In the Beginning

This is the second of my “Player P.O.V” series of articles, that examines the way the best games involve and entertain the player. The previous article, Shining Force III, is here.
It’s a joint project between myself and my brother, Phil over at Sodaware. My articles will focus on player experience, and his deal with lessons game developers can learn from these great games.

You can read his article here.

Both our articles are featured in October’s Carnival of Gamers, which you can find at Man Bytes Blog. If you’re here from Man Bytes Blog, welcome! Bookmark us with Ctrl + D, subscribe to the RSS feed and enjoy your stay!

This time I’m looking at the Ubisoft classic Beyond Good and Evil.

Beyond Good and Evil
Developer: Ubisoft
European release: November 2003
Platform: PC, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

Find at Amazon.co.uk Find at Amazon.com

Ancient Chinese Secrets

The deepest way BG&E creates its connection with the player is by locking the story onto the main character, the journalist Jade. Although it’s a third-person adventure, we see through Jade’s eyes when using her camera to photograph animals, or during her IRIS reports. This creates a true sense of discovery, as neither player nor character is ahead of the other; you find out the truth at the same instant by sharing the same view.

Home Sweet Home

You never lose your connection with Jade. As far as I recall, she is present in every scene in the game. Aspects of the story come from other characters, of course, but they’re all delivered to Jade, not without her:

• News bulletins are used by the Alpha Sections;
• M-disks – essentially DVDs – reveal security footage and personal messages from absent friends;
• Emails – newsletters, notes from friends and those assisting your quest.

All this helps Beyond Good and Evil to achieve the focus it needs. Although its story deals with an entire planet under threat, it has the emotional clarity due to its total devotion to this one character. It reminds me of what was wrong with The Day After Tomorrow, where the viewer was so often separated from its main character that the film’s core was misplaced. Here, Ubisoft maintain this tight grip on Jade, making her the game’s driving force.

Dancing with Domz

The game starts almost instantly, with the player taking control of Jade at the first opportunity. The short intro works brilliantly well, not just because it means you get to play more quickly – which is absolutely crucial – but by playing on certain conventions and player awarenesses.

As soon as the pompous horns blurt out their tune and the overbearing Alpha Sections begin their speech, the game has made you aware you’re watching a news bulletin, something we’re all familiar with, regardless of whether the subjects are Domz and Hyllis or something slightly more Earthly.

The media I listed earlier are used to present this strange world to the player in much the same way as our own. We watch news bulletins, films, read emails and so on about our own world, so why not Hyllis? Rather than create a bizarre and arbitrary way of communication, Ubisoft use the best mankind has collectively designed in its history. Pretty smart, and much cheaper too, I’m sure.

Thoughtful Reflections

The deeper point to presenting Hyllis like Earth is to emphasise the game’s major issue, that of received information. Through its journalist elements BG&E promotes independent thinking, and the importance of being active in meaning and knowledge. It might not be tackling global warming or trying to unearth a huge Government conspiracy, but any game with an actual, proper moral other than kill/steal/pimp has to be worth celebrating.

Organic Beauty

This is all well and good, but what makes Beyond Good and Evil fun to play? In amidst all the multimedia intertextuality and the talking rhinos, did Ubisoft put any good gameplay in there?

Yes, they did. And you get to it almost straight away. The first time the game hands control over to you is in a multi-enemy battle, with nothing more than a useful icon in the corner indicating which button is “fight”. Jade’s already an Aikido master who carries her staff with her all the time, which Ubisoft thankfully realised would make a training section pretty redundant. Far be it from me to come over all “Game Design Lessons”, but certain game developers could learn a lesson from this.

The battling is fun, and plays out like Darth Maul in a Zelda game. Spins, smashes and flips are all carried off with the analogue stick and that useful “fight” button. There’s one special move which you carry off by holding down attack, and that’s pretty much it; no need for finger-knotting attacks, just simple, intuitive controls.

Travelling around Hyllis in your hovercraft is also pretty awesome, as you’d expect from a sea-and-land vehicle with lock-on lasers, guns, boosts and jump jets. Most of these you buy with your precious pearls, which lets you get to new areas and animals.

Say Cheese, Fellas

Taking photos of the many animals on Hyllis provides you with both forms of the game’s currency, namely credits and pearls. Credits buy you little things (and sometimes pearls), and the pearls buy you upgrades at Mammago garage, they of the talking Jamaican rhinos.

The camera’s interface is again very simple, with just point, zoom and click. A certain icon appears on screen when you point it at specific things – a paw for an animal, for example – and a bar fills until it’s in focus. Unfortunately you can’t look back over your entire album unless you photograph every single animal on the planet, but you can look over shots on your current roll, and previous assignments. A more extensive gallery would have been nice, or some form of scoring system, but you can’t argue with a game where you uncover secret identities not with a gun but a very long zoom lens.

Redemption

Beyond Good and Evil is a tremendous game, which is perhaps wider than it is deep. The mixture of different gameplay styles naturally means some excel – combat is often a highlight – and others do less well – stealth mode’s Flying Death Lasers.

On the whole, its pin-sharp focus on the main character and the player’s relationship with her creates a bond that is strong enough to paper over some of the game’s flaws.

If you’d like to read more about Beyond Good and Evil, check out Phil’s fantastic Game Design Lessons article over at Sodaware, or my previous article on the game, “The best game of this generation“.

Well, in a manner of speaking, anyway!

I’ve been using this exercise bike we have at home for a couple of months, doing between ten and twenty kilometres a day in order to improve my fitness. In total I’ve done over 560km, quite a distance when you think about it. Not half as far as I’m going now, though…

I am using my exercise bike to cycle – virtually – from Land’s End to John O’ Groats.

In total this is about 1200km, more than twice what I’ve done in the past two months. I also want to finish it within about thirty-five days!

Not only is this a great way to improve my fitness, I’m also going to be writing about the places I virtually visit on my website, so I can also include some worthwhile educational and tourist aspects as well.

All in all I’m really looking forward to this challenge, improving my fitness and discovering lots of fascinating facts about the places I will be virtually staying!

The I have created a new page for this challenge, “Virtual Tour”. RSS readers will need a new feed – http://www.prosody.co.uk/virtual-tour/feed will work.

I’ll be updating every day, so come back to see where I am!

I am now in St Columb Major, Cornwall, where it is cloudy.

About James

I’m twenty-three years old and I live in York. I run this site as a place to share my photos, articles, music, thoughts and other aspects of my life. If you’d like me to write something for you, ask a question or just say hello, you can email me with that link. Don’t worry, I write very nice emails.

About the site

I opened prosody.co.uk to the public way back in 2004 as a website to share music from my album “Long Distance”, out in 2005. After a few years in this form it changed to the website you see now in September 2006. The site is constantly changing to incorporate new ideas and designs, the most recent being a massively updated “Music” section featuring my vocal and instrumental music, and my “Diaries” page, where you can read about my exploits in Harvest Moon, Animal Crossing or Pro Evolution Soccer 4.

The Collected Writings of James Newton will continue to go from strength to strength over the coming weeks, months and years, and I hope you will continue to visit, be inspired and respond to the content here in your own way. You can subscribe with http://www.prosody.co.uk/feed, or bookmark the main page with Control + D. Come back soon!

I love Richard Jacques. I’ve said before that I think “Jack’s Theme” from Headhunter is probably the best piece of videogame music ever composed – and GameFAQs agree – and although he got a lot of stick for it at the time, I love his Sonic R soundtrack. In fact, on Tuesday I walked to the train station to pick up my brother whilst having a good sing-song to “Back in Time”. Love those harmonies, Richard!

Anyway, apart from telling you how cool Richard Jacques is, and how intelligent and melodically distinctive his work is, this entry is actually just to say that Phil and I are going to see him live in concert at the end of next month. Yes, this very cool-looking bloke will soon be providing some “ripping sounds” live in concert in Nottingham as part of their “GameCity 2006” dealy bob.

Richard Jacques is a legend, and getting to see him play Sega tunes live on the piano in a church gets me quite frothingly excited. As you can see, though, Richard is still totally cool about it all.

There are some excellent samples of his music available on his official website, Richard Jacques.com. If you’d like to hear Richard live, you can buy tickets online at SeeTickets.com, or find out more about “GameCity” at GameCity.org.

I’m listening to Jack’s Theme, from Headhunter by Richard Jacques

The best 2D Sonic game since 24th February, 1994.

Sonic Team finally brought the winning Sonic formula back to life with Sonic Rush on Nintendo’s DS last year. Very fast, very bright and very cool, it perfectly reflects what Sonic games are all about. That’s not to say it’s a rehash, though.

Although the game doesn’t make best use of the DS’s features – the touch screen is only significantly used during yet another tube special stage – the dual-screen approach helps to give back that pinball feel of fast transport while still keeping Sonic in view at all times. Your eyes zip back and forth, but the mechanic works well, particularly when running up or down huge inclines or vertical walls, contributing to that precious Sonic feeling.

I don’t usually say things like this, but if you like Sonic games you’ll love this. Just as New Super Mario Bros. is a classic Mario game, Sonic Rush is a classic Sonic game.

Verdict: Mixes new technology with classic adrenaline gameplay. Exhilarating.

Click the box to buy the game cheaply at Amazon.co.uk!

I’m listening to Anaesthetic, from Tunde [UK] by Tunde

This is something that’s always fascinated me. I’m sure I’ve written before about how frustrating it is that we can’t fly unaided. The closest I get is NiGHTS, which to be honest is probably better than flying.

Anyway, this isn’t a long post, I just wanted to bring to your attention a short film that Hannah and I have directed and produced over on YouTube. It’s for an Embrace competition for their single “Target”, and is available for viewing by clicking this link.

I hope you enjoy it, and come back again soon. Don’t forget to subscribe by clicking the “subscribe to entries” link in the left hand side, and keep all your wonderful emails coming in – it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who reads this!

I’m listening to Purple Rain, from The Hits 2 by Prince

There’s a piece of music that has such a strong memory for me that every time it comes on I can’t think of anything else.

It’s “By the Source of the Protective Flame” from Sega’s Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack, and every time I listen to it, I am right back in a very specific time and place, but it’s not connected to the game.

Whilst writing my dissertation, I decided that creating a CD of music to relax to would be a very good idea. Naturally, being the geek I am I began to work on possible playlists, themes, movements and so on (the final result was actually called “Game Music: Relaxing to Jiving”!).

Every time I hear this song now, I am instantly back in my room during the spring of 2005. Everything is very white and clean, which lets me know what a specific time this memory belongs to! There’s a cleansing breeze through the room, and I can see the foot of my bed and my stereo. I take a deep breath and totally relax. There’s a feeling of being completely serene, and everything is very still and peaceful.

I realise now that this memory is actually probably many memories blurred together, but no matter where I hear this song it lifts me out of my surroundings, and once again I am sitting on my bed, looking at the stereo, breathing air of a beautiful clarity.

Do you have any memories that are interwoven with songs, pictures, sounds, films or anything else? What transports you back when you meet it again?

Live in a town filled with talking animals. Pick fruit and sell it to a raccoon. Fish, catch bugs, plant and water flowers. Buy furniture. Send letters. Visit other players’ towns. Watch fireworks. Go shopping. Design clothes. Listen to a guitar-playing dog. Watch colours change as the seasons go by.

Animal Crossing is a game that survives on length rather than depth. You play it over a period of time, rather like a game of skill, although there’s next-to no skill involved. You improve by mastering emotions – sadness! Surprise! – and paying off your mortgage. I think it’s fair to say Animal Crossing perhaps isn’t the most exciting game in the world.

Playing it with friends is even better, and what really lifts this above the Gamecube version. Although the trading sadly doesn’t extend to animals, you can swap patterns, villagers, phrases, constellations, furniture… quite a lot, really.

Animal Crossing is almost impossible to review because it either appeals to you or it doesn’t. I’ve tried at great length to talk two of my best friends into appreciating it, but it’s not a game that can be taught; only learnt.

In short: A parallel, beautiful world of wonder and charm.

Phrases and arguments like this really irritate me:

It has been well established that playing violent video games aggression in players.

(Nicholas L. Carnagey, “In Video Games, Not All Mayhem Is Created Equal“)

I’m sure you know the argument by now; playing violent games increases aggression in players, and there’s a theory that increased exposure to these games can permanently program someone to behave more aggressively. That’s certainly what this “well-established” – though typically anonymous – data proves, isn’t it? Well, no, not really.

Having played – and lost! – more than my fair share of games, I’ll testify that I experience a rise in aggression when playing certain kinds of games; mostly Pro Evolution actually, when my LAZY DONKEY PLAYERS won’t do what they’re told. Aggression probably does rise whilst playing games, but then it goes away.

The study itself spectacularly fails to take into account the way game players’ brains are already programmed. The study gave three different versions of a racing game – one where all violence was punished, one where it was rewarded, and a non-violent one. To nobody’s surprise, the version that rewarded punishment led to “increased hostile emotion, aggressive thinking and aggressive behaviour” in the players. No details of what this “aggressive behaviour” entailed are given, other than gamers following the words “K I” with “L L” or “S S  O F F, P U N K”.*

The study

All this study has proven is that gamers respond to rewards, which isn’t any surprise to anyone. If we get more points for driving around a track backwards, we’ll drive around a track backwards. If it’s hitting someone over the head with a baseball bat, we’ll do that. Hardly a breakthrough, even Pavlov got that far.

The worst part about all this is that I haven’t been this angry in a very long time, and I’m not even playing a game! I’d like to think this could be the final word on the topic, but I live on Planet Earth, so it’s not going to be. However, here goes anyway:

People who have trouble controlling anger in any situation will have trouble controlling anger arising from playing games. Those of us who are well-adjusted, with clearly-set moral boundaries and ethical guides from our parents and friends will be just fine.

* – super-points for anyone who can tell me what game this is from!

Absolutely one of the best-written games EVER. It’s a cross between a courtroom drama and a police investigation game, with you piecing together evidence and then cross-examining witnesses until you find out what really happened. It starts out easy but gets hard very quickly, but the feeling of intelligence when you get something right is hard to beat.

Only the fifth and final chapter truly uses the DS’s capabilities, as the first four are actually from an existing GameBoy Advance game, but they’re all so intricate and involving it’s hard to care if you just use the stylus to tap on questions or evidence.

It’s such a hard game to sell because there’s not much else like it. Someone sold it to me as like being able to be a character in a really great book, which is a good way of looking at it because the characters and dialogue are amazing.

In short: Clever cases, funny dialogue, great experience.