Gaming Journal 1

This is the first chapter of a gaming journal. I'm going to be talking about games I'm playing. Some entries might take the form of reviews. Some might be game or level design analysis.  Some might be examinations of wider trends in the game industry through the lens of a particular game. Basically whatever comes to mind. Spoilers may come, but I'll be sure to warn you. Unfortunately, I'm in the middle of a lot of games currently. As a consequence, this journal will probably not be as narratively satisfying as it should be. However, this isn't a saga. It's just musing and weirdness. Hopefully, you'll like it anyway.
Here are the games I'm playing this time:
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD on Xbox 360
Far Cry 2 on Xbox 360
Persona 4 on Playstation 2
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition on a Macbook Pro
I reserve the right to randomly insert games onto this list in the future. This blog is a side effect of my gaming life, not the other way round.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD: Peace Walker's primary addition to the Metal Gear franchise, besides being able to walk while crouching (THANK THE LORD*), is an army that you run in between levels. You recruit new solders, train them, place them in different areas of expertise like R&D or Combat, send them on missions or even play as them in side missions. Adding a meta element to Metal Gear Solid is interesting because its predecessors are focused on a single event. MGS2 has a time jump of a couple years, and MGS3 has a few months that separate its two sections, but they are both primarily concerned with continuous journeys. Both literal and figurative. What this meta element serves to do is create a more solid divide between the journey Snake (or Big Boss) is taking, and the game you are actually playing. But this divide also serves a really smart decision; making Metal Gear Solid a game you can play briefly or for a very long time. The game was originally designed for PSP and that platform informs almost everything about Peace Walker's design. The mission structure splits up bigger "level" sections into smaller chapters. It's a relentlessly smart game. You can literally play the game for 30 seconds and accomplish something important within the game's design. This also serves the purpose of making Kojima's wordy cutscenes shorter. They're still very long, but they feel much more considerate of the player's time. However, while the game is very smart, something is missing. Maybe it's because Snake doesn't have a real emotional stake in the conflict at hand. Although he might later*. But, I think it's because the game has become more splintered and fractured because of its structure. The game still works, and is very fun, but it has lost something.

Far Cry 2: An open-world first-person shooter in Africa. I don't have much to say about this one yet. I'm only 4% through according to the game. The game feel is very unusual. Everything is functional, but it has little of the kinetic pleasure of Call of Duty's or Halo's controls. I feel like this was intentional and I'm excited to see if it gains meaning as I play. Perhaps the player character, while clearly trained in the way of violence, isn't a killing machine. Perhaps they are trying to make the death messy and real in this game. We'll see.

Persona 4: It's a tremendous game. I don't think I have much to say about it that hasn't already been said. It's a game that manages to have immense affection for its characters while making them tremendously flawed. Its fun and serious and funny and engaging in a multitude of ways. The only problem I have really with it, is the sometimes the game is more punishingly difficult than satisfying difficult. Sometimes you die, and it doesn't really feel like your fault, and death is fairly punishing in the game. It can be incredibly frustrating. But the game's incredible energy and compelling structure easily rise above this shortcoming.

The Witcher: Enhanced Edition : This game is ambitious. It has big ideas that it throws around like weights shackled to its arms. This is a heavy game. Both in themes -racism and moral ambiguity-, and in mechanics - choices and living worlds.  It weighs the game down, but also makes it all the more impressive. First of all, its design is very focused on the world. The second chapter of the game, mostly concerns itself with a mystery, during which you explore a town and question its inhabitants. On one level, it's exhilarating. It makes the world feel real and alive with purpose. It makes the actions you take in the game world have consequences outside yourself. There's a 24 hour schedule during which the game's world changes in interesting ways. The game's characters have schedules and move about during the day. Everything gives the game a sense of life that builds and becomes more expansive as the game goes on. Side quests tie into the main quest in interesting ways. I solved the second chapter's mystery by exploring a side area. The game has a simply remarkable sense of interconnectedness.
The other level of it makes the game an immense chore. Because of the game's design, it feels as if everybody is very far away from each other. You end of running around to opposite corners of the map just to talk to somebody. Then you run around to the other end to talk to somebody else. The game's open design often leads to repetitive boredom, running around from end to end with none of the wonder that came when you first explored those areas. The game's writing is also incredibly clumsy. It has its moments. It smartly drenches its world in history, but doesn't explain it to you in a droll, condescending voice. Rather, it lets you inhabit the world, letting you fill in the blanks and the climax of the first chapter is a powerful takedown of sexism. However, I haven't become invested in any of the characters. The stakes of the drama are throughly unclear. I'm not sure what I'm doing or why I'm doing it or why it matters. The bad guys stole some recipes, why is that bad? Should I be concerned? The choices are similarly awkward. The potential consequences or ramifications aren't clear. They can feel arbitrary. The game seems so obsessed with making sure you know that your choices matter that it shouts it at you. The whole pace of the game changes, as the main character gravely intones words about consequences and choices. It does its job of letting me know that I've made an important choice, but it does so it an obvious way. It doesn't let the horror or joy of what I've done dawn on me. It doesn't let it's impact settle like a coming storm. Instead it shouts at me like thunder, empty and without substance. With all this in mind, I continue to play. Something I think I should just skip ahead to Witcher 2, but something, a vividness, keeps me coming back.

That's all for now. Did you guys like it? Want more? Let me know, and thanks for taking the time to read.

Footnotes
1: Yes, I'm aware that was introduced in MGS4: Guns of the Patriots, but I haven't played that one, so this was my first exposure to that shift.
2: SPOILERS: I just met Dr. Strangelove. So, the whole the Boss as AI thing just came into play.