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!

The next in the line of updates for TF2 has been revealed, and it's not what I'd think anyone would expect. Soldiers, engineers and demomen will have to wait for their upgrades as the next update shall heretofore be known as:



The first day's details are up as well: 18 new hats, two per class.



Since obviously it would make no sense to make a blog post every day of the update, I will refer you to the more official source:

http://www.teamfortress.com/classless/

A few days ago I popped on Destructoid to scan the blog selection and was greeted with a not unfamiliar sight: rows and rows of blogs with the same header. This month - "I suck at games". While usually this would not irk me, I could not help but feel unsettled at this. You see, I myself had been planning - indeed, penning - such a blog for a good deal of time. Only one fact could be drawn from the Dtoid staff's choice of topic for the month: my mental space is no longer safe. As such I have completed the blog wearing only a tinfoil cap. Who knows what secrets my clothing holds?

I think while every gamer has different tastes, we can all agree that we have a line of tolerance. For each of us, there's an exact difficulty that we find to be perfection. Below this line a game is too easy. Above it, it becomes frustrating. On the line we find the sweet spot: a point of difficulty that provides a rewarding challenge while not tearing down the moral fibre of our beings. Aside: Fuck you Firefox, I will spell fibre the British-Canadian way.

I have always been a Carebear when it comes to video games. For many years I played mainly JRPGs, a genre notable for the ability to let perseverance overcome skill with regularity. But occasionally I have fallen into a deep, dark mood the likes of which no man should ever delve. I have hit what I can only describe as a breaking point.

I remember the very first time I hit this wall. I was playing a game called Crash Bandicoot. After much practice, the child-me had managed to reach a point well into the regular progression of the game, garnering over 70 lives in the process. Indeed, it seemed nothing could stand in his way - nothing, that is, except the jump.



While I would normally discourage making excuses for oneself, I must make allowances for myself on this occasion. For, the child-me, after losing 70 lives on one jump, did not know how to deal with it. Never before had he been exposed to such a jarring denial of a goal. It was my first experience with abject failure and it taught me that perhaps skill based games were not for me. Suffice to say, I wasted hours in front of the television and screamed and ranted and was, as they say, grounded.

It did not stop there.

This first betrayal of video gaming had taught me to avoid genres that were not suited to my young and imbalanced temper. I played only RPGs and Final Fantasy IX had quickly become a favourite of mine. At a certain point in the game there comes a sequence of three boss fights which one must defeat in quick succession with no opportunity to heal or recover. In addition, the save point directly prior offered no chance to level. There was only forward - through the three bosses.

The child-me attempted to defeat the first. After several tries, he grew irritated. Finally, he won and with great jubilance.... lost to the second boss.

The child-me grew angry.



By the third boss, I not only coined the term rage-quit, but I also ensured that in every future video game, the future-child-me would keep multiple save games.

After this there was a long period of calm. I learned to play games for fun, not for challenge. I continued to play near-exclusively JRPGs. I got into the habit of progressing slowly such that I was over-levelled for every challenge that presented itself.

Around 2005 I started to take a passing interest in the rest of gaming again.

It took four years for the anger to return.

The year is 2009, and future-child-me is indeed now me. I have learned nothing from my previous mistakes, apparently. Two months ago, I spent three hours attempting a single time trial of Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. Each time I came within second of the time I needed, but never could I actually accomplish the goal. I rage quit. It's amazing how much profanity can come out of my mouth as I sit there, convinced that I can do something which I cannot, feeling inadequate because I just cannot accomplish this one simple thing.

Motorstorm was pretty tame compared to my most recent escapade.

Right now, the indie gaming scene is big on pixel art. Synaesthesia is always cool. Pong is timeless. When they come together in Bit.Trip.Beat, they create a game that is compelling on almost every level. Until the last boss, that is.



A simple game of Pong, the last boss of Bit.Trip.Beat made me angrier than I had been in the last six year. Imagine, if you will, perfecting a game. Meeting every challenge a level throws at you, setting high scores, all through practice and hard work.

And then being defeated by Pong.

Again.

And Again.

And Again.

Each time, being forced to repeat the level you've mastered. A level you can complete while barely missing a beat, a level that proves that you are in fact skilled at the game. But in the end, it doesn't matter if you're good at Bit.Trip.Beat.

It matters that you're good at Pong.

It matters that you're good at the father of all video games.

It matters that you're, simply, good at games.

And when you aren't, well...


You just suck.

I like video games. Quite a lot, actually. So much so that I like to keep specific track of the games I own, which I've finished and which I want to play next. And thanks to the wonderful website known as The Backloggery, I've got the perfect means to do so. Over the past week or so I've been tearing through some of my backlog and having a hell of a fun time doing it. While I'm certainly late to the party on these titles, I feel like laying it all out on the proverbial bedspread and sharing my glorious opinions with you, the similarly bored masses of Saturday afternoon.

WipEout HD

Anyone who's anyone [and owns a PS3] should be playing Fury right now, as it's a rip-snorting adventure through a world of awesome audio-visual glory. After finishing the new campaign, I decided to finally go back and finish the original and boy, was I missing out.

The original tracks are gorgeous. They're better to look at and play than the Fury tracks and twice as memorable. While the campaign is much more repetitive than the sequel (I really do get tired of time trials after a while) it's brilliant fun and even better challenge. Even after this morning, when seconds away from a gold on Phantom I was send flying back to last place, I know I'll be going back to finish this - probably tonight, even. Can't stay away from that funk atmosphere.



Soul Bubbles

I didn't really like Loco Roco. Rolando didn't do it for me either. But apparently the amorphous blob moving through an environment genre is not entirely lost on me; Soul Bubbles is terrific. While it is many of the things the previous titles were - repetitive, simple, easy - it also has an ease of control that makes it fun to play. The collectibles are hidden in a way that take just the right amount of work to find and the art style and music create one of the most relaxing experiences I've played since Flower.

But what I really like about this game (which I play for relaxation more than anything else) is the way the puzzles are set up. The first time any obstacle presents itself, it always hides a bonus item. If you solve it yourself, good. Then the bonus item is yours immediately. But if you can't solve the puzzle you can just move on. In no time at all the puzzle will repeat as part of the main progression and the answer will be handed to you on a silver platter. It's an intriguing game where it's never harder than you want it to be. Just lovely.

Lumines

I don't know how I missed this puzzle game so long. While at first the music sounds janky and you can't make squares for the life of you, soon you're playing to the rhythm and stringing massive chains. All the progress comes unconsciously and the high scores are set up so you're not competing against an artificially high standard. I started playing the Steam version and have moves on to Supernova on the PS3. For any fans of music or puzzle games this is a must have.

On a side note - Dear Q Entertainment: Please bring Rez HD to PSN so I can finally sell my 360. In addition, find some way to make me stop seeing squares in my sleep.



Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

My favourite two parts of inFamous were both platforming sections (for those interested, the prison and the tower, both on the second island). So after finishing that title I of course decided to move on to the pure platforming games of Sucker Punch's past. So far the first game hasn't really provided. It's just a lot of collectibles spread about a linear environment where platforming doesn't much come into it. But I'm hopeful for the future and will be keeping with it - hoping to find something there to love.

Bionic Commando Re-Armed

I played through this co-op with a friend quite a while ago. We got to the last level, the albatross, and after many tries got to the very last boss and died. Both of us were disheartened that we' have to go through the entire last level again and we quit - never to go back. But thanks to a patch that makes "normal" mode synonymous with infinite lives and brisker checkpoints, I decided to put back on the proverbial bionic arm and jump (or I guess, technically, never jump at all) in.

This game is amazing. The swinging mechanic feels oh so right and the pacing with the new patch is perfect for those of us who don't like our games to be punishing. I felt the entire time like I was in control, even, finally in the last level where I was able to lose a dozen lives and still win. I high recommend this to ANYONE with a PS3, 360 or PC. At 10$ it's a steal.



So, this is the end of my misguidingly-titled what-you-been-playing post. And while I think I've provided suitable exposition on my backlog (and hopefully inspires some of you to check out these gems) I haven't at all provided broomsticks.



There.

P.S. Does anyone know how to fix images being the wrong horizontal size when uploaded to Dtoid?

There are no pictures in this blog. Honestly, I like writing them but I hate searching for images to put in and caption and whatever. I won't be offended if you don't like reading a wall of text.

Kind of a serious title for a blog, don't you think? Sometimes we all take video games a little seriously. So, before getting into the meat of my ramblings, I thought I'd take a little bit of a side-road and talk about something we all know and love: Christmas.

Growing up, Christmas was the 25th of January, when a new video game sat under the tree. Once I discovered the internet, Christmas started taking place in May or June - E3, the big and shiny event when all of the greatest things in the coming year would be revealed. Currently, Christmas is in a better position than either of those. It's every Thursday and it's provided by Sony's PSN update - a lovely mix of quirky titles, retro love and only a tiny hint of corporate greed.

This last PSN Christmas, as I now call them, was one of the best of all. It brought with it a Bionic Commando patch for the carebear in all of us, updates to Rock Band music, a PS1 classic for the ages and of course a few new PSP games. Obviously to those of us in the know, those were just icing on the cake in relation to the real prizes: WipEout Fury and Shatter.

Being the brain-washed consumer that I am I picked up both. Since then, I've spent every day playing both. Both have received critical acclaim and are hot topics of discussion on all but the most prejudiced of gaming boards. I've put the same amount of time into each of them.

It's strange then, that thinking back on it, that one of them I really don't like.

The Meat of It

Hardcore and casual. Good and bad. We use a lot of relative terms to describe our games. But when it really comes down to it, there's one classification that supersedes them all: liked and didn't. Despite the critical opinion or classification of it, when it comes down to it there are games we personally love and games that fill us with disdain. Most of the time, we only play the former. But the latter are the ones that are fascinating, because they describe to me a part of gamer culture that is astounding and unnerving.

We play games we don't even like.

And of, course, there follows the question:

Why do we do it?

I thought on this for a while and came to a strange conclusion. For even the most committed of book, movie or television enthusiasts, the hobby is simply that - a hobby. The hobby of playing video games, however, for many of us is anything but - it's a lifestyle.

It sneaks up on you. You play a few games and you realize that you love them. That's fine and good. Then you start reading news sites and keeping up with what's available - just as good. Now you're an educated gamer. Soon you're spending time on forums and other social networks, which is fantastic. You're taking advantage of the web to form a social bond with others who share your hobby. And, while this is delightful and pretty and correct in every way, with video gaming, it doesn't end there.

You start to play every AAA release.
You need to own every console.
Your backlog grows and grows.
You start to play a game not because you necessarily wanted to, but because it was there.
You start to play a game not because you wanted to, but because you had free time - and by tradition, every moment of free time is spent playing video games.

Obviously this isn't true of everyone here. Most gamers play only a subset of big releases, stick to what they're interested in. But for some reason, some of us feel the need to do more. We feel obligated, like it's important that we remain aware of every aspect of the industry and follow all the big titles.

In the past few months, I've done a few things that, looking back, were simply ridiculous:
I ruined Killzone 2, playing it only because I had to.
I ruined inFamous, playing it only because I had to.
I ruined Shatter, playing it as though I had to achieve an artifical goal.

These are all games that some people take great enjoyment from. But for me, personally, they are not successes. Yet I played every minute of them, having no fun in the process; just wasting time.

Now I come back to my opening point. There are games we like, and games we don't like. For some reason, more gamers than seems proper feel the obligation to play the latter in addition to the former. It's hard to put away a game knowing that you paid full price for it and didn't enjoy it - but that's what the wonderful service of Goozex is for. And when it comes down to it, video gaming is about an experience. It should be a good one.

So, when the PSN Christmas comes with Fat Princess in tow, I'll skip it because I know I won't enjoy it. Next AAA Sony title that honestly doesn't seem that appealing, I'll skip it. And while I'm not wasting time playing those games, I'll enjoy some more WipEout Fury, or whatever game I'm enjoying at the time. Video games are a huge part of my life, for better or for worse. Some of you may feel the same way. If you do, I hope, like me, you'll keep this in mind: if they're going to be a part of our lives, they should be a damn good part.

It's been a while since I blogged... I'm definitely out of practice! Sorry for the janky pacing, but I just had to write about this gem after finishing it,

ATLUS is a big thing here on Destructoid. A darling publisher, they release a lot of obscure and little-known titles from the far east. I'm not normally one to be interested in the likes of Etrian Odyssey (too hard) or Steal Princess (too moe?). However, there is one brand that Atlus publishes that I can't keep my hands off of - Shin Megami Tensei.

While I own pretty much every Megaten game released on our fair Western shores, my completion rating leaves something to be desired. The only games that haven't led me to rage-quit have been Persona 3/4. Great as those are, however, I'm going to talk about a different game. The latest in my completed list as of ten minutes ago: Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor.

Wow. Let me say it now: this game blows Persona 3 and 4 out of the water. Not because of the gameplay (which is outstanding and merits an article of its own) but because of the story. More importantly, not because of the story as it could be written by any team at Atlus, but because of the story as it evolves in the hands of each individual player. Most RPGs place the player on a narrow path and point them towards the end. Devil Survivor places the player on a crossroads, and at every juncture they are never sure which is the right way. This isn't because the game is opaque or misleading. It's because there is no right path - that's what makes the game so brilliant.



Before Persona 3, Megaten games were different. They were dastardly difficult affairs presenting players with a bevy of choice and arguing philosophy. Persona 3 brought the series to a new audience by abstracting that choice to the classroom. It was still there, just not as heavy, and coated with an urban funk that couldn't be resisted. Devil Survivor brings these two worlds together. The choices are once again between justice, philosophy and everything in between. But these choices are parallels to characters in your world. Each has an idea of how to stop the calamity at hand - a seven-day quarantine of Tokyo following demon invasion. The player character is forced to choose friends and enemies in this battle. It is not an easy decision.

From the beginning of Devil Survivor, you're presented with these choices. Every dialogue option is a choice. You're not trying to tell an NPC what they want to hear so they'll be your friend and improve a Social Link. Instead, the dialogue options ask the player character what he thinks. There is no right answer, just the player's personal preference and view on the world. As the game goes on, these simple dialogue options expand to terrifying choices. When presented with two friends fighting to the death, who do you side with? Who's ideology do you follow? What is your vision for the world? What might you do that could lead to the end, or beginning, of the world? These are the choices you'll be presented with in Devil Survivor, and throughout it all you'll never know if what you're doing is "right" or "wrong". You'll only do what you think is best for yourself and world. Some will agree with you and become alies. Some will want you dead. By the end of the game you will be torn; sitting on dialogue choices for minutes at a time trying to figure out what you really want.



Of course, as players of RPGs we are used to choice being decidedly less important. In most games, no matter what you choose it's possible to please everybody. Eventually, one can have every item, every party member, and witness every plot event. Not so in Devil Survivor. Throughout the seven-day period within which the game occurs, any action to progress plot or your relationship with a character takes half an hour. While at the beginning of the game this may seem like a trivial choice - who would I rather hang our with, Atsuro or Yuzu? - by the sixth day things have progressed to a decidedly more dramatic point. Presented with the option of saving one friend or talking to another and giving them important information that may save their life, there is no right path. Once again, its up to the player to do what they think is best.

In the end, the player is forced to make a final choice. It's here that the game becomes its most linear. But it's not a linearity born of a long setup. Instead, the game is merely forcing you to choose from the beds you've made for yourself. This final choice is as much consequence as decision. It is a simple selection screen, but in it you will have only the options that your previous choices have made available to you. From this point on your path is one you must stay with. There is no "good" ending. There's only the ending that you as the player chose to follow and perceive as best.



It's these choices that make Devil Survivor such a great game, better by far than the modern right or wrong fairytales like inFamous or Mass Effect and arguably as deep and important as the long-lost WRPGs of the 1990s. Never before have there been so many shades of grey - when it comes time for the player to make their final choice, I dare anyone to tell me they had an easy time of it. I myself put my DS to sleep and came back to the choice in a few hours - that's how difficult and impactful it is. Even at the end, I'm not sure I made the right decision. Luckily there's a new game plus and I'm free to go again.

If you, like me, value the Role-Playing game, you should make the choice to pick up Devil Survivor. I'm sure you'll be ecstatic with the consequences.