The Republic of Thoronia

Most regular readers here will quickly acknowledge that there has been an abundance of Simoebic Dysentery related posts. This one, the one you are reading right now, continues that trend. However, I hope to delve a bit deeper into the process thus far — the process of learning a new means to tell a story through trial and error. I’ve dreamt of working on a video game for the majority of my cognizant life. In the past, I’ve worked with Mojiferous (who’s developer diary that was recorded during the uDevGames contest (you know the one, the contest that we one 1st in “Originality” and 3rd in “Audio”) can be found here) through other facets including: a remix album, sound effects for Zoltan! and beta/QA testing for Atomic Combat 2.0. However, Simoebic Dysentery is the first project that we’ve worked on together from the ground up. Idea to (eventual) fruition. That being said, I’d like to discuss a bit of the history, from the origins to the present state.

ART

Glancing through my emails from the end of December, 2008 through early January, I can get an accurate glimpse of the some of the earliest stages of the process. The original idea, the one that sparked the whole thing, wasn’t related to the inner workings of the body at all. In fact, it was a weird “puzzle” game in which you were given a big gun, and had to blow up walls, but you only got a set of bullets. Pretty stupid really, but what it did do was spawn a slew of idea’s from Mojiferous. These ideas, pitched back and forth eventually lead to the idea of a game in which you play a virus and are attempting to navigate the bloodstream to kill your host. Originally the game was from an isometric point of view but technology, time and tech forced us into an overhead view. Also, after some fact checking, the virus was switched to an amoeba. The origins were remarkably crude, considering where we ended up:

I’m told that the main problem we were running into at the beginning were derivative of Mojiferous wanting to render the entire graphic set in the game — basically no call to jpg’s, png’s or predrawn hoo-haw. What we ended up with is a mashup of this system with the anatomy drawings from everyone’s favorite anatomical guidebook (which was the primary focus of the art style, narrative, and a building block to the basic premise of the game. Thanks Dr. Henry Gray!)

But I’m getting ahead of myself here.

ORIGINS

Our first real face to face was conducted at a coffee shop, where we sat notebooks in hand, a copy of Gray’s Anatomy open on the table and coffee spilling over the cups, talking, talking, talking. This, I remember thinking to myself, was collaborative creation. It was the epidome of this weird bohemian vision I’d created in my head of what it really meant to be on the brink of a creative cusp. This wasn’t a game, it was a revolution.

Of course, this was all quickly lost after we began the process of actually making the damn thing. Life’s an interesting thing, because it tends to get in the way of a lot of things. Here we had two Graduate students that were working on a hobby alongside 40 hour a week jobs and classes. One of us operates as an early person, the other at night. So the majority of our conversations would now take place via email and phone — but for the moment I was stuck waiting. The problem with being a “designer” is that after the idea comes crapping out of your body, after the pen is finished with the paper, your job is done for a while. So I had to sit back and wait for Mojiferous to get me the level creator toolkit.

We also had a hell of a time coming up with a name for this damn thing. In fact, we went through quite a few:

• An Amoebic Adventure
• Amoeba Lung
• Amoeba Brain
• Amoeba Castle
• Amoeba Mumbles
• Lone Amoeba
• Amoeba Sandwich
• Amoeba Grease
• Amoebic Onslaught
• Amoebic Avenue
• Amoebic Aggression
• Amoebic Enterprise
• Amoeba Attack
• The Shits
• etc.

MUSIC

During this time I was supposed to be working on the soundtrack. Which I was — and by mean working on it, I mean it was forming in my head. I don’t write music, I’ve never believed that I had the ability, but I do improv and I improv well (and by well, I mean I enjoy myself, not that I play well). Eventually, I plopped down in front of the keyboard and recorded four hours of music. Then I cut it down. It’s available you know, in case you missed the thirty-six other mentions on this very blog, here.

But none of the above things are really all that interesting. These are the types of things that one would expect from a little indie game. Lots of meetings, testing, late night and early mornings.

NARRATIVE

I do believe I’ve learned a significant amount of skills through this beginning process. First and foremost, the ability to talk about a project like this and bring it to fruition. We aren’t there yet, but I have no doubt in my mind that we’ll be there shortly. For me, the most interesting aspect here is the narrative. I consider myself a writer before all else and for better or worse that’s my chosen path. With a game like this, a puzzle game, it seemed almost absurd to combine story with gameplay. But I believe that Mojiferous and I have worked out a compelling reason to play this — and not just for the brain twisters.

When one talks of narrative in regards to a game, it’s important to understand that narrative and story aren’t the same thing. I’ve looked at this before. The interesting thing for me with Simoebic Dysentery was that the narrative was the entire reason for the game’s existence. We were actually using the setting (a human body) as both a playing field and a character. The two were interweaved and as the game progressed, this became more and more apparent. The actual plot of the game is fairly simple: Man goes to Amazon. Man contracts disease. Man tries to rid himself of disease. Man… well, I won’t give you a spoiler yet, but it’s fair to say that the man will either live or die. These plot points are revealed in game, through voice overs coming through the body and into the setting.

For me, this is interesting on a number of levels. We are afforded the unique opportunity to have a story being told by non-playable characters that directly effect the way the game is played (man goes to voodoo doctor who injects you with snail juice and suddenly you, the amoeba are forced to adapt, change your methods and learn new tactics. Think of the fire in Far Cry 2, or the rain in Call of Duty 4). These outside forces, the setting of the whole story are contriving against you, the player. It also creates the interesting dynamic of what exactly a game is. A game is, to many, something that you try to “win” or “beat.” Brainy Gamer talked about the idea of “beating” a game a while ago, which is actually what got me thinking of how one would go about creating a relationship with “win” that would, in the end, destroy the game, the idea of the game, and the point of even playing a game. Basically, if you, the amoeba win, the character, which is also the setting, dies. You no longer serve a purpose.

We were also faced with the problem of creating these voices in a manner that was both believable and interesting. We’re still hard at work on this — but our voice talent is solid, and I believe that the story is compelling enough to keep the player entertained throughout their puzzle solving. I’m not going to bother going too far into this now, because I imagine it’ll be a major point in the second of these posts (when the game finishes itself), when I’ll be able to talk more thoroughly about what I thought worked well and what didn’t when dealing with the narrative.

WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE’RE HEADING

As of this last week, we’ve both finished up with school for the semester. I’ll be heading back in June for a month, but we’re still given ample time to continue on Simoebic Dysentery. The future of the game is still rather daunting. We have the final proof’s of the story. We have the voice acting. We have a hundred or so levels to design. We have mutagens, add-ons, adaptations and enhancements to think about. Oh, what was that? Didn’t I mention that the game will feature mild RPG elements that allow your amoeba to evolve? Well, RPG in a loose sense, as the evolutions will come from how you attack the levels, not from a dice roll or upgrade system. The hope is that by gauging the way the player plays the game, our branching narrative will adapt to continue the challenge while the setting changes as well, flushing out its own systems and bringing in new ones. New elements will be introduced based around the ways a player beats a level (do they float through the blood stream and hide from white blood cells, or do the lyse their way through like a tank?). So far we’ve learned a lot of things. We’ve learned to keep our ideas small, to understand our own limits but still push them, we’ve learned that friends aren’t going to spend time beta testing or toying around with an unfinished project, but strangers on the internet will, we’ve learned that we have an original idea that is worth continuing with. Sure, in the end, this is “just another indie game.” But it’s our indie game dammit. And I’m already proud of it.

The art of telling a story is a simple one. That is, it’s simple as an idea, and if you have the means to get that idea onto paper, you are set to go. As a person who strives for the ability to call himself a writer, I tend to look at things from a narrative viewpoint. This causes a strange breakage in thought when it comes to video games. No, not because video games lack story, but because a video game’s narrative isn’t as simple as say, a movie, or a story. The word “narrative” encompasses so much more here. It is the universe, the world, the flora, the fauna, the shrubbery, the characters, the plot, the camera, the lighting, etc. Video games do not operate like movies, nor like books, they are their own entity, and unfortunately are often ridiculed, underused systems of storytelling. This is often because of a writers perception of a “gamer” as an underaged or underdeveloped human who is looking, perhaps at the most to interact or be immersed in a world, but isn’t looking for a complex story. This is quite wrong, as a number of very intelligent people will point out. That being said, that doesn’t mean that designers or writers believe in their audiences enough.

Being not only a person whom would one day like to call myself a professional writer (or at least a pseudo-professional paid jibber-jabber master) but also one whom plays video games and attends a school that breads experimental fiction, I tend to wonder about these things. Why have writers stayed away from the medium? Are they afraid? More afraid then having there works butchered by a Hollywood film exec? Are they not wanted? Not needed? This doesn’t ring true throughout the magical game developer kingdom, there are plenty of forward thinking people out there churning out great games that combine all the aspects of narrative design. There are designers who believe in storytelling and designers who believe in massive set pieces, there are games that stay on one path and games that give the player a sense of freedom, there are even games that leave the storytelling up to the player. You don’t play Sims, you weave a world, Far Cry 2 doesn’t tell you a story you have to find it; all of these combine different narrative elements to achieve the challenge of player immersion and control. However, few games are willing to challenge this challenge. Few people are willing to play a game that challenges their minds and their hands, and even fewer players are willing to play an experimental game… or, at least that’s what we’d like to think.

If you were to find and talk to Robert Coover or Italo Calvino and ask them a question like, “What would you think about being able to tell a story with branching dialogue in which the reader is allowed to respond, thus branching a new set of dialogue and changing the story?” Both writers, and likely many more would be on board. Look at all the hyperlink fiction of the ’90s, the copious amounts of footnotes in modern novels, or the fourth wall breaking meta-excursions of nearly every modern author. This digital medium should be there playground. But instead we get a far less interesting set of worlds, a science fiction war epic, a science fiction horror story, a fantasy lovecraft, a post apocalyptic wasteland… it’s genre fiction. As with all arguments there are many exceptions, some of which even keep within the restraints of financial success, Fallout 3 is a massive game driven by the player’s motive’s, Bioshock is a science fiction epic, Braid a bizarre dream, Grand Theft Auto IV an immigrants struggle… but by remaining in these genre staples, relying on the conventions, the designers are given a freebie–the world is already accepted, it’s acknowledged, there are rules and regulations. Video games will never step off the grocery store shelf of paperback fiction unless designers believe in their players. A twist doesn’t make a good story, convolution doesn’t make a good story, freedom of choice doesn’t make a good story, stereotypes don’t make a good story… what makes a story special is the interaction that the text has with the reader, the writers trust in a readers intelligence, video games are missing this interaction. Sure, it’s easy to draw you in, “immersion” is the industries hottest catchphrase right now, but that isn’t what makes a story memorable. You can be drawn into a John Grisham novel, but that doesn’t make it good. Learning something about a new world, yourself, others, being made to laugh, cry, wonder, think, interact… that’s a good story.

Of course, if every game tried to do this it won’t work, and there will always be a place for genre-games. Whether its survival-horror or a fantasy RPG, these things will always be staples, they can and will be excellent, and they can and will be played and purchased. Experimental narratives cannot and should not be applied to all games–but they ought to be applied to some. Video games do not have to be solely about challenging a players dexterity, or puzzling their mind with parlor tricks, sometimes it can be more. It doesn’t always have to be escapism or immersion, it doesn’t always have to be multiplayer or filled with war. A narrative is a world, it’s a dynamic system, it’s the control scheme, it’s the flora, it’s the camera angle, it’s the characters, it’s the story–all of these aspects working together are what make video games interesting, it’s what has brought them out of the basement and into the forefront of the entertainment industry. Now there’s a chance to play with them a bit more, push them around, experiment. Sure, not all the experiments are going to work. Not all of them will be successfull, but as long as new ideas are consistantly being put on the table the industry will be in good shape.

This isn’t a new argument, and it’s possible it’s an argument that will never be solved, but to those that say video games can’t tell a good story and have good gameplay: that sounds more like a challenge than a statement.

Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 are two action-shooter games that were released on the PS3. Generally speaking, action games have razor thin plotlines and thin voice acting, but Resistance: Fall of Man, attempted to expand on their universe creation by using History Channel-esque World War II montages with a voice over.  The first game was immersive and interesting, and the documentary style storytelling worked surprisingly well. However, the second game, which continues the story of the main protagonist, manages to drop the ball on the narrative, and more importantly, fail to live up to what was potentially a very interesting character development.

Often games will take pieces of history or other fiction to help generate an immediate response from the player. In Bioshock we were not only given a story that closely mimicked Atlas Shrugged, we were also given a character named Atlas, it was a nod that made the overarching world grounded in our reality, and helped push the player into the game even further. In Resistance, we get the same thing. Other than the game taking place in a alternate-post-war world, we also have a main character whose namesake not only predetermines the story’s ending, but grounds it into a reality that we can familiarize with.

Nathan Hale was an officer during the Revolutionary War and considered America’s first spy. He is most famous for the line “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country,” which he muttered before he was hanged by the British. Hale was well known to infiltrate enemy lines, disguise himself as a British soldier and would convey back to the American’s the British troop movements.

Lt. Nathan Hale is the protagonist from Resistance and Resistance 2. He is charged with infiltrating enemy lines to gather the information needed to take down an invading alien force known as the Chimera (another nod to fiction, the mythological beast, Chimera was said to be made out of several different animal parts. This plays into the story with a few allusions to the Chimera possibly being the first inhabitants of Earth and therefore being a mix of human and alien. Unfortunately this is never fully explained or detailed in any way). In his efforts he is infected with an alien virus. The alien virus will eventually take over his body and turn him into an alien himself, however, in the second game a doctor has found a way to inhibit the virus from overtaking him. Despite the suggestions from his officers, Hale decides to push on into the alien forces, refusing to break back to base to get his shots, effectively sacrificing himself to shut down the invading forces.

The Revolutionary War Nathan Hale is often cited as a martyr, Lt. Nathan Hale could be as well, (*SPOILER*) considering that he is killed by a fellow soldier at the end of the second game. This is a very straightforward story and it’s remarkable how Resistance 2 manages to lose ground on it. Namely, we are never given Hale’s back story, so we really don’t know why he’s even fighting in the military, he’s considered a mysterious hero throughout both games, which actually just means that the writer’s never bothered to pen a reasonable past. This makes the case for martyrdom all the more complicated if you do not care for an individual, if you cannot sympathize with their losses, it is difficult to care about their death. Hale obviously choses early on that he is going to sacrifice himself to stop the Chimera, and the writers and developers did as well, otherwise they wouldn’t have named him after a historic martyr. Knowing this, the developer’s still didn’t take the time to give Hale a sense of place or virtue. We don’t need a life story out of him, but any sign of emotion would have been nice. Even in his dying moments he is so crazed by the virus that we aren’t offered a look of worry or doubt from him, but by his killer, who seems, perhaps, to remorse slightly in his choice.

There are narrative follies abound throughout Resistance 2, like a first-time director with tons of new cameras and tricks, the game never seems to figure out how it wants to tell its story. It jumps from first-person to montage to third person so often that you’re constantly forced to reconsider whose viewpoint your seeing the story through, who the narrator is, and more often than not, what the characters are supposed to symbolize. Often in action games we’re given a series of archetype’s, and even here Resistance fails. Sure, we get the scientist that accidentally destroyed the world and is now trying to fix it, the big-mouthed fellow soldier that eventually does the right thing, and our protagonist, who, well, doesn’t fit an archetype. In the first game Hale rarely spoke, simply just fighting his way though the story as someone else narrated the events. Here, Hale won’t shut up, he has questions, complaints and directs the other troops around. But his purpose is just that, barking orders, being a badass, but never fully becoming any of these things.

Generally speaking, when writers pull from history to tell a story, they do so in a way that means something. Unfortunately, Hale’s story doesn’t mean much in Resistance and it’s too bad. It’s a classic action script that wouldn’t have taken much to make it great but in the end is unispired and sadly, uninspiring.

2008 was  a year of missed opportunities. Companies, as usual, rushed to the holiday storefronts and delivered lackluster products in order to keep them timely. One company did this more than any other: Ubisoft is the winner of the year for Best Games That Were Almost Perfect Yet Still Managed To Have One or Two Fatal Flaws That Ruined the Whole Game for Many People award. Some of these games were released with regular old bugs, some with game play flaws, some with graphic flaws, and one game was released with no flaws whatsoever, but being the type of game that it is didn’t garner that much hype behind it. Either way, here we go, the rest of the best of whatever it was I got my hands on this year!

Resistance 2 — Action games are usually pretty easy to execute, run kill run kill run kill story run kill run kill. Resistance 2 tries to be something more with absolutely horrid results. The game misses a giant, easy to hop onto barge when it comes to it’s story. *SPOILER ALERT* The plot follows the continued adventures of Nathan Hale, a soldier infected with an alien virus. Yeah, it’s stupid, but being the second game we’ve gotten used to the premise and even might have gotten close to Hale. Quickly that closeness is removed with shotty storytelling and phoned-in voice acting (literally, the voice acting sounds like it was recorded on a analog tapedeck, run through a washer, put out to dry and then played over a phone line to a Radioshack microphone). What’s worse is the fact that the story is so easy to tell that you’re constantly slapping your forehead as you play: Man sacrifices self to save humanity. Easy-peasy yeah? You’d think that Sony, a gigantic company could’ve hired at least one writer for this script right? A script about a man that is willing to die for his country, that, in fact DOES DIE FOR HIS COUNTRY. And how did I feel when I got shot in the face and the game ended? Happy. Thank goodness they killed me, I thought, happy days, I thought, but, why? I was just shot and I don’t care at all. Okay, okay, some of you are screaming that action games don’t need plots, you don’t need to care about your character… my only response is that if action games don’t want plots then don’t tack them on, don’t decide early in the game to kill your main character at the end if you don’t want to attempt to illicit an emotional responce from the player. So, the story was bland and uninspired, big deal. But the game was an action-game, and action games are no-nonsense fun right? Not with Resistance 2, apparently. The game doesn’t reward you for learning its mechanics or trying out new methods, it rewards you for dying. It’s this type of trial and error game play that, although interesting and fun in the 16-bit era, isn’t really interesting or fun now. Sure, it’ll get the job done, but isn’t advanced AI, player choice and a sense of intelligence and accomplishment where the industry should be heading by now?

Dead Space — Ah, survival horror, the genre that seems to be lost and confused and unable to rescue itself. Dead Space promised to revitalize the genre, give us back something, something new and exciting, a story, a universe a world a theory a blast. It was so damn close — but lacking in some major ways. The world that we get is created through out of the box movies, comics and shorts, the world exists around the game, but fails inside of it. Unfortunately, Dead Space’s biggest flaw comes from its ambition. It really wants the player to buy into the world with an inventive HUD, System Shock-esque storytelling and in game cutscenes. Unfortunately, they forgot to make the ship that you spend the entire game on believable as a living habitat. I’ll take the world, I’ll accept the twisted Scientology-esque plot line, I’ll even accept the girlfriend-gone-missing-turned-ghost part, but could we get a little bit of trash on the spaceship? Maybe some bathrooms? A kitchen? I wanted to believe in this game, to inhabit its world, but EA failed on one of the simplest parts. Dead Space 2? Trash? Bathrooms? Ducking?

NHL 09 – I love hockey, but hockey games aren’t really a yearly necessity for me. I’ll pick one up every few years, or even as rarely as once a generation. However, NHL 09 isn’t just another sports game — and regardless of your thoughts on the sport or sports games in general, it’s difficult not to love NHL 09 for what it accomplishes. Not only are the animations, physics, game play, modes and controls all superior to prior versions, it also introduces the closest thing to an MMO for sports nuts ever seen in sports game. Full online leagues, 6 player co-op, experience points, tournaments — this is the WoW for people with a crush on Mike Modano, Warhammer for those of us who dance in glee when a game is actually broadcast in HD. Simply put, NHL 09 is the best sports game in recent history.

Prince of Persia — Wow, I haven’t seen a game get hated on, loved on, and talked about this much in a while. For a game so polarizing you’d think people would have more concrete ideas, but even some of the best critics still seem to be a bit confused about whether or not they actually enjoyed themselves while playing. Personally, I just bought the thing yesterday for less than $30 which means that my expectations for the game are a bit lower than people people that paid $60. If I enjoy the game for 6 hours I’d say that I’d have gotten my money’s worth. PoP is one of the examples of Ubisoft missing it’s mark again, regardless of my own playthrough reactions (the other times being Far Cry 2 this year, and Assassin’s Creed last year). The company is getting damn close to a great game, but keeps on falling short. You can read what many, many others have said about Prince of Persia by following these links:

• Brainy Gamer’s 4 Part Take on the Game
• Graduate School Gamer
• Variety
• Game Critique

And that’s pretty much it for me. A few DS games popped onto my screens, some downloadable’s, small stuff that I don’t really feel like going to in-depth about. 2008 was, for the most part, a good year, one that showcased the release of a few games with startlingly large ambitions. It’s those ambitions that make 2009 and beyond so exciting. So what do we in Thoronia want to see in the future? Well…

• New IP Price drops — Games like Dead Space, Mirror’s Edge and Little Big Planet would have been better received had they plopped into the marketplace at $40. Game companies need to remember that games, like all medium benefit highly from word of mouth, and if we all chip in to talk about new titles they’ll eventually sell well. Every other media-industry is willing to give early-adopters a price break, why not video games?
• Reviewers need to judge games based on what they do – It seems like the 20-something nerdballs that have become game-reviewers for the major online sites have got the pretension stick so far up their ass that they’ve forgotten that there are hundreds of different types of gamers out there. We all can’t be fit into the two main categories of hardcore and casual. Reviews need to look at a game and what it is supposed to accomplish and judge accordingly. Oh, and online-centric games like Left 4 Dead or Socom need to be reviewed AFTER the launch. I mean, c’mon, how can you review a game without actually playing it? Oh, and on the same topic, reviewers need to finish the games they review. Too many this year have fessed up after the fact that, “well, I’m only on the third level, but I really like it so far…”
• Games need to find their place — We the community and we the gamers need to let developers figure out what they’re doing this year. We need to give them a bit of lee-way as each director and producer learns their place in video game creation. Not all games are going to fit easily into a category and subsequently not all categories are going to hold all the games. In order to expand the medium into something truly special, gamers need to stop crying foul when a developer tries something new. Actually, gamers and fanboys really just need to shut their mouths when it comes to things they don’t understand. I haven’t chimed in on the goofiness of Gears of War 2 for a very distinct reason — I don’t care. So if you don’t, then don’t say anything. The internet is unforgiving, and trust me, when you’re older, and you google your name and find the stupid things you’ve said, you’ll feel, well, stupid.
• DLC needs to go away, patches need to come quicker — Microsoft, don’t be a bunch of dicks. If a game, especially an online based game launches and needs some patching, let the developer do it quickly. And developers (Bethesda, I’m looking at you), don’t charge us the price of another game for expansion packs. Look, Fallout 3 was great, but I already paid $60 for it. Now you want me to spend another $30 on your expansion packs? The ones that easily could have been included on the disc if you weren’t so keen on getting it out for Christmas? No. No. No. This market isn’t going to sustain you’re stupid additions and you need to look at companies like Valve to understand what keeps gamers happy and ready to come back for more. Free upgrades, map packs and patches.
• Trust us, developer’s we’re smart — Game companies and developer’s need to realize that a growing majority of gamers are intelligent and willing to let a game challenge their mind as well as their ethics. We are well read and understand complex concepts, you don’t need to dumb down, or worse, remove idea’s from games because you think we won’t get it.
• Rereleases and sequels — You know how the movie industry is always made fun of for doing stupid things like My Bloody Valentine 3D? Or Spiderman 3? Well, you’re doing that too. Stop. Come up with new ideas or take a cue from a series like Final Fantasy where a game might just exist in a world, or format — we don’t need to continued versions of your already despicable plot lines. Spiritual successors are all well and fine with us.
• Social Components — Not all games have to be online. Not all games need to shared. We, in an era where games are loved for their multi-player to the point of a lack thereof takes points away from a score, need to remember that playing with yourself can be just as fun and relaxing.
• Downloadable Titles — Which is different than DLC, mind you. The three console networks have at their fingertips the picture perfect distribution system (look at Steam console makers). Unfortunately, this has so far been wasted on titles that would be better suited for an arcade than a living room (or again, back to the rereleases: emulation, Dreamcast games, HD upgrades (wherein they make the game kind of blurry and put some artistic bars on the sides of the screen), and a surprisingly large amount of SCHMUPS on the 360). Of course, there are exceptions, but games like Everyday Shooter and Braid proved that a single person could make an amazing game and get it out to hundreds of thousands of people. Sony , now is your chance to showcase your innovation by latching onto more innovative developers. Quick, while Microsoft is busy trying to update Bad Boys to play on the 360, find a help release more games like Flower and Nobi Nobi Boy. Show PS3 users, even if it’s for pretend, that you’re all about the little guys.
• The Cross-Platform Multiplayer Pipedream – It’s 2009, there are three main consoles and PCs. Most games are developed for at least three of these major four. Add onto that we’re also in a recession were few people own multiple systems. Now, I’m not a huge online guy, I prefer a good single player experience. But games like Call of Duty 4 and Left 4 Dead were great life-distractions (if I didn’t have Call of Duty 4 while I was unemployed I don’t know what I would have done with myself). Unfortunetly, I’m a one console person, and it’s difficult to talk friends into buying the PS3 version of games due to the stigma attached to PSN. Now, if PC games can run on a number of systems I don’t see why I wouldn’t be able to play COD4 with a XBOX, I realize Microsoft is money hungry and loves charging for all of their services, but I’d be willing  to sacrifice a little bit of cash for some cross-platform play, and I’m sure others would as well. But then again, maybe that’s why I’m not working in the marketing department anywhere.

So, this is our third annual holiday gift guide, three years running, that’s right! Anyway, what you’ll probably notice is that we’ve combined the best of the year list with the holiday list. Why? Because we’re pretentious like that and figure that if it’s not good enough for the residents of Thoronia it’s not good enough for anyone. Anyway, here are our medium-favorites and our recommendations for who you should buy them for!

MUSIC

1. Nick Cave — Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
   • Perfect Gift For: Aging rockers who don’t get to hit up the record store’s as much as they used to.
2. Hercules and Love Affair — Hercules and Love Affair
   • Perfect Gift For: People who like to dance in their cars and in their showers, but not in public.
3. Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
   • Perfect Gift For: That brother or sister who really likes mainstream rock and has been teetering on the “indie” fence for a while.
4. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
   • Perfect Gift For: The Aunt that really likes Pete Seeger, that weird whale mating music disc and Tangerine Dream.
     
5. Lindstrøm — Where You Go I Go Too
   • Perfect Gift For: The cousin that’s been a bass-head for so long is brain is numb.

Lost and Found from Long Ago (our favorite old records that were new to us this year)

1. Lucia Pamela — Into Outer Space with Lucia Pamela
   • Perfect Gift For: Your roommate who keeps playing Daniel Johnston records.
2. Magma — 1001 Centigrades
   • Perfect Gift For: The dad or uncle that was really into Yes but never bothered to check out what the French Experimental Prog-Rock scene was like (and who did, really?).
3. Simon & Garfunkel – Complete Columbia Recordings
   • Perfect Gift For: Mom.
4. Tommy James and the Shondells – Travelin’
   • Perfect Gift For: Your friend or family member that won’t shut up about “how great this song is” every time “Crimson and Clover” comes on, but doesn’t actually own any of the bands albums.
5. Byron Lee and Mighty Sparrow — Only a Fool
   • Perfect Gift For: The weird aunt that collects frogs and didgeridoos.

GAMES

GAME OF THE YEAR Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)

Perfect Gift For: Anyone with a PS3. Hell, buy them a PS3 so they can play this game.

ROLEPLAYING GAME OF THE YEAR Fallout 3 (PS3/XBOX 360/PC)

Perfect Gift For: The weirdo in the family who is really into 1950s style nostalgia… and nuclear war.

ACTION GAME OF THE YEAR Far Cry 2 (PS3/XBOX 360/PC)

Perfect Gift For: Your brother who could always find new and creative ways to kill ants (he was way passed the whole “magnifying glass trick” on the first day.

PLATFORM GAME OF THE YEAR/MOST CREATIVE GAME OF THE YEAR Little Big Planet (PS3)

Perfect Gift For: Anyone a bit “over” Mario, aspiring game designers and everyone with a heart.

BIGGEST LET DOWN OF THE YEAR Dead Space (PS3/XBOX 360/PC)

Perfect Gift For: People who just love, love, love, love, love horror games… because nobody else is going to think this game was worth a damn.

MULTIPLAYER GAME OF THE YEAR Left 4 Dead (XBOX 360/PC)

Perfect Gift For: Anyone that plays a lot of games online and is looking for a new experience. Or kids that need to make some friends and learn social skills and team work.

SPORTS GAME OF THE YEAR NHL 09 (PS3/XBOX 360)

Perfect Gift For: Any fan of sports games. Even if you don’t like hockey games.

BEST USE THE FPS FORMAT WHILE TRYING SOMETHING NEW GAME OF THE YEAR Mirror’s Edge (PS3/XBOX 360)

Perfect Gift For: The videogamer in the family that has every game, plays every game… chances are they passed on this excellent little innovator.

BEST REMINDER OF HOW FREAKING HARD GAMES USED TO BE Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix (PS3/XBOX 360)

Perfect Gift For: Sodomists, adults that have fond memories of Ryu, quarters and painful hours of that one kid just going back and forth across the screen as M. Bison.

BEST GAME ON THE GO Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS)

Perfect Gift For: That cousin that owns a DS specifically so he can continue to play new versions of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on the bus.

BEST GAME TO DUST OFF AND PLAY AGAIN Tossup between: Syndicate and Full Throttle.

Perfect Gifts For: The older gamer who still has his Pentium II with Windows 2000 loaded up.

BOOKS

This year we’ve been living in unemployment, living through Grad School, and living through 40 hour job+Grad School, so the books list is a little shorter than usual…

1. Roberto Bolano — 2666
   • Perfect Gift For: Book lovers who like the feeling of being lost, confused and rewarded.
2. Chuck Klosterman — Downtown Owl
   • Perfect Gift For: The writer in the family who balances fiction writing with feature writing.
3. David Sedaris — When You Are Engulfed In Flames
   • Perfect Gift For: That lovable uncle that listens to This American Life every Sunday afternoon and then tells you about the episode on Monday.
4. Oliver Sacks — Musicophilia
   • Perfect Gift For: The estranged friend who happens to really enjoy music and… neuroscience. You know the friend, the one that can have all the fun stripped out of something and still enjoy the science of it all.
5. Michael Chabon — Maps and Legends
   • Perfect Gift For: The aspiring author of any age.

MOVIES

Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of time for movies this year, so the list is a little… bleh.

1. Wall-E
   • Perfect Gift For: The one person in the family who didn’t already buy this for themselves or for someone else.
2. Funny Games
   • Perfect Gift For: Family members that enjoy it when movies screw with them, use meta techniques and creep the living daylights out of them. See also, Schizopolis.
3. John Adams
   • Perfect Gift For: The history buff will love this movie, and they probably haven’t seen it because we all know that history buff’s tend not to want to spend the extra money a month on HBO.
4. Encounters at the End of the World
   • Perfect Gift For: That strange friend that is super into Antarctica for no apparent reason. See also: The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Voyage. Oh, and South, By Ernest Shackleton… and why you’re at it The Birthday Boys, Shackleton, The South Pole by Roald Amundsen…
5. Iron Man
   • Perfect Gift For: Um… um…. nevermind, 90% of America already owns this and its on 100% of the DVD holiday gift guides.