The Right to Remain Gaming

I think the ultimate goal in world/level design is to have the player be constantly aware of the environment and pushed them to actively interact with the world around them to succeed. By world/level I mean the locations takes the game takes place in, whether that's a large open world or a more linear setting. By the design I am referring to how game developers craft these locations for the players to interact with. I have been suffering from open world fatigue the past few years. It isn't enough to have a large and pretty open world to explore if the world itself is simplistic.  Many open world games, particularly ubisoft titles, give you a large and lovely open world, but have you do the same tasks on repeat in all of the locations. (take over strongholds, kill a target, collect junk). So even though you can explore the world at your own pace and often in a somewhat free manner this choice in direction means very little. Often there is a list of tasks a...

Games having a branching narrative paths is commonplace in modern gaming. Often marketing for a game will speak of player choice in terms narrative progression. Although to varying degrees, I have found that many games I have played claim to offer player choice, but in reality only offer the illusion of choice. Or alternatively the choices that they are presenting are meaningless. The greatest strength of video games as both an art form and a medium of entertainment is its interactivity with the players. When used properly it can create a compelling, complicated story that can actively change as you interact with it. Making decisions that affects who lives and who dies, or who falls in love real time while organically interacting with a game is something that is unobtainable through other traditional mediums. Choice in narrative is a double edged sword, it can elevate a story to the next level or create a dull black and white system of choices that robs a title of organic...

There is a lot of killing in video games. Often its something that you don't even notice or think about, or at least I rarely do. Over the course of a typical first person shooter or third person action game you, through the avatar you are controlling, will likely kill hundreds of virtual people. The absurdity of how casual the extraordinary violence is not something I ever took note of until I played the Tomb Raider 2016. In this rebooted title you play Lara Croft on her first true adventure and a large part of the narrative of the game is Lara going from an ordinary young woman to the titular Tomb Raider. Through the first few hours of the game you are exploring and hunting as well as fleeing the strange cult/paramilitary people on the island. You do not kill anyone. Then in a very powerful and dramatic scene Lara with you controlling her makes her first kill. She is visible ill and shaken by the ramifications and implications of taking another persons life. This w...

2017 was an interesting year in gaming both for me and the world at large, but for very different reasons. It was the fourth year in the traditional console cycle where many developers hit their stride, meanwhile Nintendo was treading new ground with the release of the Nintendo switch. We saw the rise of micro transactions more closely associated with mobile games become a staple for triple A titles, culminating in the Battlefront 2 disaster. For me it was a year of change. Although it wasn't the best year of gaming in recent memory it was by far the most diverse. I purchased my first console, a PS4 slim, after being PC exclusive for over four years. I thought this would be the perfect year to share the games I played and a give my thoughts on them as well which one I would recommend. The first game I played this year was likely the best. A large reason I got the PS4 slim on a cyber Monday sale was to play some of its exclusive titles most notably Bloodb...