The Once in a Generation Gaming Question

As Winter approaches a difficult decision will have to be made.... no, not about lockdown and a Covid Christmas (although that's very important too of course) but as regards the purchase of either the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X (pending availability of course).

Decisions, decisions!

Decisions, decisions!

I'm not sure what I'm going to go for as neither Sony nor Microsoft have shown me any launch titles that have convinced me I need to buy the system on the day it drops. To be honest only Nintendo usually have something as a Day 1 release that make it a system seller which usually makes make me an early Nintendo adopter.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Nintendo fan boy ( even though I always buy a Nintendo system for its exclusives) as I do also always buy either a Sony or Microsoft system too to ensure I have access to a wider variety and quantity of games, but this time the choice is a little more complex.

I have a PS4 currently as I like the exclusives and the focus on games rather than what Microsoft was pushing this generation initially , which was an all-round media machine with a Kinect focus. This is despite me being a huge Xbox 360 fan in the previous generation as its push on Live Arcade swayed me, alongside an ecosystem that was well integrated with indie titles and online marketplace.

The new consoles coming out seem to offer a bit of a starker choice this time round; 'more Sony exclusive' vs 'Tonnes of games with Game Pass'. It seems like a no-brainer that Xbox seems like the better option, and for many it probably is, but as an aging gamer with limited time I value the amount of time I have available for my hobby. I'd rather spend time playing the games I really wanted to rather than sifting through the sheer number of games that Microsoft will have available. Now some might say, 'Get the Xbox and play the games you want' but having Netflix I know that when there is too much choice I get paralysed and end up consuming not much at all as my mind starts to wander onto my 'pile of shame' watch list and I dip in and out, not committing to anything or racing through it without appreciating it fully. Imagine that with gaming? I'd always be worried about the next shiny thing. Although with the acquisition of ZeniMax and potential exclusives of titles like Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein and Fallout is a huge boon for Microsoft, I’m still not sure that they’ll be system exclusives, maybe being timed exclusives or being released multi-platform, so I’m not too concerned about this.

So it's not you Microsoft, it me. At least that's how I feel at the moment but you never know, Sony might bugger it all up like they did with the PS3 and I might go cap in hand back to Xbox. One things for sure, in these unusual times things are as unpredictable as ever and that applies to the gaming space too. However, one certainty is that Nintendo will remain my one gaming constant.

Now to continue working through my pile of shame before the next gen drops.

LINK- My One True Gaming Constant- Nintendo

LINK- Pure Invention: How Japan's Pop Culture Conquered the World- Book Review

LINK- Japan: My Journey to the East

LINK: Preserving the Spirit of Media Past

LINK- Why I Collect

Gravity Rush- Video Games As Art

Gravity Rush is a weirdly wonderful steampunk fantasy game in which you control an amnesiac young girl with levitation powers. So far so video game trope-y, but what sets this game apart from many others is the sheer artistry on show and character. Kat, the protagonist is very likeable and apart from her barely-there fan-service appeasing attire, a strong female lead. The graphics of the remaster (from the 2012 PS Vita game) are excellent and the artistic flair is beautiful to behold on the big screen. If you get a chance check it out!

The Last Of Us: Left Behind- Video Games As Art

I've already spoken about how wonderful the The Last Of Us was as a gaming experience and as an art form. The DLC, Left Behind tells us more of Ellie's backstory, illuminating us as to her motivations and worldview. At just over two hours the game is not long but it is still beautiful and filled with moments of awe and wonder. I won't spoil it but check out some of the gorgeous screenshots below.

The Last Of Us- Video Games As Art

The Last of Us is an action-adventure post-apocalyptic video game developed by Naughty Dog. The game was first published by Sony on the Playstation 3 but I only recently played the remastered edition on the Playstation 4 and what an amazing experience it was. You play the role of Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic America as she might hold the key to saving humanity against the virus which has turned most of the world's population into rage zombies. So far so stereotypically game trope-y, but what sets the game apart is the excellent story, voice acting and gorgeous visuals. The whole game plays like a movie and some of the visuals are truly cinematic. Have a look at the gallery below and see if you agree.

Drone Racing: A Sport of the Future?

Drones are everywhere. In the past couple of years the commercial availability of drones has risen whilst their prices have dropped, this has led to this past year being the Year of the Drone, with the gadget high on many people's Christmas list. As a teacher and the Future Technology lead at my school, charged with preparing our pupils for the future and potentially disruptive technology which could change the way we use and think about technology, I have been following the emergence and rise of drones closely and thinking about how they could be used in an educational environment.

As an avid gamer I think it was the game Wipeout which first attracted me to the idea of racing through tech-filled landscapes in futuristic hovering machines in fluorescent colours, it may have been F-Zero on the SNES but Wipeout on the original PlayStation was the game where I was first woken to the possibility of such a sport.

I am obviously not alone as the past year has seen a huge interest in drone racing as a sport, with the Drone Racing League, the National Drone Racing Championships and the Dubai World Drone Prix forming. In fact the Dubai World Drone Prix had a prize winning pot of $1 million, a record for the fledgling sport, which was won by a British 'pilot'. Many entrepreneurs are seeing the potential of the sport and are staking their claim to be the next Bernie Ecclestone whilst others see their chance to make money from their hobby, much like e-sports.

As teachers we should encourage our pupils to take part in whatever interests them and so in this spirit my school purchased 3 Hubsan X4 H107C to develop their basic piloting skills, 2 Hubsan X4 Mini FPV to develop their first person flying skills, 2 Boblov Eachine FPV flight goggles and a few air-gates to practice our skills. The whole package came in at under £500 and was researched to be the most cost effective and accessible way into the sport. 

I have been testing some of the equipment myself over the past few days but tomorrow will be working alongside my colleague to get our Digital Leaders, pupils with an interest in Computing and all things tech, to look through our resources and plan a course of action of starting our own Drone Racing League, with the intention of starting an inter-school competition sometime in the near future.

Flying drones whilst wearing FPV (First Person View) googles is an unsettling, dreamlike experience but once you get used to it truly immersive and engaging. I hope that this sport does take off and by providing our pupils with the resources and skills needed to compete in the sport maybe we will inspire our pupils to engage with the sport and maybe create future pilots.

Resident Evil 7 in VR is a Marvel

As a teacher I've been intrigued by virtual reality for a while and the wonderful possibilities that it holds as a means to engage and excite pupils, however as a gamer there hasn't really been anything released that has appealed to me. All this changed when it was announced that Resident Evil 7 would have VR features, this had me intrigued as I have felt that the series had lost its way by becoming more action orientated, and so I bought it on the day of its release.
I played the first couple of minutes at home in my man-cave at home but it felt wrong, I had the feeling that games like this should be experienced with friends using the old unwritten rules; life, level or up to a save point. Back in the day that's the way I used to play that with my friends and that the way I wanted to play this, so one Friday after school I put up a poster welcoming my colleagues to play the game, only 3 people responded and so in we went, us steadfast four, headfirst into the old Dulvey Mansion, in Louisiana; the setting for this game.
The few gaming teachers and I shared the VR headset and swapped around, as per the rules, but still experienced mostly the same thing as the system was connected to the interactive white board with the super loud speakers. The PSVR really does add a lot to the game and it is a lot more immersive than seeing it played out on the interactive white board but playing the game for long periods in VR is quite disorientating and so swapping regularly helps. 
Being winter it gets dark early and so the stage has been perfectly set for immersing ourselves in this game. The mood whilst playing the game has been one of camaraderie punctuated with moments of on-screen horror and jump-scares that have bonded us in our collective fear.

The game itself is wonderfully claustrophobic and as we are 8 or so hours in I look forward to the rest of the game and whatever surprises it may bring.

I have heard people decrying the game saying that it doesn't feel like a traditional RE game but as a long-time fan of the series with plenty of experience I can tell you that when you have to collect 3 dog head sigils to open a door then you're definitely in old skool RE territory. Friday after school has become RE 7 night and I love it!

Using PSVR as a Writing Stimulus

At school we recently purchased a Playstation 4 and a VR headset. The PSVR headset just arrived today, after meeting the huge backlog in demand and Christmas rush, but we hope to use it as a contextual hub for learning. I've spoken many times before about how video games can be used as an instrument to hang learning on but with VR you can BE there, in the world.
I have been using the past few weeks since the PS4 purchase to play and record a few games which I feel can be used as a writing stimulus and will be working alongside my colleagues in creating exciting and fun lesson plans based on these soon. Today, with the arrival of the PSVR I played the demo disc, which contained several experiences of varying quality, and again hope to be using these to assist in developing the English curriculum.

VR could be an integral part of education and PSVR seems to be one of the most affordable commercial ways to get in on the ground level. Whether the potential is realised is to be seen but at my school we'll be giving it a good shot!

The PSVR does require a lot of wires.

The headset itself is extremely comfortable and adjustable, even for a glasses wearer like me.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus- Reflections On A Gaming Life

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus were released 10 years ago and so I thought I'd do a retrospective on some of my favourite games of all time.

 I had a Nintendo 64 and PS1 and my interest in gaming was waning. It wasn't because the games coming out were bad but rather I was at university, discovering the joys of clubbing and just generally socialising. I worked part-time as a youth worker in a youth center in East London, one of the ones always in the papers because of the spate of regular stabbings, and we were creating gaming collages for our games room. It was through this that I saw a review of Ico and the art style of the game intrigued me.

The Ico cardboard cover is in the style of famed artist De Chirico and it was in part this art style that intrigued me. I saw a wrapped copy of Ico for sale at my local second hand video game shop and so I bought the game and a PS2 that same day. The packed cardboard box edition with postcards had me impressed and then I played the game and it blew me away. The first introduction to the character is full of mystery and very little is explained. Why is there a boy with horns? Why is he being taken to the temple? Why is he placed in the sarcophagus? What happened to the people of this land? The wonderful thing about this game is that very little is revealed to you, even when you finish the game. The world seemed rich and immersed in a history which I didn't know, no lore was presented in Ico but you could create your own narrative through events and the structures within the castle. A lot you had to interpret and guess and for someone who likes media that makes you think and question, that suited me just fine.

Playing the game I fell in love with the simple but powerful mechanic of not understanding my partner Yorda, but knowing that I had to help her escape the castle. The game itself is an escort mission but not annoying; you develop a protective bond with this ethereal girl who you can't communicate with. The bond of holding hands is powerful and later on when you are without her it feels terrible, not many escort missions can achieve that.

When Team Ico, the creators behind Ico released Shadow of the Colossus I bought it the day it came out and played it solidly for a week. At the beginning of SOTC we are given some narrative but events feel bigger than us and the world seems to have existed before our character comes into play, it seems like a lived in world yet so very little is told; Why is Mono dead? Who is Wander and what is his relationship to Mono? What is the desolate place and how did Wander know of the prophecy to cheat death and bring people back from the other side? Who are the Colossi and who is the voice guiding you to destroy such beautiful creatures?

There seems to be a connection that you felt if you worked hard enough you could understand, but with the economy of design and lack of voice over work and cut scenes explaining the story, you could create your own narrative based on what you saw and felt. There is no ludo-narrative dissonance; the world is free to explore and it is only by holding the sword aloft that you are directed where to go. Meeting the different colossi for the first time was such a thrill, very few games have matched the sheer awe of meeting these mysterious creatures for the first time. As you fulfil your dread destiny and kill these mighty beasts there is a feeling of remorse and regret. After each killings there is a futile interactivity as the black tendrils envelop you and leave their mark on your slowly mottling skin, a mark of your sin.

These games still resonates with me 10 years after the release of Team Ico's first game,  and this is in no small part due to their phenomenal soundtracks which were both created by Kou Ootani, who also sound tracked the wonderful Haibane Renmei (one of my favourite anime). The Ico OST is scarce but perfectly pitched for key events, like the original Prince of Persia game. SOTC has an emotive score full of sadness but also adventure, it suits the mood perfectly and both soundtracks are masterclasses on scoring for a game and how much a score can lend to an overall games impact.

I look forward to The Last Guardian and wait, like most of the world, with unquenchable excitement at what Fumito Ueda, the auteur of Team Ico has spend a whole console generation to produce.
 

The Nostalgia of Low Poly Art

I've spoken before about how nostalgia typically works in 20/ 30 year cycles (linked below). And so it comes to pass that on the 20th anniversary of the Playstation people have looked back with rose tinted eyes at the games of the early Playstation.

For many it was the first real introduction to the world of polygons, typically games had been 2D and sidescrolling on consoles, PCs had been experimenting with polygons for years, but due to their prohibitive price point was unavailable to many. So with the PS release the first wave of polygon games into being, looking at the gallery below you can see that the art was in it's early stages but there was a cubist beauty to its angles and contours. Many polygons had to be sacrificed in the quest for an improved frame rate. The games may look quite janky now but some, especially those with an interesting art direction, still hold up pretty well.

Over the decade we have seen the revival of pixel art and pixellated games, this has in part been due to the rise of the Indie scene and the affection that the creators have for 8 and 16 bit games... but now its the turn of polygon games. For those in the know the low poly art scene has been in full swing for about 3 years. The idea of producing simple items through limited polygons presents an interesting artistic challenge and there are many tools available to do the job. Some are easy and some are more complex but the end result can be curiously spellbinding. I have spoken before about how you can create immersive worlds without the use of photo-realistic graphics and the same applies here in low poly art, you can create wonderful worlds without needing to make it look exactly like the object as we can fill in the details ourselves. A similar event occurred in ancient Greece, although obviously not with computers, where the statues had become so lifelike that there was nowhere else to go with artistic interpretation so there was a move towards more stylised sculpture.

I for one am glad that there is yet another facet to the video game and art scene and am all for different forms of expression. Long live low poly!

LINK- Video Game Soundtracks on Vinyl