It's all getting a bit too real :: Wessex Scene Online

It's all getting a bit too real

14th April 2006
Craig Williams

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More by Craig Williams

Feb 06 - Looking back: the ‘Shenmue’ series
Jan 06 - Looking forward: Gaming in 2006
Dec 05 - Xbox 360 Hour Tour
Nov 05 - The 14:30 to Waterloo Remix
Aug 05 - Scribble away

Cast your mind back to the heady days of the 8 and 16-bit consoles, which gave birth to classic characters that are still around today like Sonic, Link (from ‘The Legend of Zelda’ series) and Jumpman, perhaps a little better known as Mario, the only plumber in history who seems destined to never be confronted with a tricky U-bend.

It may be that the graphical limitations of the era lead people to fill the gaps in character animations, and bizarrely this may have contributed to their charm, with players getting more involved with their onscreen personas precisely because they lacked any predefined personality. Mario had to rescue the Princess in the first Mario Bros. game, and there was no explanation why, he just had to no matter how many times he went to the wrong castle. His lack of a personal story meant that the sense of total control could be stronger than in the later ‘Metal Gear Solid’ titles, where it does seem as if you are controlling a fully rounded character, yet in a more voyeuristic way – the lengthy cut-scenes detract from the sense of total involvement, as you are ultimately forced to see their story as moulded by the developers. However, it would be wrong to say ‘MGS’ does not allow a great sense of involvement, it does, but it is one that is heavily stylised.

There have been attempts to allow the player to implement their own form of gameplay in titles such as ‘Black & White’, but even then the sense of involvement is hands-on in one respect, yet out of control in another. In the aforementioned game, you are placed as a God-like figure in control of a small village, and the ultimate aim is to cause definitive belief in you amongst the villagers. The choice to be either a good or evil deity is left to the player, and such decisions are reflected in the appearance of your Creature, the physical form of your divine powers. However while the Creature may learn and emulate your actions, it essentially has free will within the game, and so your control is not all encompassing. This is not to suggest that all games should allow complete domination over every section, but it shows how complex things have become since ‘Pong’ all those years ago.

Which brings me to my main point, if gaming is becoming ever more realistic in terms of physics and graphics, then might this not eventually turn some players away? Do games such as ‘Lego Star Wars’ or ‘Parappa the Rapper’ in fact hold more enjoyment than any ‘Grand Theft Auto’-esque game? The gritty realism that is prevalent in such titles means that flicking through the pages of a computer games magazine can look like a report on urban decay or world history, such is the graphical quality of ‘Condemned: Criminal Origins’ or ‘Call of Duty 2’ on the Xbox 360. Yet clearly the majority of the public want realism from their titles nowadays, as the backlash to the cel-shaded Zelda title ‘The Wind Waker’ proved, with the next game in the series, ‘Twilight Princess’ sporting an admittedly gorgeous, but less original graphical style.

On the horizon, there are games that possess a sense of graphical quirkiness about them, providing an alternative to the replication of our surroundings that exists in many titles. Technically impressive this may be, but would it not be more interesting to create a world that no-one else has experienced before, rather than recreating what we see every day? Titles like ‘LocoRoco’ on the PSP and ‘Chibi-Robo’ on the GameCube seem more enticing than another beautiful yet faulted rendition of what has gone before. This approach to games has already been shown by the very different options provided by the DS and PSP, and so with the next generation, it seems the 360 and PlayStation 3 will be fighting with the same success they currently enjoy in various genres, while Nintendo’s reportedly less powerful machine may not focus on photo-realism to the same degree as the other two consoles – a brave step in this visually dominated field.