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missroseroseOr had eyes the size of dinner plates, for that matter?
Snark aside, I'm actually really looking forward to Eternal Sonata. The art aesthetic does veer dangerously close to "cutesy" territory, but the advance buzz is that the gameplay is solid and the story interesting, which are the two biggest parts of any Japanese-style role-playing game. Plus the concept is really sweet - Chopin, on his deathbed, dreams of a world where those with terminal illnesses can harness magic power and a young girl needs his help. Sounds like there's real potential for a whole theme of "wish fulfillment or alternate reality? And if it feels real, does it matter?" in the storyline.
Plus, the music. I've always really liked Chopin, so any game that features his work warrants at least a look. And I tend to like Romantic-period classical music in general, so I'm pretty intrigued at the idea of a game that uses such music for in-game activities. Plus, if you check out the website, they have a music player on there (complete with the most hilariously appropriate volume slider design I've ever seen) that lets you listen to some of the orchestrations they've put together for the game, both of Chopin's music and the original score by Motoi Sakaruba. I've been listening to it at work this morning and really enjoying it.
I'll likely be finishing Kingdom Hearts II first, though - I'm enjoying it quite a bit, especially now that I've got most of the Disney-retread storylines over with and the main storyline is picking up a bit. Considering I got it brand new for $16 off the Greatest Hits rack at Costco, it's probably turning out to be one of the best gaming-value-per-dollar investments I've made in quite some time. I've been a bit surprised with the fact that the somewhat more primitive graphics aren't bothersome after playing a game like Oblivion; it probably helps that the art design meshes well with the Playstation 2's hardware. (We're mostly dealing with animated characters, here, so the solid-block cartoony character design works well the majority of the time. Unfortunately, they felt the need to include a world based on Pirates of the Carribean, in which the PS2's graphical ability can't hope to match up to the real-world characters. The difference, as you might expect, is rather jarring.) But then, there's also the fact that graphical prowess is simply secondary to gameplay, as the Wii has done an excellent job proving this last console generation. And since the two major strengths of Kingdom Hearts II are the intuitive gameplay and the simply amazing level of polish to the audiovisual elements, it doesn't bug me too much that the game isn't in high-definition with insanely high polygon counts. =)
In other game-related news, it will probably come as no surprise to anybody that Brian's picked up a copy of BioShock. Speaking of high-definition with insanely high polygon counts - holy crap, is this an immersive gaming experience. But graphics are only the icing; the true meat of the game (or cake, if you want to extend the metaphor) is the sheer plausibility of the scenario it presents. True, some of the more sci-fi elements require a little suspension of disbelief (genetic modification with 1950s-era technology?), but on the whole, it's a chillingly accurate portrayal of what can happen when human idealism clashes with human lust for power, with the inevitable result of all those lofty ideals going horribly, horribly wrong.
On that note, it was really a stroke of sheer genius setting the game in 1959. Setting aside the Disbelief Suspenders with regards to the technology for a moment, the post-war optimism of the "Everything's Swell" era (as The Onion dubbed it) provides a believable backdrop against which a charismatic unflinching idealist could build an underwater utopia for hand-picked best-and-brightest members of global society. And, chillingly, the fall of Rapture echoes the dissolution of the Fifties optimism into the chaos and turbulence of the Sixties - elements that were ruthlessly suppressed gaining traction as others exploit them to further their own ends, culminating in a war that's as much over cultural divisions as it is over resources.
Considering that I haven't even played the game, myself (simply kept Brian company while he played it), I'm really impressed at how thorough a job the game does in getting you involved in its world. With so many games, movies, and products in general, we settle for less - form over function, style over substance, or vice versa - one aspect of it strong while the rest are given only perfunctory effort. Bioshock is an excellent example of what can happen when form, function, style, and substance all work together, creating something truly spectacular in the process.
...
...nah, it's not at all obvious that I'm enjoying being a gamer again, is it?
Snark aside, I'm actually really looking forward to Eternal Sonata. The art aesthetic does veer dangerously close to "cutesy" territory, but the advance buzz is that the gameplay is solid and the story interesting, which are the two biggest parts of any Japanese-style role-playing game. Plus the concept is really sweet - Chopin, on his deathbed, dreams of a world where those with terminal illnesses can harness magic power and a young girl needs his help. Sounds like there's real potential for a whole theme of "wish fulfillment or alternate reality? And if it feels real, does it matter?" in the storyline.
Plus, the music. I've always really liked Chopin, so any game that features his work warrants at least a look. And I tend to like Romantic-period classical music in general, so I'm pretty intrigued at the idea of a game that uses such music for in-game activities. Plus, if you check out the website, they have a music player on there (complete with the most hilariously appropriate volume slider design I've ever seen) that lets you listen to some of the orchestrations they've put together for the game, both of Chopin's music and the original score by Motoi Sakaruba. I've been listening to it at work this morning and really enjoying it.
I'll likely be finishing Kingdom Hearts II first, though - I'm enjoying it quite a bit, especially now that I've got most of the Disney-retread storylines over with and the main storyline is picking up a bit. Considering I got it brand new for $16 off the Greatest Hits rack at Costco, it's probably turning out to be one of the best gaming-value-per-dollar investments I've made in quite some time. I've been a bit surprised with the fact that the somewhat more primitive graphics aren't bothersome after playing a game like Oblivion; it probably helps that the art design meshes well with the Playstation 2's hardware. (We're mostly dealing with animated characters, here, so the solid-block cartoony character design works well the majority of the time. Unfortunately, they felt the need to include a world based on Pirates of the Carribean, in which the PS2's graphical ability can't hope to match up to the real-world characters. The difference, as you might expect, is rather jarring.) But then, there's also the fact that graphical prowess is simply secondary to gameplay, as the Wii has done an excellent job proving this last console generation. And since the two major strengths of Kingdom Hearts II are the intuitive gameplay and the simply amazing level of polish to the audiovisual elements, it doesn't bug me too much that the game isn't in high-definition with insanely high polygon counts. =)
In other game-related news, it will probably come as no surprise to anybody that Brian's picked up a copy of BioShock. Speaking of high-definition with insanely high polygon counts - holy crap, is this an immersive gaming experience. But graphics are only the icing; the true meat of the game (or cake, if you want to extend the metaphor) is the sheer plausibility of the scenario it presents. True, some of the more sci-fi elements require a little suspension of disbelief (genetic modification with 1950s-era technology?), but on the whole, it's a chillingly accurate portrayal of what can happen when human idealism clashes with human lust for power, with the inevitable result of all those lofty ideals going horribly, horribly wrong.
On that note, it was really a stroke of sheer genius setting the game in 1959. Setting aside the Disbelief Suspenders with regards to the technology for a moment, the post-war optimism of the "Everything's Swell" era (as The Onion dubbed it) provides a believable backdrop against which a charismatic unflinching idealist could build an underwater utopia for hand-picked best-and-brightest members of global society. And, chillingly, the fall of Rapture echoes the dissolution of the Fifties optimism into the chaos and turbulence of the Sixties - elements that were ruthlessly suppressed gaining traction as others exploit them to further their own ends, culminating in a war that's as much over cultural divisions as it is over resources.
Considering that I haven't even played the game, myself (simply kept Brian company while he played it), I'm really impressed at how thorough a job the game does in getting you involved in its world. With so many games, movies, and products in general, we settle for less - form over function, style over substance, or vice versa - one aspect of it strong while the rest are given only perfunctory effort. Bioshock is an excellent example of what can happen when form, function, style, and substance all work together, creating something truly spectacular in the process.
...
...nah, it's not at all obvious that I'm enjoying being a gamer again, is it?
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-25 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-25 03:47 pm (UTC)I think it should be interesting to see how Fallout 3 turns out - BioShock has sort of set the bar for next-gen atmospheric period survival-horror-type stories. Hopefully Bethesda will be up to the task, especially given how well-beloved the first two games are...I'd hate to see the third one succumb to "It was a fine game, but compared to BioShock..." syndrome.