Genre Character of the Week: Cole MacGrath

So I'm currently working my way through the 2011 PS3 game Infamous 2, and I just realized I've never really talked about the main character of the series, Cole MacGrath before.

Originally a bike messenger from the fiction Empire City, Cole begins the first game by getting caught up in a massive explosion, which has granted him electrical-based superpowers.

Throughout the two games Cole works to increase his use of these powers to aid him in his mission.

...and that's where we get into what I really love about both the character and this game series overall.

Cole can be played as either good or evil.

This means that as the player, you can decide whether Cole helps out the citizens of Empire City (and New Marais - clearly a New Orleans-inspired city in Infamous 2) or simply dominate them on his way to defeat those who would stand against him.

It makes for one of the more interesting game experiences I've had in my experience with video games - basically letting me decide whether I want to do my best to help those around me or simply get the job done and let God sort it out.

Yes, Cole has some pretty good one-liners and his parkour moves are pretty exciting, but unlike a traditional book, movie, or television series, the format of the game allows you, the player, to decide how things will run.

Also Electrical powers are awesome!

Genre Character of the Week: Sackboy

After a long run of mature games (Dead Space, Assassin’s Creed I & II, Infamous) I decided to take a run at a family game again (also I got it for Father’s Day) so for the last two weeks I’ve been playing Little Big Planet 2 for the PS3.  In addition to being incredibly eye-catching and fun, it stars a completely customizable character called Sackboy.

Here’s the thing about Sackboy – he’s adorable!  Seriously, for those of you who haven’t’ gotten the chance to play either Little Big Planet game, he looks like a tiny doll made of a course fabric which the player can change at will, including emotions, hand moves, costuming and more.

The little guy runs through levels made up over various arts and crafts style objects and in the second game joins an alliance to save the tiny world he is from.  There isn’t much more to it actually – he’s (and to be fair you can play Sack as a girl or a gender-neutral character as well) just this adorable little creature who does his best to save the day.

Personally I prefer to use the default setting, as it makes him look most like the characters from the film 9 (no not that Nine).

SO CUTE!!!

Things I’ve noticed: Sometimes violence in videogames can mess with your head

This morning I was talking to my nineteen-year-old daughter about the game Infamous. I wrote a review of it earlier this week and she is currently working through the game herself. She explained to me that at one point in the game while stopping a prison break, she witnessed one of the villainous dustmen shoot a police officer with a rocket launcher and although she had been knocking out dustmen up to that point, she made a special effort to kill this one.

It’s funny, as neither character were actually real people (sorry ReBoot – maybe they were, but for the purposes of this post let’s assume they weren’t) there should not have been any specific reason for her to target this one villain over any others, but I suppose the fact that as the main character in the game, it was within her power to theoretically stop the villain before he blew up the police officer, the least she could do was get revenge.

I guess that is one of the biggest draws for me when it comes to video games; unlike books, movies and TV shows, video games are the one medium that let me (the player) take direct action and an effect on the game world. This was the same draw for me into the world of Role-Playing Games when I was younger. Whether I was a Fighter, a Vampire or a cyborg-dwarf Shadowrunner, I could do things in the game that would have consequences.

It’s funny, but in a way I feel pretty good about my daughter’s reaction; I mean, sure she brutally beat a (virtual) guy and then threw a grenade on him for good measure, but the part I’m talking about is the fact that when she saw something that she found unacceptable, she did something about it. It makes me feel (virtually) proud.

Game Review: Infamous

As I've been off on vacation for the last couple of weeks, I was able to finish my most recent game for the PS3, Infamous. The game is a sandbox-style game (wherein you can follow a main story, do side missions or simply explore the environment) and follows a bicycle messenger named Cole MacGrath who begins to develop super powers after being at the epicentre of a massive explosion.

The game itself was a lot of fun, as the explorations through the city showed me a lot of really neat environments and allowed me to interact with the cities population. Actually one of the best parts of the game, in my opinion, was the ability to be a jerk or a decent guy throughout and have your choice actually affect the gameplay. Playing as a good guy, I eventually had a lot of people helping out in my battles and being friendly to me overall. I'm looking forward to coming back to the game at a later date and trying it out as an evil guy, so the replay offered by the game is actually quite high.

The graphics were fun, the story was engaging, and although there were a few glitches (mostly falling through parts of the environment that should not have let me fall), overall this was a really fun play. I'm excited about checking out the sequel as well, but next up for me is the sequel to one of my favourite games for the PS3 so far, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. This new title, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

Things I’ve Noticed: Video games really want you to stay out of the water

For the last couple weeks I’ve been playing the PS3 game Infamous, wherein you play a bicycle courier who was granted super-powers after being at the epicenter of a huge explosion. Given powers over electricity, you can either run around the city as a good guy or as an infamous force of terror. I decided to play it good, but I’ll probably revisit the game in a few months and let my inner baddie out.

One thing the game did get me thinking about however, was just how common it is for games to deny the player access to the ocean. Some games (Tomb Raider, Uncharted, and God of War all come to mind) have many underwater levels, but for the most part the ocean is off limits for the player to explore. Put simply, if the game doesn’t allow water exploration, there is a lot less you have to design.

A lot of games have no reason for this at all (When Altaiir in the first Assassins Creed game falls into the ocean he simply dies (amazing assassin –yes, as good a swimmer as a five-year-old -no, or when Tommy Vercetti in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City hits the ocean it’s also lights out – which makes me wonder why he moved to a city with an ocean on three sides of it) but there are a few games that are actually pretty clever in explaining why you just can’t take a dip.

Bookmonkey’s Top Three excuses for why your character can’t go in the water.

#3 Electrocution (Infamous)

Sometimes your strength can also be your weakness; in Infamous Cole MacGrath has the ability to manipulate electricity to do all sorts of things: hurl lightning, throw objects around, even heal the sick, but the downside of having electricity-based powers is that when electricity touches water – you’re gonna hurt.

#2 Ancient Family Curse (The Castlevania Series)

All right, I’ll admit that this ridiculous reasons for vampire hunter Simon Belmont (who is cursed so that he can’t touch water) – would obviously leaving him dead of dehydration in a matter of days) but honestly, while playing the games I’m so focused on killing vampires and other creatures of the night that the idea of an ancient family curse works just fine for me.

#1 CHOMP! (Spore)

A few years ago I got my wife the game Spore; a kind of super civilization-style game. You start by playing a micro-organism, then evolve into a creature, then control the creatures tribe, then it’s nation, it’s civilization and eventually travel through space. As a creature in the second stage of the game, you wander around on an island (or continent) dealing with other creatures and getting more evolved, but if you go out into the ocean, a giant sea-creature will simply come out of the water and eat you. In the end, you can’t get much simpler than that.

P.S. A quick side note, one of my newer favourite blogs, Renaissance Dork posted this link to the new trailer for The Hobbit, now if it could only shoot me forward a year so I could see the movie!!!