Its amazing how time flies as we are now in the last weeks of classes, with exams starting in just a few days and holidays coming soon. The biggest change that I always find at this time in the term is the sudden increase in available gaming time, sometimes at the expense of study (wait, that’s a secret, don’t tell anyone – that’s how newspapers work right?)
Anyways, it is possible to balance both gaming and study during the exam period, and gaming can actually offer a great way of getting away from all that studying. Countless people will tell you that it is important to get away from studying for a while, otherwise your head will explode – well maybe I spiced up the ending of the advice a bit, but no one is going to contradict me. The perfect style of game for those exam period breaks is a short level or stage based game. Just be careful that you don’t fall into the ‘Just one more’ trap that is way too easy in games like Angry Birds and Cut the Rope (this game is an interesting physics type game that has occupied a large percentage of one of my classmates’ time recently).
One of my favourite series of games for quick breaks are the LEGO games. I know people view them frequently as children’s games, which they kind of are, but they are also very well made and can be a great source of simple fun. I am talking mainly about the main Star Wars (not LEGO Star Wars 3: The Clone Wars) and Harry Potter versions. Additional games have been released in the genre, including two Indiana Jones, and one each for Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean. Often these other games in the genre have failed to keep me interested because they either haven’t had a cohesive story line to follow, or they seem to have been rushed in order to cash in on the LEGO craze. This craze seems to have died down recently, and the games have started to return back to their previous higher quality levels. Currently I am playing LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7, which has broken away from the chapter style of earlier LEGO games. While the game still stops and tallies your score, every once in a while it is much less often, and not very obvious. Other than that, the game does a great job of embracing the Harry Potter stories (exponentially more than the EA games have) and telling it through the standard LEGO humour.
So off of LEGO, and over to more serious gaming. This month has seen the release of both Batman: Arkham City and Skyrim, the latest entry in the Elder Scrolls series. With The Iron Warrior, class representation and classes themselves, I am waiting on playing Skyrim until next term when I will be on co-op, maybe I will discuss it a bit then. I have been playing Arkham City though, and it is an amazing game. I have previously mentioned Arkham Asylum as one of my favourite games, and definitely my favourite superhero game of all time.
Quick aside, I have to also mention the “Adventures of Batman & Robin” for the Sega Genesis. Back in elementary school my best friends and I both had the Sega Genesis, and I had Jurassic Park, while they had this game. Needless to say many days were devoted to getting as far as possible through both games in co-op mode, while secretly hoping that the other group would lose so that it was your turn again – the main downfall of two player co-op among three friends. The Batman game was based off of the Batman Animated Series, which had some of the best characters and storylines ever. The show was definitely focused towards a more adult audience and dealt with some very heavy issues, like whether or not Batman was actually the cause of all the horrible things in Gotham by actually causing the creation of many of his greatest super-villains.
Back to this decade, and Batman: Arkham City, which has taken everything I liked about the first game and refined it, taken everything I found annoying about the game and fixed it, and changed things that I didn’t even realise needed refinement until they had changed. Asylum had a much more linear storyline, with you taking Batman through Arkham Asylum facing each enemy in a very haphazard way. Each villain was an enemy because they happened to be in that area of the building when you arrived, not because you were specifically searching for them. Also, boss battles tended to be very straight forward once you figured out the pattern, with many of them entirely focused on getting the giant stupid brute to charge at you, then dodging out of the way as they collide with an electrical panel.
In Arkham City, the game is more of a sandbox style with the entire quarantine zone open to you to run around in – or grapple and glide as is more often the case. Because of this set-up, the linear storyline can take you in non-linear directions. Early in the game, Batman has to find Mr. Freeze for the Joker (don’t ask why, it will ruin the drive of the game). This leads into a simple game mechanic where Batman’s cowl can measure ambient temperature changes in the air, so you traverse the city to reach the coldest point. It’s a simple mechanic that seems very Batman-esque but also allows you to abandon the search for a while to do some side missions. When you do find Freeze’s hide-out you find that he has been captured by the Penguin, alright, go and find the Penguin. Throughout the game traditional villains are sometimes short-lived allies, they each have their own motivations throughout the game, and their stories are all weaved together to make one story.
To tie it back to the other game I mentioned, the writer of both Arkham games was also the writer of the Batman Animated Series, so no wonder the writing is so great. The story interweaves so many of Batman’s rogue gallery while preserving each of their back stories and even making them an integral part of the story. Many people don’t know that Harley Quinn, Joker’s second in command, was actually introduced in the animated series, she never existed before then. Similarly, Mr. Freeze’s entire back story was changed in the animate series, with the introduction of his terminally ill wife who he cryogenically freezes before an accident alters his biochemistry so that he requires extreme cold to live. Freeze was changed from a gimmicky villain with an ice gun to a tragic character who’s entire motivation for crime is to save his wife.
This kind of writing is what creates such a cohesive story in Arkham City, balanced with great game play that really allows you to get into the character of Batman. The greatest detective in the world, master of so many combat styles, that personae comes through so much better in this game than any Batman game, or any superhero game that has come before. So that is my quasi-review of Batman Arkham City, even though I’ve mentioned that this column is not meant for reviews – but it’s a great game that is available for multiple consoles and deserves a look by any fans, and non-fans alike.
A final quick comment on consoles in general, Black Friday sales have come and gone, but the console battle seems to be at a standstill, and it has been for a while now. Neither Sony or Microsoft have done anything to boost hype for their consoles, I think they are just watching the upcoming Christmas sales. Nintendo has also been fairly quiet, continuing to lose market share against the PS3 and Xbox 360 (which has been the leader in sales for several months now). Maybe Nintendo is just focusing on the release of the Wii U and hoping that the introduction of a system to rival the graphics and power of the other two will be the edge they need to get back into the market. I doubt that this will be enough, as both the PS3 and Xbox 360 have their own motion control systems, and Nintendo has historically benefited from the casual market. The amazing level of approachability Nintendo achieved with the Wii enabled them to top the market for a long time, but I think it is now going to cost them as that same crowd is not going to see any reason to upgrade to the new console, and the hard-core gamers are still going to look towards PS3 or Xbox 360 for triple-A games.
Nintendo has to step up their game if they want to survive into the next generation of gaming. Until then, just keep on gaming!
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