspects of the game.  It's not that these ruin the experience, but little things add up.  Pokemon fans could be having such a better time if they didn't have to back out of their "Deposit Pokemon" menu before choosing which Pokemon they wanted to take from their "Withdraw Pokemon" menu. 

I've sometimes thought that getting an upgrade to carry 8 Pokemon at a time would be helpful, since there are so many more types of Pokemon than when the series started, but this isn't unforgivable and adds to the challenge significantly.  I'm not so foolish as to really expect leaps and bounds in the graphics department from a Nintendo game, but lets hope the sprites aren't so pixelated on the Pokemon series' 3DS debut.

Despite the way this post probably reads, I really don't like to trash-talk the Pokemon games.  Its probably the game series I've been playing the longest, and there's a chance the total hour count I've put into these games is among the highest of all the games I've played.  Almost everyone I know has a lot of fond memories from this series and I think it's been good for gaming in general.  Problematically, as I've aged, my tastes have changed.  As Pokemon has aged, it's stayed for the most part the same.  The formula works, and I don't foresee major gameplay changes happening in the main series (see unsuccessful Pokemon spin-off games) but sometimes I wonder how much better Pokemon could be if Game Freak Inc. had made the maximum amount of changes with each new release, instead of the minimum.  I'm still playing (and often loving) Pokemon White, but what's a blog without rants?