Videogames ... Art

I don't have anything particularly coherent to say on the "are video games art?" thing that Roger Ebert launched on an unsuspecting internet recently.

Games are made by artists. Certain levels of games are certainly artful, just as individual chess pieces can be works of art. Images of (sometimes imaginary) games decontextualised from the game are art.

It seems to me that a lot of games that are mentioned as art are art only when the user stops interacting with them (Knight of the Old Republic has a fabulous twist that comes in a cut-scene, for an example).

One reviewer, sorry I can't find this, of Lego Star Wars mentioned that he'd played it co-op with a friend and right at the very end the friends had to turn on each other to finish the game. He reckoned this act had more more emotional resonance than the whole prequel trilogy. He may well be right. No doubt Ebert would say "Ah but is it art?" as if he was the devil in the Conundrum of the Workshops. Is Kipling art? Do I like Kipling? If Orson Welles is the one being Kipled then: yes and yes!

Anyway, Bookslut claims to have found a confluence, or perhaps a slight bumping together in Machinima Poetry. To be honest, the example given here does't work, it's three mildy related things shown together in the hope that someone will find the creator "deep" or "soulful" or something. But the page promises more and the examples might get better...

Some Videos

A couple of things caught my eye recently and one or two of them may not have been blogged so much:

• Becks & The Bullets: Last Waltz. I think this channels Cure-era Tim Pope quite a bit, but in a good way.


• The Krugman Blues ~ Loudon Wainwright III. Could only have been more aimed at me if the video was made in Lego.


• Brutal Legend first twenty minutes walkthrough. As narrated by Tim Schafer. I don't like heavy metal or Jack Black but this looks like it will rock!

On the Jack Black problem, I also liked Kung Fu Panda very much. Perhaps he's better as a voice over artist where you can't see his perpetual mugging and the animators tone him down a lot.

The Blue Beanie

The Blue Beanie is a simple, well designed and very pretty Samarost clone. You can almost win by clicking randomly, but the puzzles are quite simple and have their own logic. It's beautifully presented and makes an enjoyable ten minute diversion.

Normally You'd Just Get A Special Unlockable Character

According to the Telegraph a man in Gloucestershire found Ecstasy in a game manual for a preowned copy of GTA (IV I guess, the article isn't specific). Look here it says:

Richard Thornhill said the consequences could have been "horrific" if the tablets had been found by his son Jamie, or by his daughter Danielle, 16.

[...]

"I have two children and my son plays Xbox all the time. He could easily have opened the box and found them.

"I dread to think what the consequences would have been if he had. He is only 12. He could have died."

You should also look here, at the bottom left:



So, he's a cheap, lazy father who is quite happy to give his children age-inappropriate material.

Mr Thornhill, 34, a tool hire company manager

Three too many words.

Tim Schafer: Legend

As part of his eternal self-promotion (and he deserves what ever recogition he gets), Tim Schafer has released a mini Escape the Room type thing in the style of the classic Lucasarts adventures. It's called Host Master and the Conquest of Humor and is worth the ten to twenty minutes of your time it takes to finish it. Fun, funny and rewarding -- all the things an adventure game should be.

Update: I've just got my monthly quota of hits here looking for a walkthrough for the above. I don't want to do that, but I will give some hints.

• The description of each item often has a subtle hint.


• Looking at something after you've used it will occasionally get more information.


• If it's dirty, it probably needs cleaning.


• Some things aren't used to bright light.


• Almost all objects have a different response to the different commands, so just because one doesn't work on something doesn't mean another won't.

A Little Something For The Weekend

I've posted about a game called Blocks With Letters On in one of my previous link posts. A couple of weeks ago (yes, I've been busy) I found out, through the incomparable JayIsGames site, that they'd made a sequel cunningly titled More Blocks With Letters On. And, indeed, it is more of the same, only slightly different with a couple of extra goodies to make it just as compelling as the original. Just like the original the fun fizzles out on some of the longer, more involved puzzles (level 18 is particularly sadistic in this regard but it's quite the sensation when you beat it) but it's good brow furrowing stuff most of the time.

I also found on Jay's site a series of point-n'-click adventures with fantastic animation, corny (but good) humour, the occasionally fiendish puzzle and mulitple endings called the Several Journeys of Reemus. Great stuff, though it's probably best to start with the preview adventure The Visitor.

You Can Mix Anything With Lego

I remember when Lego Star Wars (just the sets) was frowned upon and after that grown men, who should have known much better, questioned the sanity of Lego Star Wars The Videogame. Actually, I suppose Travellers Tales could have messed this game up but they managed to make Star Wars fun again, although getting 100% was sometimes an exercise in controller-throwing frustration.

In the same tradition, how could they lose with Lego Indiana Jones? Both franchises spring from pulpy origins, B-movies with A-movie budgets, if you like, and Indy having the advantage of lending itself to more puzzle based game play.

Well, they triumphed again. The game is probably just a little bit easier than the Star Wars games, "True Adventurer" is almost pathetically easy to attain on most levels compared to the previous games' "True Jedi" status, and the supporting cast don't have quite the variation (and is it me are all the black characters mechanics?) but it shares the same joy at breaking everything in sight and tweaking the nose of the films that spawned it.

Indy Lego has some hilarious moments and nice touches. I liked that but all the bad guy soldiers, not Nazis I hasten to add, had blues eyes. The graphics are subtly improved all-round. The backgrounds, in particular, can be quite stunning and, as before, some of the most interesting rooms are the hidden secrets (the Star Wars Cantina, for one example).

Which is all to say it's not too surprising when some enterprising YouTuber tries to recreate the Simpsons intro sequence in Lego. To be honest, it doesn't quite work, the timing feels off and there could be more detail, but you have to applaud the effort and it's worth a watch despite the flaws.

Whatever Comes Our Way

Born to be wild friend-of-the-blog Peter Verdi has been busy recently. Spurred somewhat by the recent spat over who did exactly what to whom and with which implement in the doomed Infocom adventure sequel to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and, well, the fact that many people he wanted to interview turned up to that spat, Peter has gradually been conducting interviews with many of the key players from Magnetic Scrolls' heyday.

Magnetic Scrolls, you may remember, were the only real competition Infocom ever had. In fact they were better in some ways and more British about it. As I pointed out before, if you don't really know what interactive fiction is, and why typing "xyzzy" into said fiction is a fun thing to do, then these nostalgia fests will probably mean nothing to you.

But if the picture below makes you want to type "PLANT THE POT PLANT IN THE PLANT POT WITH THE TROWEL" all over again then go and read what Phil South and Peter Kemp have to say about their time with one of the great text adventure makers.