the-inbetween.com

Best Things of 2005

A "best of" list spanning across multiple media would be the ideal thing to do, but I just don't feel at the forefront of anything but games and internet junk. As far as music is concerned, my favourite albums from the last year actually came out in the early 80s and 90s. There's been some new albums that I've enjoyed this year, but I haven't heard enough to be definitive about them (though, if anything, Rossz Csillag Allat Született might be my album of 2005).

Same deal with movies. It was a joy to finally attend the Toronto Film Festival this year, but outside of that I really did not go to see many recent films. 2005, more than anything, was the year that I raised my eyebrow to Westerns. This was the first time in my life that I gave them any serious consideration and I have come emerged a fan of the genre. I saw everything from "Fistful of Dollars" and "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" to "The Wild Bunch" and "Ride the High Country"* to "Unforgiven" and "The Outlaw Josey Wales" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and everything inbetween. I liked a lot of it. It's been a good year in that regard, but calling "Once Upon a Time in the West" the best film of 2005 isn't right, so I'll leave those labels to the Golden Globe and Oscar people and all other reviewers.

Books? Forget that. TV? Nope.

So I'm left with games. I've played an ample amount of videogames this year and I had grown tired of -- and abandoned -- most of them. I got bored of Resident Evil 4; I never finished Shadow of the Collossus; I only did a few races in Forza and Gran Turismo 4; I barely started Dragon Quest VIII; I only finished the first few missions in Nexus; etc etc.

Perhaps my attention span has really shifted over the last couple of years. Perhaps I'm just tired of all the conventions and cliches and unnecessary complications. I'm not sure which, but my picks for "top games of 2005" reflect some of that. Save for one title, they're all simple (not stupid) quick-play games.

Top 5 games of '05:

5. Castlevania: Dawn of Souls. Best 2D action platformer since Metroid Zero Mission. Collecting mechanic can be a bit annoying, but for the most part you can just skip that and hack and slash your way through. The game gets harder because of it, but the option to make the trek easier (by collecting souls) is always there. Last boss was a bitch.

4. Civilization IV. The exception of the bunch. Once I got past the installation headaches, I lost a lot of time to this game just as I did with III and II. More of the same, yes, but more of the same gold standard.

3. Mario Kart DS. I really enjoyed the SNES game. I never did play the N64 incarnation. I was really bored with the GameCube and GBA versions. To me, this was the first real sequel to the SNES original. The others just don't compare (though I do wish the battle mode was better.)

2. Lumines. It was a toss up between this and Meteos, but over the holidays, I pulled out Lumines for a quick game and ended up playing for an hour and a half. Winner. It's a gem in what has been a rather lacklustre PSP showing.

1. Guitar Hero, by far. There's a reason why I recently changed my band's name from the not-so-rocking "MKN" to the more rocking, and much more accurate, "REPETITIVE STRESS"; Guitar Hero is going to give me RSI. It doesn't matter how many times I've failed to complete "No One Knows" on Expert (MANY), I keep coming back to the game. I keep coming back to try to improve on my past performances. I keep coming back to unlock more songs and guitars. I keep coming back because it's still fun.

* Speaking of which, the Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection seems to be coming out on DVD in a couple of weeks.

Sixer

My hip four digit blogger id (it's been a long time since I used their service) confirms that this is my sixth anniversary of doing this. I'm a grizzled veteran.

After all these years, the weblog became a natural extension of the self. There isn't any thought to it, there's no pressure or desire to impress or attract traffic and no stress about posting habits. It just is.

I've seen a lot of change in these six years. I've seen it go from "web logs" to "weblogs" to "blogs", from a small niche geek group to mainstream "credibility", from an innocent distraction to a spam magnet. There's been a lot of self-indulgence in that time, a lot of it archived across various computers on the internet (unfortunately), but we learn.

I couldn't care less if weblogs change the world. It doesn't matter if they bring about the downfall of the "old media" (hah). What matters is that after all this time, I've greatly improved my writing (looking at my initial posts is cringe worthy) and my "style" (there was a lame no capitals period in there somewhere) and I've met some cool people because of it. That made it worthwhile and as I probably say every year, here's to more weblog perpetuity.

And if others have enjoyed anything I have ever written or if anyone was pleased by something I have linked to or got something, anything, out of this nonsense, then thank you.

Guitar Hero

Guitar Hero is addictive as crack. This is an apt comparison because in Canada, Guitar Hero is about as difficult to acquire as any contraband. The distribution, especially north of the border, really really sucks. A shame; more people should play this game.

Don't take my word for it. Anybody with an inner rocker in them falls in love with this game the instant they play it. I did, and even though I suck at it and am struggling with it on the higher difficulties, I still do.

I've seen complaints from some places that the game is "too easy". What? Maybe to people that have played guitar for years and have played a million different rhythm games, I can see that. But for the average person, the game has a parabolic learning curve. For the average gamer, the guitar-ish hand motions take a lot of getting used to. I've held a controller in my hand since I was six. A guitar? Not so much. The game never feels unfair, but it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. Far more than the likes of Ampitude and Frequency, which relied on more gamer friendly button pressing and combinations.

What irks me the most about the game is something that Harmonix can't control: outsider guitar snobs. The kind that always chime in to say that "playing a guitar is much more fun" or "get a real guitar." No. I mean, why play Gran Turismo when you can drive a real car? Why play whatever sport game when you can play the actual sport? Why play Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball when you can go play real paintball? Why play Animal Crossing when you can just check your mail and go to the store... ?

This kind of attitude misses the whole point. For $70, I can get a fake guitar and instantly rock the fuck out to Thunder Kiss '65. Instant. Otherwise, I can spend hundreds of dollars on a real guitar and an amp and not do that. Not without training, lessons and a lot of practice. And even then, I might never be able to rock out to the likes of Cowboys from Hell.

I just want to rock, without having to (nor wanting to) learn to play a guitar. Guitar Hero gives me that chance. It's fucking fun too. What more could you ask for from a game?

Wild World

I've been playing Animal Crossing: Wild World over the last week, venturing out to distant towns through Nintendo WiFI and inviting foreign interlopers into mine.

The original Animal Crossing, on the GameCube, was a great little zen game. By its nature it was a decent portable game despite being tied down to a home console, so the translation to the DS seems natural. Very natural when you realize just how complete Wild World is. There are a few minor sacrifices in the transition, like the loss of the journal, the loss of a few landmarks (though all their functions still exist), and the one house limitation -- you can still have four people in the same town but they are all restricted to the same house -- but otherwise, this little DS card has just as much content (and more!) as its predecessor. This is quite a feat.

What I like the most, though, is how much more streamlined the DS iteration is. Some of it is because of the touch screen interface, which helps with pattern drawing and softkey text input, but most of it is from better design. It's mostly consolidation that does this. For example, in the original game if you found a fossil you had to get yourself some letter paper, write a letter to the fossil checking people, send the fossil and wait until the next day to get your validated fossil mailed back. The letter writing step was tedious and unrewarding since the contents of the letter were completely irrelevent. Worst of all, typing in the bare minimum letter (quick keyboard nonsense, ie. "asd") on a controller was slow. Getting fossils was a chore.

In Wild World, all those unnecessary requirements are done away with. You can just go to the museum and have the fossil checked on site. Simple. This kind of design decision can be seen in a few areas. You don't need to go to three seperate locations to dump garbage, send mail and check your town's environment status; they're consolidated into the town hall. You don't need to sell your items one by one to Nook; you can sell them as a group.

These changes fix some of Animal Crossing's previous annoyances and make for a better "portable design." Wild World can be played in much shorter bursts than the GameCube version. This is good for a portable as you can pick it up, turn it on, visit your town, run some errands and shut down in less than ten minutes. This is good for when you want to go fishing while the hockey game on tv goes into intermission. This is good for when you want to go visit someone else's town while you are sitting in front of the computer waiting for a download to finish. This is good for when you want to check what's in stock at Nook's while you wait for the water to boil. This is, simply, good filler.

In essence, it is the most casual game around.

The Virtual Earth -- minus most of the Earth

Another month, another online map service. While Microsoft's Local Live does have some very nice "bird's eye view" shots, they don't have any for this metropolis. But worry not. If you're in Canada, you can still see some of it, so long as you don't mind staring at Niagara Falls' cheesy, slimey "strip". Now there's a way to get an impression of Canada.

The Falls is nice, though, even if it is poorly sliced in the other views (hit the cardinal direction buttons).

X X X R1 Square Triangle

This "ad" for the new Prince of Persia (looks like forced wannabe viral... although I am linking to it) isn't at all funny. However, I find it odd that a game would be marketed as such since the spot does nothing but leave you with the impression that the controls for this game are overly complex and retarded. Prepare to die many times because you couldn't figure out which of the twelve buttons to press at a particular moment. Sounds like fun!