Yesterday was a huge day for PS3 owners. We were finally able to get a long, good look at God of War III, as well as hear all about how the game will play. Great news... if you like God of War. I, for one, never really cared for the series. They're well-made games and all, but the amount of racism against skeletons they contain is just too much for my delicate sensibilities.
That doesn't mean that yesterday wasn't still a huge day for me and my PS3. Over on the official PlayStation blog, we got a post by the creator of Noby Noby Boy, a PSN game that looks to be everything that God of War III isn't: low-tech, funny, and most of all, surreal. Where God of War III is a game that can easily be described as "S'more God of War," Noby Noby Boy is apparently "a game that cannot be expressed by words in the first place," "an undefined and ambitious game" that will leave players saying, "I don't know why, but it’s somehow interesting. I can't stop playing."
The true sign of a console's maturity is how many types of gamers it caters to, and if you ask me, having Noby Noby Boy and God of War III on the same console is about as mature as you can get. You can read more of Keita Takahashi's thoughts on his game here, but be prepared to not know what the hell he's talking about.
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Rey, where is the community games section on PSN? I really want to know because that would mean that Sony created a really good game making software program that I want to learn more about.
There is no community games section or anything similar to XNA stuff. Where do you come off making such a brash and rather dumb statement?
As matter of fact what does the XNA initiative have anything to do with NNB anyway?
This is not knock against PSN, which does have a very good catalog of titles for it.
@ Cataract- That may be the most wrong statement I have ever read in my life. What if I said that FLCL is not a real "show" because it too is a "digital art project" filled with surrealism and nonsensical leaps in logic?
After reading the ps blog about it I realized its not for me. Even for $5. The dev set out to create a game that can't be explained, and while that might interest some people it doesn't interest me. It looks like something an ADD kid threw together, it looks like its all over the place. Sure you could call it unique, I would as well, but just because something is unique doesn't mean its automatically good. Watching the vid the first thing that came to mind was man if you were on drugs you'd probably love this "game." Also I believe the price of something shouldn't be a deciding factor if the game is good or not.
Back in college, I was learning about 20th century art music, which sounds like a bunch of guys just playing whatever, which seemed kind of awesome in that unique sense as well. At one point, me and a group were told to perform one of these pieces, with all sort so random notations, upside down rests, sideways parts and obscure interpreted symbols. We "practiced" it and figured we were doing it right: unique and up for interpretation, thus acceptable right?
We come back to class and perform the piece, and our professor calls us out on out bullshit. While we were doing these unique intepretations, we weren't playing together, and realyl were not thinking musically. He proceeded to improv the piece with another guy, and it sure enough, sounded like something deliberate and musical.
Point of the Anecdote: Just because you put something together for high art or for the freshness of an idea, doesn't mean you've made something that's cohesive as an experience.
If Noby Noby Boy can't be explained as a game, then I can't see how its supposed to reasonably garner anticipation as a play experience.
The difference here though is that FLCL is still a sequence of events strung together that has a concrete beginning, middle, and end, although how those are reached may be abstract in a realistic sense, it all ties together.
In the above video, there is no comprehensible actions being performed. Who is the protagonist? What is the goal that needs to be achieved? What the fuck am I playing?
To me, this isn't a game, it's just abstract art. And even calling this art is a stretch. I think the idea of making something incoherent and/or odd and hiding it under the veil of "art" is a bullshit excuse that too many people are taking today.
But instead of going further into my views on art and interactive media, let me ask you a question. What exactly is going on in the video, and how does the controllers input directly correlate to the action shown on screen?
Oh wow... so that -was- a dominatrix right? Also I want to have this video my new definition of when "this is what the internet broken looks like" or the more subtle "there is a glitch in reality."
I'm with Cataract, I've been watching vids of this in the last few days and the only thing I can say to have enjoyed is the music (not on this video), not because I don't like the the graphical style or quirky games but because there's nothing to it, its a weird sandbox world with physics were you stretch one character and make it eat/poop objects (in that order) without affecting anything in the game. There's no challenge and reward system or something to compel us for more than 10 minutes.
The only thing that Keita Takahashi managed to explain about this is a little meta game were the length of every Nobi Nobi Boy in the world adds to the length of a(Nobi Nobi?)Girl online.
Ah, shit! I can't enjoy games on all three consoles?! Does that mean that I have to return the "Call of Duty 4" that I just bought for my 360 no more than a few hours ago?
Damn it! It's just not fair! Out of the three consoles, why am I only allowed to love two of them? And on Valentine's Day! Not fair... not fair at all...
For some reason I can't shake the feeling that all the "trailers" for this game are jokes and that the real game will be something beautiful and revolutionary. Im probably completely wrong....but whatever. Im still buying it.
I have no idea what this game is about -- and apparently, neither does Takahashi, so I guess that's kinda the point -- but I'll be picking it up just to try and figure it out.
Wow. Today I took (and failed) my final A+ test for the second time and was feeling bummed out (and I've been highly experienced in computers for 10+ years... sad, I know).
I watch this video... and all the worry and sadness goes away. Thank you, whatever the fuck type of game you are.
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Contest:
9:47 AM on 02.14.2009
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I look forward to this thing.
There is no community games section or anything similar to XNA stuff. Where do you come off making such a brash and rather dumb statement?
As matter of fact what does the XNA initiative have anything to do with NNB anyway?
This is not knock against PSN, which does have a very good catalog of titles for it.
/anger
It should, it is made by the same guy
Would I sound silly?
Then it'll be awesome :)
Things are finally looking up for the PS3.
(and thanks for not hating on me for my disinterest in GoW3.)
I'm with Corak.
Back in college, I was learning about 20th century art music, which sounds like a bunch of guys just playing whatever, which seemed kind of awesome in that unique sense as well. At one point, me and a group were told to perform one of these pieces, with all sort so random notations, upside down rests, sideways parts and obscure interpreted symbols. We "practiced" it and figured we were doing it right: unique and up for interpretation, thus acceptable right?
We come back to class and perform the piece, and our professor calls us out on out bullshit. While we were doing these unique intepretations, we weren't playing together, and realyl were not thinking musically. He proceeded to improv the piece with another guy, and it sure enough, sounded like something deliberate and musical.
Point of the Anecdote: Just because you put something together for high art or for the freshness of an idea, doesn't mean you've made something that's cohesive as an experience.
If Noby Noby Boy can't be explained as a game, then I can't see how its supposed to reasonably garner anticipation as a play experience.
Fanboys. :D
AWESOME!
Is it possible for us to be fanboys of both the Wii and the PS3? Isn't that going to cause some kind of rip in the space/time continuum or something?
Yes, me and Doc Brown will be going back to remedy that.
Fortunately it will only be in our galaxy.
The difference here though is that FLCL is still a sequence of events strung together that has a concrete beginning, middle, and end, although how those are reached may be abstract in a realistic sense, it all ties together.
In the above video, there is no comprehensible actions being performed. Who is the protagonist? What is the goal that needs to be achieved? What the fuck am I playing?
To me, this isn't a game, it's just abstract art. And even calling this art is a stretch. I think the idea of making something incoherent and/or odd and hiding it under the veil of "art" is a bullshit excuse that too many people are taking today.
But instead of going further into my views on art and interactive media, let me ask you a question. What exactly is going on in the video, and how does the controllers input directly correlate to the action shown on screen?
I don't like a lot of critically acclaimed games, but I usually respect them for what they are.
You totally are. You've leveled up your faboyism to a dual wielding fanboy style.
Next thing you know, you'll be telling us like something on every system. And we all know that's not possible!(sarcasmontheinternet. . .)
What I make from Keita Takahashi's "explanation" it is indeed a game with levels and progression.
I'm confused about this game too.. =(
The only thing that Keita Takahashi managed to explain about this is a little meta game were the length of every Nobi Nobi Boy in the world adds to the length of a(Nobi Nobi?)Girl online.
Is any of that evident in the video?
If you had said "What the fuck is going on in this video? I hope the actual game makes more sense than that!" I would have been behind you %100.
Actually, I'm behind you right now %100, but don't turn around to look and see if I'm there. If you do, I'LL KILL 'YA!
Ah, shit! I can't enjoy games on all three consoles?! Does that mean that I have to return the "Call of Duty 4" that I just bought for my 360 no more than a few hours ago?
Damn it! It's just not fair! Out of the three consoles, why am I only allowed to love two of them? And on Valentine's Day! Not fair... not fair at all...
{whimper}
Confusing video is confusing much.
I watch this video... and all the worry and sadness goes away. Thank you, whatever the fuck type of game you are.