Games are art, An emotional rant from the soul.
(took me 3.5 hours to finish this post)
First:
I made myself a new years promise..
Tell the truth.. tell what I think.. and as long as it doesnt hurt anybody in such a way that they cant be repared.. I will open my mouth.
Note, I did use the word "rape" a lot, and my excuses for that, but when you look at it in the context.. there wouldnt be any other words that fit.
I have written this post two times as a comment on the "lbp best game of 2008" but my ps3 and the usb keyboard where trying everything in their binary power to work against me, and hence i lost the post two times.
So I am writing it as a new thread for the reason that it was 90% offtopic.
The reason Im writing this on a new forum with new people (but also towards gamers and even gamecompanies) is this:
You are the new editing community, the new gamers..
The people that dont know the entire history of games and how their editors might have worked, and havent played games ever since the "pong-station" entered our homes.
You can still be influenced, learned.. we can still open your eyes and make sure that in the future more decent games will be created.
but there are also hardcore gamers, oldskool gamers, hardcore creatist that are working with the new editor.. I hope those agree with me on the big lines, and hopefully back me up If I step on someones big toe.
And I am warning you, this rant will probably be about 5 - 10 pages long, emotional and I might step on a toe or two.
I might even make some people at gamecompanies angry, but when it comes down to it most people will probably agree with me and hopefully back me up.
I am actually nerveus of writing this post because I hope it comes out as good as I written it last time, and this means as much to me as my friends and family do.
here goes:
Little big planet isnt the best game of 2008 for multiple reasons, but again one of the most fun and interesting games of 2008.
For starters there are some reasons why I think so:
When the game was released it had many flaws and bugs that in my humble opinion should have been fixed before release.
The lights not being black when off,
the very simple not put any thought in search options,
When you use the r-pad when you navigate trough your custom level pages on the worldmap you suddenly republish your level (and now needs a key to access) and more.
When I bought LBP I opened the manual and hoped for an in depth explenation of the editor and advice on optimisation, the how, what en when's of editing.
But no, you get almost nihil information about that.
Yes there are in game tutorials but they go about 1 inch deep, and yes most can be self-learned but the lack of information is just absurd.
How can you get the most out of something, if you have absolutely no clue on how the editors engine processes data and MM afaik not having an in depth wiki.
Furthermore, why dont we get a decent changelog.
In one level I was working on, I used the "talker/speaker" with a cutscene to make our sackperson let go.
But without stating it, they changed that so I had to work my way around it.. I found out after about 20 people played my level and suddenly got stuck. (goodbye rating!)
I used the "brain" quite a lot to actually create a giant creature.. but now that they changed that.. I deleted the level.
You would fall down in so many places it was better to know when to quit than aimlessly fixing problems that wherent there to begin with.
So that anoys me, YOU SHOULDNT FIX PROBLEMS THAT CHANGE GAMEPLAY, Imagine Epic changing everything all of a sudden in their editor.. different standard settings in the configuration menu's for instance.. that would render all "maps/levels" useless at once.
Okay, the changes are not that big but if you have to change gameplay altering stuff after release.. you made us buy something flawed and we should get our money back.
I am also a little ****** on the fact that there where posts of MM probably paying people that created custom content that was of such awe that they would use that for their own purposes.
Now that eula tells us that MM gives people that put their heart and soul in what they create the big finger.
And this is probably the biggest reason why we cant import .jpg/bmp/dss to use as materials because that would be real user content, the stuff they dont have rights of. (And dont give me that ps3 eye webcam crap, because that thing is so much crap.. unless you pay at least 200 euro's for a good lightsetup for that thing.. its imho as useless as a limb .... )
I have read that EULA a few times now, and you can't tell me that its flawless.
They never stated anything about the "idea" of your level, or the "creative" input in your level and therefore i am sure that when a decent lawyer would look at it he can punch enough holes to fill all the "my levels" moon's craters.
Unlike the dumbest bug ive seen in my 10 years..
How the.. allocating/reserving an max amount of memory on your drive thats so small if you play one of those CRAPPY bonus levels with 100+ items filling up your whole memory.. I created 10 levels and my account was full.. FFS
Then the editor itself..
Remember.. the Cell?
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor) )
its so amazingly powerfull.. oh oh.. Guess not looking at the thermometer.
If I want to fully fill the level space, I should be able to.
Period.
The lack of enviromental tools.
Lack of options on lights (it should be color>volume>brightness>saturation!!) and the option to add light-actors that wont show up ingame to add to the lighting>enviroment.
The option to not only attach switches, but also tell them what they do.
(two switches attached to one wheel, one for speed, one for on/off for instance. Attached to a light id like to not only make the light go on/off but also dim/brighten).
that kind of stuff.
What you can do with the limited amount of switches is amazing, so no pointers there... its mostly the small things that bother me...
Why does the engine render stuff that isnt in your view (I really have a feeling it does this), why the lack of information, why only a few simple settings.. (add an "standard" and "pro" editing setup in the option!!)
Bugs.. bugs.. bugs..
Stupid long rewind times when you are online (happens once in a while).
Things moving when they are attached to a de-activated switch (got prove!!) and worse.. things moving when the editor is on pause (WTF!)
and random stuff, like a rollercoaster.. 100 times it works perfect.. you test it 101th time, didnt change anything besides getting a good night sleep.. and all of a sudden your coaster crashes.
So, no LBP isnt the best game that 2008 had to offer, so if you think so.. play more games and do your homework before you state something like that.
Dont get me wrong, lbp is amazing, its fun and the fact that you can create levels with your joystick is not only interesting, it might even be the future of platform gaming.. but it wasnt flawless.. imho it wasnt even 100% stable/finished when they released it.
It does have a lot of creative outbursts, and (not adding all of the 100000's of crappy levels out there) has some real artistic value.. and ending my rant on LBP/MM with the words "artistic value" Im beginning my rant towards every company, artist and person that has attachements towards games and their creators.
2008 was a year with mostly poor games, besides fallout 3, gears of war 2, metal gear 4 and the visuals from the new prince of persia.. it was 99% utter crap.
Just like the last 5 to 10 years.
I will start with Nintendo.
Nintendo was once the most innovating company, their mario and zelda games (and what not) where a huge succes and not only looked better every time.. they played better every time.
Even when Nintendo went N64 and created mario and zelda 3d for the first time.. I was amazed by how good they converted them from 2d to 3d.
Then came the gamecube and though nominated by most as the least best console of his generation (gamecube/xbox/ps2) capcom showed us with Resident Evil 4 that the gamecube is more powerfull than we all thought.. weird that NO other company could get the quality capcom could get out of the gamecube.
(Only twilight princess comes close, but more on capcom and zelda later)
Mario sunshine came, and from there on.. mario got a slow death.. not only in his platform games, also in his kart and every other game he was in.
You can tell sunshine wasnt a mario game, it was a totally different concept.. but just like mario 2.. they just added a mario touch to it.. and so poorly it makes me angry.
grown up with Nintendo I just knew the Wii would be a success.. and to my regrets.. it is.
I fully understand the concept, the marketing and such from nintendo.. but they raped every fanboy.. every person that loved/loves mario and zelda.. mario kart..
1.5 times stronger the wii is compared to the gamecube.. you would think that the quality of resident evil 4 would be reached by more companies..
even by Nintendo itself.
But no, they again raped the fans by releasing twilight princess for the wii first... but again.. more on zelda later.
Now.. mario 64 was probably one of the best platformers ever.. easy to learn.. extremely hard to master (unless you are some japanese kid.. and we all know they rule).
How can it be that sunshine was such utter crap..
Maybe mario galaxy would be better...
And the first hour or so it was.
Wow a bee costume.. would it be like SMB3 and have tens of costumes mario can use in his advantage..?
NO FFS NO!only two or three costumes.. and the ability to fly.. almost nowhere.
the enviroments besides a few levels where bland and low poly, and some where even so bad If I was teaching an enviroment designers class.. Id make sure they would try another kind of job.
but after that hour..
the repetetiveness came..
Mostly ugly enviroments, boring gameplay and so focussed on kids that the difficulty was near nihil.
Even getting 100% only took me and my brother less than 42 hours.
Galaxy made me believe mario is dead.
But there was one thing that made me not only believe mario is dead.. it made me know mario is dead.
Mario kart wii.
FOR F.. FFS!!
WHY FFS not Mario Kart Galaxy?
travel with your karts from planet to planet.. every character its own planet with a few courses..
no you get something shoved up your throath you never asked for.
Why did they remove the 2 chars on one car?
because they both can hold items you can add more tactics into your game..
why in gods name did they add that stupid pow block.. now you cant hold on to your item for longer than a minute.. making you a sitting duck for red shields and what not.
The new levels all where crap, the jump and shake your joystick addition was just plain stupid.. im not playing ssx!!!!!!!1111one111Eleven!! and why didnt they improve the visuals of the old levels?
No instead of that they altered them crappish and even upscaled them way to much making them feel sluggish and boring.
Ok, zelda:
zelda 1: genious
zelda 2: (maybe it wasnt a zelda at first..) but fun
ALTAP(snes): Link was back, and more powerfull and hi res than he ever was.. amazing gameplay.. cool puzzles and it was moderately difficult the first one/two times.
Ocarina of time: probably one of the best rpg's in that style (action based fighting instead of turn based) even without a jump button you did not have the feeling you where limited.. you could climb.. link would jump automatic.. and even that had almost no flaws.
The story was good, very cool weapons and it looked amazing for that period of time.
Majora's mask.. I cant believe it myself, but I never was able to get a hold on a copy.. If someone is selling.. im buying!
windwaker:
to easy, almost no bosses, extremely boring when you are going across the oceans, boring story.
Twilight Princess:
Actually a gamecube game.. and looked good for a gamecube game.. but looked outdated for a Wii game!
PERIOD!
besides the forest and a few temples and the fight in the wind tower.. its pure crap.
That wolf thing was poorly done, Okami did a way better job at it!
Again they seem to be foccussing on either little kids or retarded people because it was so simple... so simple.
the ice temple was just plain bullcrap.
and almost everything was just ugly.. way to empty plains, empty walls.. only 6 or so different creatures and you never really had the feeling the people where a part of the town and the other way around.. (besides imho the first village)
The weapons where crap, (half you will never use) especially since you didnt have a real fighting stance with them, or be able to use combo's with them.. unlike what you could do with your sword.
And.. where is the magic?
So now it comes: Zelda is dead!
unless nintendo will create their new console on the adults that grew up with mario and zelda it will be a kids game.
so.. why doesnt nintendo create "super mario kid" and use the windwaker concept for a zelda kid version.
And also create mario/zelda games for the adults.
Grown up mario, grown up zelda.. for once they will be able to kiss the princesses.. cut creatures apart.. a darker deeper emotional story.. but no.. the people that loved mario and zelda will probably always have an empty space in their heart.
Before I quit comparing games with their previous versions.. I still want to talk about one character... one game.
Sonic.
I think no other character was raped as worse as a good friend from someone I know in the little town of southpark (indiana jones).
Sonic was imho one of the coolest characters around, especially since he wasnt just for one game.. but more than a few.
Sonic 1 was fun, robotnik was a real a-hole bad-*** and it had more speed in its time than I could imagine ever seeing.
Sonic 2 was even more fun, you could co-op with tails and fight robotnik, who was still bad-***.
Sonic 3 was almost the best sonic.. if not for sonic 3 and knuckles..
Super and hyper sonic/knuckles and supertails...
Tails could lift sonic up, could swim and knuckles could climb. not to mention the elemental shields!
Hell sonic wouldnt die if he jumped into the water.
Then came the dreamcast.. (Best console untill the xbox360 and ps3, everyone stating something else needs to do his homework) with sonic adventure.
It was a decent game, but had its flaws.
Stupid amy gameplay, stupid big the cat gameplay.. and so on.
Sometimes loopings didnt work and you would die..
Sometimes you where going so fast.. you ended up trough the level collision and you would die.. or end up under the level..
But my worst.. worst problem with this game is.. WHERE THE HELL IS MOBIUS!! no for no good reason you are on planet earth.. with crappy looking buildings, cars and people.
But I did finish it 100%..
Then came sonic adventure two.. but since it kept crashing.. I gave up.
Shadow made its appearance.. and for what good reason?
There are allready so many characters.. why not work them out better.. no.. you get more and more character on which furries can use their imagination instead.
Again.. no mobius.. grr.
Sonic heroes..
Dont get me friggin started on this one..
again loopings would kill you, again one mistake would kill you.. again you would fall trough a wall or floor and you would die or end up somewhere where you cant die.. and need to reset.
They made a cool intro.. but couldnt live up to that intro.. and it really made me hate sonic team.. If i could fire them.. Id fire them!
Bunch of uneducated pieces of talentless zombies they are!
Sonic for the 360/ps2
Now im not just getting angry.. no.. it is starting to hurt in my soul... the part that also holds my love for my family, my friends, my passions.
I wont go into the gameplay.. just the loading.
You walk around in a really static city with ugly people..
now it comes:
You want to talk to a person, so you walk up to him and press the talk button.
Loading for at least 25 seconds.
he tells you something, and if its a sidegame:
Loading for at least 1 minute.
The game begins with practically no explenation of what to do, and often with only 1 life or with a few seconds available.. so you die:
Loading for at least 30 seconds.
the person tells you that you didnt make it:
30 seconds loading..
you are in the city again..
so if you want to redo the mission.. you will have to start all over again.
Get my frustration?
It is getting worse..
Sonic unleashed.. yes it contains spoilers.. so read on.. this game just sucks.... big hairy men.
first of all a million dollar intro movie that is almost as good as the original concept of sonic, it looks amazing.. and then not 2 minutes later.. you get some stupid sidekick for no good reason and you noticed towards the way sonic and every one else speaks.. its a kids game.
Sonic levels take up about 4 minutes and have its mayor flaws.. they are so bad that actually firing the people that worked on that game sounds.. not good enough.. I would almost go so far of suggesting torture.
Platforms that will fall when you stand on them is one thing, but when they dont re-appear its something else.. because now when you didnt make the jump, and you want to try again.. you first are wondering why you cant proceed.. and then you notice.. its not coming back.. I have to kill myself and try again from the savepoint.
same with balloons.. they wont come back.. and since they are an essential part of sonics gameplay in the sonic levels you are forced to kill yourself regularly.
There are even levels where you will die instantly on entering the level if you didnt press the jump button.
also sonic sometimes dashes trough enemies instead of gaining some height when bouncing off.. making you sometimes not being able to grab a ledge or piston.. and you will die..
the traps consist mostly of just putting spikes on the floor.. instead of creating the obstacles as part of the enviroment design.
and sonic moves like he is on ice... especially wrong when you need accuracy to jump towards a platform.
then comes the hedgezilla part.
they take about 20 to 30 minutes to do and are extremely slow, boring and feel like a prince of persia meets crash bandicoot 5th generation inbreed production.
its slow, the enemies are stupid, sonic moves slow, the gameplay is not boring, it can actually kill people from being totally boring.
there are even bosses when they hit you, they will also do a ground shaking attack that will instantly drom you off wherever you are and kill you.
the one who created this hedgezilla.. Please.. i beg of you.. lets meet.. I will go southpark on you and your families ***!!
Yes this is how angry it makes me!
its utter.. utter.. utter.. utter.. utter crap.
its one of the worst games I have played ever.
And you want to know why?
they totally lost all focus on what sonic was.
Sonic lived on mobius, robotnik wants to totally destroy mobius and harvest its power.
Robotnik whiped out whole cities, was dark, develish.. he was what sepherioth (FF7) is for most gamers.
they didnt try to create something good, they just wanted to create something crappy like a "300 bonusses for the community" level and know that people will buy it because most are to stupid to understand what makes a good game and what not.
Almost all companies nowadays lost their focuss.. its all about money...
And EA is the biggest one when it comes to money.
they release games early if their share/stockholders are eager to see some more money.. and if they dont get what they want.. the amounth of money that a share/stock is worth will drop.. and EA cant have that.. because its only about money.. and not the game.. the art.
So know that if you buy something from EA.. its soulless.. even though many people have put their souls into it.. EA crushes their souls.. im sure of it.
But then again, dead space is the first game from EA that feels solid.. and besides EA raping your wallet for a few new costumes and weapons.. and the few bugs it has.. dead space is one of the best games EA released in the last 10 years.
William Wright.. if you are reading this..
Why in worlds hell do you deliver such crappy games after you created sim city? I always thought you where a genious.. but im now starting to believe you just have a decent idea, but have no clue in how to execute them propperly!
Nintendo is the same.. money money money.. thats why they changed their console and marketing to focuss on people never played before.. I can understand that.. but without thinking about their fans.. Nintendo let them rot and die for all they care.. they want money.
The uberproof that nintendo is "dead" is the lack of new games.. no good games around x-mas means you are dead! period.
If you like the wii and its wii sports and such.. and dont really play on other consoles.. you are NOT a gamer.. you just play games.. stupid games may i add.
They raped mario, zelda and their fans.. and we are still paying them.. we must like getting raped a lot.
Same with capcom, they give some of their best concepts to other teams and let them rape the character.
Breath of fire series is now dead,
Megeman is probably dead.. (you will never get anything new and original from megaman again!) and besides resident evil I cant really think of a game that is worth mentioning.. yes there are some fun games.. some very artsy like "Devil may cry" but imho not that memorable.. ive seen and played better games.. im sure most of you have.
Sonic team and mario/zelda team needs to be fired and hopefully locked away in some basement.
nuff said about them.
Where is the art in the games?
A story so good that even shakespear would be proud,
Visuals that would make a Da Vinci or Van Gogh jealous,
Gameplay so inventive that even Sun Tzu (art of war) and machiavelli would be amazed.
Games like ICO, Shadow of the collosus.. that ooze with creative input.. why are we losing something so important as art and creativity in games.. and Im not talking about the visuals only..
A good written piece of code is like a good poem written by adgar allan poe and shakespear combined.. but I am more and more getting the feeling most coders are average.. and are hard to find.
(microsoft for instance.. because we all know how many bugs windows has).
The new prince of persia was almost there..
but they went wrong with the gameplay..
the reason you cant die is this and only this:
They couldnt make sure that you wont end up in a buggy situation.. All of a sudden jumping towards the wrong side, not grabbing something.. and gameplay that is actually so unforgiving that you will have to rewind..
sure rewinding was part of prince of persia.. but at least you could die.. now you cant.. so you are basically looking at a beautifull interactive movie, with 90% lack of gameplay.
Rockstar as last.
They took themselves to serious..
and that is the reason that gta4 was so bad.
imho parts of the story where great, but the gameplay was 99.9% utter crap.
Look at saints row.. I hated it since it was a gta rip-off.. but they proved me that they are atm in a better state of mind than rockstar.. and saints row 2 shows.
its pure fun!
And why do you people keep buying crap games?
Dont buy sonic unleashed, dont buy need for speed (is dead btw!), dont buy mario, dont download demo's, download the whole game and burn em.. if you like it, go buy it!
why?
the demo's are just teasers.. a bunch of BS to make you buy the game, and often not what you get when you buy the game.
Also, dont pay 50 euro's or more for games you can finish within 5 hours.. only pay full price when you get at least 20 hours of main gameplay and let it be interesting enough to let the player roam for at least 10 more.
they dont deserve that much money when you paid so much for only a few hours of fun.
Buy only games that not only play well, but look well, have a good story and are bugless!
The whole theme from code to gameplay to visuals should be superb to be asking such crazy amounths of money!
Games are a form of art,
and almost every company lost this vision,
They dont want to be the next van Gogh, Shakespear, Rafael, michalangelo or Goudi..
They want to make money, fast, soulless and preferable over our backs!
And thats what hurts me the most.
My passion for art, creativity, games, stories..
they dont share it with me anymore..
they raped my mario, sonic, link and much more.
And that is why I am writing this..
We are being screwed by most companies (also the music industry.. but thats a whole different rant!) and instead of playing inspiring games.. we now get mostly utter crap and we play it like its tastefull candy!
I am willing to make an afford to change all of this,
I want better games, and I know that I could create better games if I had the money to assamble or hire a team.
Hell.. I can create a better sonic game than every other gamecompany! (besides maybe squaresoft > final fantasy versus 13 team)
Dont believe me, let me prove it,
get me into contact with people that have money,
get me into contact with sonic team,
get me into contact with a team that is willing to take a chance!
Give me a chance!
I will change gaming future!
So,
my 2009 promise now has a start.
