The Quixotic Engineer

This is an entry in the June ’08 Round Table discussion. This month’s topic, “I Wanna Hold Your Hand”, asks you to explore a relationship within a game that you found compelling or memorable.

If there’s one stock character that I’m really sick of in video games, it’s the generic ally. This is a character who, early in the game, we are told has an existing relationship with the protagonist (lover / sibling / parent / child / lifelong friend / etc.) We spend the first chapter of the game following / escorting this person before they are kidnapped / killed / turned evil, and this serves as the main character’s motivation for the remainder of the game.

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I’d heard from friends and other video game enthusiasts that Video Games Live was a fantastic experience and well worth going out of your way to see. Unfortunately, life got in the way when they came to Montreal a few months ago, but yesterday I was given a second chance. They were putting on a free show at Yonge-Dundas Square in Toronto, no more than a hour or two away from my current residence in Waterloo. I thought I’d do a little recap of the evening’s events, and hopefully convince you to check them out if they’re playing near you.

The show was scheduled to start at 8:30, but we got there at 7 to ensure a good spot (it was a free show after all.) There were Wii and Xbox 360 stations set up for people to play, as well as a Guitar Hero competition that went on throughout the day. There were a few cosplayers, including a troupe of Jedis and a dude in a fantastic Phoenix Wright costume. There were also hordes of people playing DS while they waited, so it was a good opportunity for me to take advantage of The World Ends With You‘s mingle mode feature.

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There have been a good number of grade A releases recently (I’m still working on GTA4, and recently picked up On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness), but the one that has me completely hooked is The World Ends With You, an unconventional RPG for the Nintendo DS by Square-Enix.

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Last week my arguments against the Bioshock movie revolved largely around the fact that I do not believe that the game’s experience can be faithfully reproduced in a non-interactive medium. My two arguments in favour of the film aren’t so much counter-arguments to my last observations as they are sort of lateral benefits.

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Last Friday it was announced that a Bioshock feature film was in the works, to be helmed by Gore Verbinski of “Pirates of the Caribbean” fame. In theory this is terrific news, Bioshock was one of my favourite games of last year. Its objectivist theme and unique setting made it rich for analysis, and it spawned several terrific essays from some of my favourite games writers.

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