Please share with the class what game you plan on playing through (in addition to Portal) this semester, and (if appropriate) what platform the game is on. Also, share why you chose that game.
16 thoughts on “What Game are you Playing?”
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I have chosen (and have already taken out and started playing) Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for XBox 360.
I chose this game because I have played it a little before in a multi-player format, but have not been able to do so while concentrating on the narrative and storytelling mechanisms. I know that I can play the game fine, as I am not very good at Point of View games using two joysticks, and I know that I love it since I really like Marvel comic characters.
I’m going to play The Simpsons Game for XBox 360. Why? I’m familiar with its narrative world, both in and out of the television series, and would be interested in seeing how they have adapted it further. That said, I’m pretty tempted by Donald Duck: Goin’ Quackers, and am questioning whether I should just wait it out to see if they’ll come out with a Trapped in the Closet videogame….
HAHAHAHAHA. Sorry I had to respond to this. I think you should change your mind and play the Donald Duck game, as much as I love the Simpsons. Just a thought…
Trapped in the Closet would be the best video game in the universe. You know how many times you would “pull out your beretta”?
I’m going to play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I’ve never really played through a GTA game before. I think the extent of my experience has been stealing a few cars and beating up a few random passerbys and I feel that as an American, it is my duty to play a GTA game. I’m also interested to see how the narrative differs from that of Mob/Gangster movies.
I’m going to play God of War III. I’ve always been a fan of the series ever since the first God of War came out back in 2005. Although it became an innovative marker for the way its narrative could be portrayed, but it also allowed gamers the ability to become completely immersed in a large-scale world with some freedom to explore other portions of the game. Furthermore, greek history has always been a fascinating topic to me and the acute attention to detail pulls me into the narrative much further.
Wish me luck!!!
Fallout 3. Back in the day I was a die-hard fan of any game by Black Isle Studios (Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate I and II, Icewind Dale, and of course, the Fallout series). I picked up Fallout 3 my sophomore year, but then the dreaded Red Ring of Death befell my Xbox 360. Now I’m finally giving myself a good reason to finish the game. Besides post-apocalypse being one of my favorite and most interesting genres, I also love how dark, twisted, and interested in a player-directed story Fallout 3 is. Plus, in what other game does Ron Perlman voice the narrator and Liam Neeson your character’s father?
007 for PS2. I never had video games as a kid but I used to go over to my friend’s house and play one of two games on his Nintendo 64: Mario Kart, or Goldeneye. Doritos were involved. So it’s mostly from nostalgia that I chose 007. But I’m seriously inept at first person shooters so if anyone knows of a game that a beginner could feasibly beat–any game–please let me know. Plus I know nothing about the narrative of the game. I’m guessing it involves women.
I lied. I’m actually going to play Red Dead Redemption for the PS3. It’s similar to the GTA games in it’s sandbox-style world and is made by the same company, Rockstar Games. I played it a little bit this summer and was just blown away by it visually. The rolling plains, outlaws, and horses all look as if they were ripped right off the screen. In the same way that I was interested with the way the GTA story would compare with mobster movies, I’m interested to see how the story of Red Dead compares to some of the famous westerns.
I’ll be playing through the recently released Halo:Reach, supposedly the final game in the Halo series (Until it makes a billion dollars). I’ve been a fan of Halo and it’s world from the very first game and, Reach being a prequel to the previous three games, am very excited to see how the developers treat a story to which most of the audience will already know the ending to. How will they emotionally invest the gamer in characters that are guaranteed to die? I can’t wait to find out.
Andrew – one of my best friends from college is a videogame writer, and worked on Halo: Reach. I’m going to try to get him to Skype into class at some point to talk about games & narrative from a writer’s perspective – if you have any thoughts or questions as you play through Reach that would be well-addressed to him, definitely keep track of them & I can forward them.
woah…i like that skype idea.
I’m playing the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on Gamecube because it’s the only game system we have in our suite. Also, I owned the game for N64 as a kid, but my brother never let me play and he always skipped the dialog boxes, so this should be a new experience. Like I said before, viewing video games as stories is a new concept for me, and I’m happy to be focusing more on the method of story telling than on how many times I die and have to start over.
I’m playing Trauma Center: Second Opinion for Wii because it sounds SO WEIRD! This way I can satisfy my urge to be a doctor without having to go to all the trouble of medical school. Plus, I’ve always found it interesting to see the way hospitals are represented in film and media.
Best game of all time!
I checked out Grand Theft Auto (GTA) IV last week and I have started playing that game for the second game this semester. The reason I have chosen this game is because it is such a peculiar game regarding story narrative. While there is a direct storyline, you don’t actually have to follow it to play the game; there is just so much freedom in the storyworld. Furthermore, the game relies heavily on everyday (and criminal) schema, but I will get into that further this next week in the other thread…
I have decided to play (and have already started playing) Shadow of the Colossus. I have chosen this game because, in terms of story, plot, and characters, the narrative seems to be very minimalist. There is no backstory, there are no side quests. A lone hero on horseback must search through a mythical land in order to defeat sixteen monsters, one after another. If he does this, the gods will resurrect his deceased love. I believe that, on a certain level, the game’s aesthetic beauty, in terms of narrative, is derived from its simple, archetypal premise. I think this offers interesting potential for narrative analysis.