Side note: Arkham Asylum is so awesome, it is the first game I got platinum on.

Entertainment shifts with its medium. One of the most significant of these shifts was the move from VHS to DVD. We got a massive increase in picture quality, multiple audio tracks, subtitles. Personally, my favourite aspect of the current paradigm for DVDs is the presence of the extras: special features, audio commentary, bloopers and all.

We've all been playing games since we were kids. We grew up expecting only the barest representation of a video game: a cartridge containing the whole experience, right there. But, just as with the move from VHS to DVD, the modern mediums of video games have potential to grow. Regardless of console, the absolute minimum amount of space available is 4.7 GB - that's a lot of bits to fill, and in many cases, there's room for more. Often, it's filled with dummy data. Sometimes, developers throw on an original Japanese audio track. Rarely, a developer fills that extra space with content, enriching the experience by providing a complete package.

My first experience with the "complete package" was God of War II. In addition to the game - which we all know was a fantastic epic experience well deserving its review scores - the disk had on it:
- extra costumes for Kratos
- a set of challenges for the player to undertake
- a series of well produced behind-the-scenes videos describing the development process

God of War II brought the DVD era to video games. While this sort of content had certainly been done before, it was rarely this complete. Best of all, it was all on one disk.


Not actually God of War II - couldn't find it online...

Valve took the idea in another direction with the Orange Box. It's no surprise that the studio famous for showing us how to tell a story without cutscenes also showed that there needn't be anything "behind-the-scenes" about developer commentary. Throughout any of the products in The Orange Box it was possible to listen to the developer describe in detail the thought and work behind the very part you were playing, in real time.

Uncharted was an evolution of the God of War formula. Instead of simply including the content in a menu, Uncharted had the player unlock it all by finding treasures throughout the environment. The treasures changed up the game significantly. There was the strong single player campaign to entice the players who were into it for that and running parallel to that the optional, freeform explorative treasure hunting. With very little overhead work, the developers built a game that had multiple experiences in one. The degree to which the treasure hunting affected the player was solely at their discretion - but devoted treasure hunters were rewarded with bonus content.

The costumes and weapons were a nice bonus, but the behind-the-scenes videos were what really shone. Uncharted showed that having Blu-ray as the delivery medium for video games means more than wasted space and slow read times - it can mean large quantities of high definition developer discourse right on the disk.



Perhaps the best example of a complete package in gaming is this year's Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's been well documented that Arkham Asylum provides one of the most engaging single player experiences of the year. What is more interesting to me however is how it manages to provide so much content beyond that.

Firstly, we have the riddler puzzles. Putting the "open world" in "linear experience", the puzzles perform the same function the treasures did in Uncharted, but with a degree of variety and sophistication not found in the former. They come in four varieties:
- trophies: simple collectible to find hidden throughout the environment
- word puzzles: short sentences describing a scene in the environment which a discerning player can find
- ? puzzles: challenging puzzles involving searching the environment for the two parts of the Riddler's elusive question mark
- audio logs

Of course, this game being the poster child for a complete package, the Riddler puzzles have their rewards as well. The player has full flexibility in deciding to which degree he wishes to pursue:
- experience to level up Batman
- character biographies, which can be viewed from the game or menu and provide interesting background on the characters
- character trophies, which allow the player to view the in-game models
- audio logs, which build atmosphere
- challenge rooms

The last of these brings me to another excellent aspect of Batman's package. The challenge rooms take the best parts of Batman's gameplay and give the player an environment in which to test their skills. While the combat challenges are straightforward score-based affairs that aren't particularly interesting, the Predator challenges are a different matter entirely. Here, there are some very real gameplay scenarios asking the player to use skills they didn't even know they had. These challenge rooms provide an experience that not only complements the single player Batman experience but in some ways exceeds it. All of this at a seemingly low cost to the developer - they all use game assets.

For the PS3 players, there are also the Joker challenge maps, which provide even greater variety and challenge.

Finally, the game has the same set of special features that first introduced us to the concept that video games could be more. Three behind-the-scenes videos are included on the disk and (at least on the PS3) viewed directly from the XMB. They are tastefully produced and interesting. While I personally would have hoped for more, I can only assume that purchasers of the Collector's Edition are enjoying the likes of which I missed out on.


Again, couldn't find exact videos online.

After playing all of these games, I find it hard to understand why more developers don't invest in expanding the supplementary material for their products. While it's true that not every game is suited for hidden items or challenge rooms - and in cases like Assassin's Creed and Wolverine, it's certainly possible to mis-implement them - it's hard to imagine that there's a type of game that couldn't benefit from a little developer commentary. There have been mis-steps in this direction; the special features in the Final Fantasy XII collector's edition were downright terrible.

Nowadays, every DVD comes with at least a few minutes of special features. It's my personal hope that the same is eventually true of video games. I've really appreciated the effort the developers put into these and it's a clear example of a little work going a long way. The modern age of video games has been defined a lot of ways: crisp graphics, unified control schemes and an overall increase in quality. Why not add attention to detail to the list? Dear developers: MOAR.

P.S. If anyone knows any other games with similarly expansive sets of extra content, please let me know!