Red Faction: Guerrilla Preview

Red Faction: Guerilla has options. In fact, options is the name of the game, or at least of the PS3 demo I've been playing for the last few days.

Guerrilla's calling card is "destructibility." And in this aspect, the game truly does separate itself from the sheaf of other third-person shooters. Pounding a mullet through a wall is quite satisfying. As you blast through a wall, shingles or bricks go flying with the impact, revealing rebar support beneath the surface. Even better, enemy EDF soldiers have no place to hide; burst through their cover, and they'll go flying along with everything else. You feel powerful.

Don't like physical labor? Destructible objects are everywhere: one-shot bio-hazard drums, gas-filled towers that explode into green plumes of flame, propane tanks that can be lifted and tossed, and machinery that electrify and then, what else, explode. Additionally, one of the primary weapons are remote mines. Throw a bunch of these out, hit circle to detonate, and they'll blow-up in succession. It brings back fond memories of GoldenEye. These are no measly explosions, either; they're big, colorful, and feature all sorts of heat distortions. Explosions instantly devour buildings and launch nearby enemies into the air. Developer Volition's clearly devoted much effort to the effects, and it shows.As buildings become damaged, they are shaded red in the mini-map in the lower-left corner and a percentage is displayed over them to signify its degree of durability. The lower the percentage, the closer the building is to being fully destroyed, a feat which nets players resistance-moral points. These percentages, such small things, nag at players like dangling carrots, coaxing them to finish buildings off. The reward is moral points and sweet sweet satisfaction. Notch one more on the belt.

On top of destruction, Guerrilla also offers up a decent third-person shooter is also present, featuring, apparently, a couple dozen weapons. Players can jump, run, crouch, "fine aim," and standard to all of the genre now, cling to walls, peek around walls, and roll away from walls: all useful abilities. In the demo, you have access to an assault rifle, remote mines, mallet, pistol, and shotgun, not to mention heavy gun turrets. The game has no lock-on function, but does have a liberal snap-aim. Something of note, the cross-hairs differ per weapon (and also, oddly, are colored to blend with the background), each type representing that weapon's firing-area. Headshots certainly play their part here, but overall, the game does not require precise aiming, asking that players simply mow enemies down. Running and gunning is entirely dependent on the number of enemies around, not unfeasible, but taking cover is advised. Also, the player-character regenerates health liberally.

Vehicles are also available and, more pointedly, prominent. Using vehicles is almost mandatory, and encouraged, because once enemies start swarming around the player in droves, it becomes more and more difficult to fend them off with the ole' lock, stock, and barrel. Running over them is so much easier, and turrets, with an over-heating based ammo system, are far more effective than your standard guns. Best of all is the walker, a bipedal construction mech. Well, more like destruction. Hold down the R2 button, walk through a warehouse, and watch it come tumbling down on you. If blowing up buildings with planned demolition charges is like popping bubble wrap, one, bubble, at, a, time, then crashing through buildings with the walker is like squeezing the living hell out of the whole sheet.

The latter section of the demo is an on-rails shooter wherein you defend the truck from encroaching tanks. It's a good time, particularly when trying to take out passing buildings on the side while still fending off the AI.

If you achieve three kills in quick succession, regardless of means, a running "killing spree" counter will pop up. Another dangling carrot, and an effective one. Once this is on, there's no going back. My best score so far (on foot) is nine. These points add into some greater points purposes, but I don't fully understand it without playing the entire game. A similar destruction points system exists too that, if I'm guessing correctly, results from quickly knocking down a bunch of buildings. These systems are nice additions. They don't interrupt the gameplay really, except by player free-will, and add an additional, self-assumed challenge.

The combat isn't spectacular; rather, it feels a bit muted, distanced, but it is good fun and has its challenges. The controls are a bit strange, though, all three options. Though, by and large, they all perform competently, some vital function is always relegated to the R3 button: fine aim or melee. Why not set these to circle and set the much less often used detonate to R3? Really, in this day and age, I see absolutely no reason players should not have the option of fully customizing their control scheme. Ultimately, I settled on the Alternate 2 option, which assigns L2 to fine aim and R2 to fire.

Red Faction: Guerrilla offers choices to players, so many choices. Blow up a building or tear it down. Do neither. Kill people. Pass them by. Go for killing sprees. Kill them with vehicles. Kill them with guns. Getting a picture? I will say that in combat, all of these options mesh together fairly well, as I used whatever means most handy to take people or buildings out. But the game's options feel too disparate. As a player, I don't know what the game is asking of me. What does it want me to do? And I think the answer is this: whatever you want.

Well, that's actually a more difficult question than it seems. Because, if I just want to win the mission, I can jack a vehicle, drive right by the AI, jack the walker, and talk it to the truck. Simple, and really not much trouble. But it's too easy. Challenge is fun. And so if I want to have fun, ignoring the mission is the best course of action. I am referring to the demo mission alone, of course; I'm sure the whole game with its hundreds of missions offers many more challenging goals.

But to squeeze the most fun out of the demo that I could, I started making challenges for myself. This, ultimately, is where I feel Guerrilla will offer its choicest meat. I gave myself a sprint challenge: get to the walker and bring it to the truck as fast as you can. It was fun; my record so far is 1:51:39. I also tried taking down every building without the use of the walker; I never beat that one. How about get the highest killing spree you can? The game opened up for me once I gave myself these challenges, and I began to appreciate its potential. But I fear that with its abundance of options, everything comes off as a bit diluted. The key to the game's structure is not only showing players that they can go crazy in whatever ways they want, but also offering them reasons to do all of the things it offers. And I think the game admirably tries to do so with its myriad of points systems and overall story goals. Whether or not it succeeds we'll have to wait for the full game to find out.

The last point I want to mention is the game's being in third-person. Volition argues that the reason for this decision is so players can see more of their surroundings and have a better view of the destruction they cause. I'm not entirely sold on the idea. I think third-person does do both of these things. But I also think the game feels dulled from the perspective, and could have had a considerably more visceral impact from first person. Based my experience with the demo, I also think the game could have benefited from a slower pace and from tighter, more directed gameplay. Everything happens so quickly, and I think the game would be stronger and carry more weight if the pace were more deliberate.

Red Faction: Guerrilla is a fun game. I've played the demo many, many times now, an obvious testament to my enjoyment. I think Guerrilla is one of those games that will become more and more fun the longer you play it and the deeper you delve into its story and scenarios. I look forward to playing through the whole thing.

Images from Gamespy.

Warhawk Racing and Creativity

I don't think anyone was labeling Warhawk as "a sandbox game" when it was released last fall. And yet here we are. Marketed more so as a venue for online dogfights, Warhawk quickly fell into its intended gameplay role. And rightly so. Modeled after the proven Battlefield formula, Warhawk is an expertly-crafted playground of team-based warfare. But, as they say (not really), opportunity is the mother of invention. Where there is freedom, there is creativity. And gamers are some of the most creative people I know of. Warhawk Racing perfectly exemplifies this creativity.

Warhawk Racing was founded by a trio of hardcore Warhawk players: Fur0shus, Killudead, and gaming4HIM. Co-founder Killudead explains his enthusiasm for the game: "I am normally not interested in MMOs or online games. But with Warhawk, there are so many variations of the game. Maybe you want to fly today, or maybe you like the tank. The game is never the same, and with so many players, it can be exciting." This was also the impetus for Warhawk Racing. "The idea to race within the levels was to create some other meaning behind the game, something other what it was designed for," Killudead explains.

The story of Warhawk Racing began when founder Fur0shus (PSN Id), or PIE_Lover on the PlayStation forums, first saw a video of players racing 4x4's around Archipelago. "I saw the video and knew it had the potential to be something much more than that," Fur0shus said. Soon after, Fur0shus hosted a Jeep race of his own, using the PlayStation forums to spread the word. He explains, "The race was great, but not too organized. After that race, I immediately started work on a second, more organized race with many tracks and a practice date. The people involved absolutely loved it. That second race was the final test, and after, the PIE racing league was launched."

Though still developing, Warhawk Racing is now a long-term operation, including website and official racing league. The triumvirate behind the project, Fur0shus, Killudead, and gaming4HIM, divide their responsibilities to run a clean, organized program. gaming4HIM explains: "Killudead runs the website, Fur0shus handles the league details and in game things, and I, gamin4HIM, usually write stuff for the Internet. BUT all three of us also work together and we work together on everything."

The project is quite impressive. The PIE Racing League is currently comprised of twenty-four players, with room for six more. The league hosts official races for its members wherein points are distributed for a robust ranking system. Even racers placing last earn a point, just for participating. Most impressively, PIE understands that people have lives that can sometimes conflict with racing; players are not penalized for not showing up to a race, they just miss out on free points.

Warhawk Racing itself is also highly developed, complete with a full set of rules backed by intriguing design. "Many people have been very open to the idea of Warhawk Racing, but people only really get hooked on it when they race firsthand," Fur0shus said. Because Warhawk Racing is built off of an existing engine, the triumvirate was limited in their design of the game. But, sometimes, limitation is good; in fact, boundaries can even stimulate creativity. Fur0shus explains: "I always remind myself that games are meant to be fun, and when playing by the rules gets boring, you might just have to invent your own rules to play by."

The golden rule of Warhawk Racing is “If you can’t catch ‘em, You crash ‘em." This sums up the entire racing design. Their are three types of tracks, or racing modes, so to speak. "Circuit" and "1 Lap Long" has ten racers hop into ten different jeeps and race simultaneously around a predetermined track. The only rules are don't start early, don't cut corners, and if you die you are automatically disqualified. All jeeps are equal, so winning comes down to being the best of the pack. The third race type is "Drag," where players race between two points on a map, but must also pass through designated checkpoints along the way. Your biggest enemy in Warhawk Racing isn't the other players though, but the track itself. Given limited control, the triumvirate had to find something they could work with, some aspect of the game that allowed for fun racing. The key to the design is the track layout.

The track layout for Island Outpost.

Killudead said that, "Initially, the track layout was simple, run from one main base to the other and back." But this was not good enough. Fur0shus explains designing the track layouts:

I designated an entire day to practicing and choosing the track order. I had by myself come up with 18 unique track designs (3 tracks for each map). On practice day I took a small group of people along each track in a certain map, and after all the tracks in that map were completed, we all voted on the one we thought was:
A) The most fun to drive on overall.
B) The hardest to drive on, making catching up to the first place driver easier.

gaming4HIM elaborates: "On Destroyed Capital, we added a track through the rumble path and went all the way around the outermost part of the track instead of cutting in. This gave it a chance for minimal passing and real skill of the driver to be shown." And this is really the crux of Warhawk Racing; players with the best knowledge of the track layout and most driving skill win. The design is intelligent; since all vehicles are equal, if one vehicle gets ahead there is no means players have to catch back up (such as boost). The track layout was designed specifically to add complexity and challenge to the race, and, ultimately, fun.

Another nifty touch of Warhawk Racing is the dropship, available with the Warhawk: Omega Dawn expansion. Fur0shus explains:

One of the drivers in our race was helping put jeeps on the starting line via the dropship, and decided to stay in to watch the race from the sky. It worked out well because it can hold the cameraman as a driver and 6 other spectators who can watch from the sky. Before the dropship, the cameraman was in a warhawk and to make sure the camera view was not obstructed, no one else was allowed to fly a warhawk. The dropship solves this problem by giving the spectators an easy way to watch the race and stay out of the cameraman’s way.

The best part of all of this is the creativity that has emerged. Warhawk was not designed to be a racing game. But inventive players took the reins of the games' freedom and have developed a truly unique intragame. gaming4HIM said that, "There are some of the people that are 'points, points, points, points' and so they do not care about this and don’t like it. But I think that everyone needs to take a little break and do something out of the box and out of the ordinary."

Fur0shus said, "I really enjoy these types of open “sandbox” type games, where you can be free to do almost anything you can dream up. These types of games encourage me to be creative and try and find a new way to play the game. It is especially fun to take a shooter style game and turn it into something with no violent content at all, like we did with this jeep racing game."

I asked Fur0shus about other potential upcoming racing variants, like boat racing, flying, or demolition derbys, but all he had to say was, "Just remember, the website is not 'warhawkjeepracing.com.' Give it about a month and you will get all sorts of new styles of racing, I guarantee it."

See the Official Warhawk Racing website for more information and league registration.

Burnout Paradise: Design Boost

Cue overused cool song from Kill Bill

For the first time in the series, Burnout is free-roam. Previously, Burnout has always been about racing around predetermined tracks, like in most racing games. But now, Burnout is breaking out of its shell, with 30 miles of road to explore. However, Paradise is certainly not the first racing game to be free-roaming. Need for Speed: Underground 2 was also free-roaming, as was its sequel Most Wanted, not to mention the completely franchise unrelated Simpsons Hit and Run. There may be more I'm remembering at the moment too. But that's all besides the point. Because this is Burnout, one of the best racing series of the last generation, and extremely popular since its reinvention in Takedown. Burnout is being reinvented once more, and all the while retaining and amping-up the awesomeness from previous iterations.Its just another day for Bob and Bill until a rampant car careening through the air causes massive damage to both vehicles.

Taking Burnout free-roam requires several changes to the series staple. Even so, most everything, in so far as I know, is coming back. This includes traffic checking. As long as its not a bus, players can hit same-way traffic from behind, careening them through the air. I actually didn't expect this to return, considering the new free-roam approach, but I trust Criterion and it will probably work great. Boost still fills in the same way it has since Takedown, by near-missing, driving towards oncoming traffic, jumping, and a bunch of other ways. Pretty much, as long as players are driving they can boost.
Bringing a racing game into an open world isn't as simple as making an endless, branching, track. Besides, that's not Criterion's style. Paradise is a fully-realized world filled with roads and jumps and cars and anything else you'd find in a city. There a big difference between a free-roaming world and a linear track. And that difference is the freedom of movement. In most racing games, past Burnouts included, cars drive forward, and stay that way. There is no need to drastically shift direction or reverse. Paradise takes this into account with the introduction of an E-Brake. Players are now able to pull the E-Brake to switch direction with a quick spinning slide. This may seem like a small addition, but in fact it is beyond necessary. The world in Paradise has been designed from all angles. As opposed to linear tracks, now players will need to and want to shift direction. And therefore it is necessary to give them the ability to do so at any given moment: hence the E-Brake. Simple, yet clever in that Criterion adapted to the new format by designing driving in cooperation the free-roaming aspect. Another cool feature of the E-Brake slide is a sort of mini-game called Power Parking. Gamespot elaborates:

another recent addition to the series is a little side game called power parking, which sounds like it will pop up any time you find two cars parked close together on the side of the road. The idea is that you need to whip your car around using the E-brake and slide right into the parking space between the two cars.

Sounds pretty sweet to me. Already, Criterion seems to be packing Burnout Paradise with a ton of stuff to do, and all of it in a seamless fashion. Crash has been changed a bit too. Unless the crash is serious, your car will not cut into aftertouch, but will instead keep on going, retaining the famage from the collision. Considering the number of crashes players are bound to start in Paradise, this seems to me very wise. Triggering dramatic crash slow effects and camera angles ever 10 seconds would break up the action too much. Only when the car is guaranteed to be totaled will the dramatic crash effects kick in.Burnout Paradise looks really, really fun. In a way, Criterion is bringing emergent gameplay into the racing world. With little seamless minigames to play like the Power Park, instant online play, individual road records, and awesome driving craziness quite simply makes for a boat load of fun.

Evolution of Platforming

Platforming has come a long way, from Mario and Sonic to Prince of Persia. As the generations pass, new innovations are made in the platforming genre thanks to new technological opportunities and the precense of past titles to learn from. Two platforming titles in particular seem to represent this very well: Sly Cooper and Assassin's Creed.

Go Sly Go!

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus was released for PS2 in September of 2002. Developed by Sucker Punch Studios (also behind the newly announced inFamous), the game had the coolest title ever (and still does), and was met with much critical and commercial success. Assassin's Creed is being developed by Ubisoft Montreal, and is due out at the end of the year for 360, PS3, and PC. Ubisioft Montreal created Prince of Persia (the newer trilogy) as well, which was itself another evolution in platforming.

See the purple trail? Thats your signal to press triangle. It rocked.

Sly Cooper was really an amazing game, and personally both my favorite PS2 title and platforming title. You play as an athropomophic racoon that must sneak through various levels gathering collectables and avoiding guards. The game added a platforming element that had never been present in other titles of the genre before, and that was contextual platforming. Sly could jump and run, but he could also climb up pipes, sidle along thin ledges, and swing down ropes. All of these latter abilities were achieved contextually. When players saw a trail of purple glowing stars, all they had to do was press the triangle button and Sly would "snap" to the object. I tell you what, navigating the levels of Sly was downright fun. Jumping into the open air and pressing triangle to snap to a rooftop felt good.

Platforming ability is not determined by bump mapped textures, but rather in the physical models themselves.

And yet, platforming has evolved. Assassin's Creed couldn't have a more different approach from Sly Cooper. Instead of forcing players to follow and snap to the environment, Creed trys to make things more fluid. Altair, the main chracter (voiced by Holland from Eureka Seven, by the way), uses whats called free running, or parkour to traverse the open world cities. He can climb, grab, shimmy, and jump on, over, and across anything. Ubisoft has created a very dynamic system. If a model, such as a building, in the game world has a ledge that sticks out 3/4ths of an inch, than Altair can grab hold of it. No exceptions. This means that players can run around the world of Assassin's Creed fluidly and in any way they please. Additionally, Altair's animations shift to match the player's movements and decisions. So Altair really looks like he's jumping through the city.

These two styles of platforming couldn't be more different. Is one superior? Not necessarily. Obviously Assassin's Creed features a much more dynamic platforming system than Sly Cooper, but theres something to be said for the solid feel and strategic navigation of Sly Cooper's world. What do you think?

Player Fun Creation

Game Informer Online (again) has posted up a little article on all the fun two players can have with Crackdown for the 360. The article can be found here. The co-op feature (with complementary videos), talks about how two players can create they're own fun in Crackdown once the game has been beaten. Free-roam and Co-op were a match made in heaven, it seems, or at least Pacific City. Two players with powers that rival Kal-El, an open world, limitless possiblities. The developers at Realtime Worlds must have known this when creating Crackdown.


Look Ma! I can fly! (From IGN.com)

Its an interesting design method. Rather than set the player on a linear path to clear through, give them a smattering of toys to blow themselves up with. The same results were found in Mercenaries and even Animal Crossing DS, multiplayer free-roam leads to inventive gameplay.
Inventive Gameplay. Its really quite fascinating: Design a game in such a way that the players create their own fun. The trick, I suppose, is designing the game well. I haven't played Crackdown, I cannot testify to its quality, but clearly others see it as succesful in offering up inventive gameplay.

Games can teach us things. Thats the point of this blog, to look at other games analytically and take note of their pitfalls and fine points, to see what methods they use to achieve certain ends. Then, after storing these lessons in our bank of knowledge, we apply them to our own games. We want to look at games from multiple angles, from a player's perspective, from an architects, an artists. We don't want to look at games in any narrow defined manner, we want to see them as whole pieces that can be disected in many different ways. Games offer so much for us to find and discover, we just need to stop and look.

What does inventive gameplay offer for players? How does it effect them (what can they learn)?
What theories, tools, themes, or aspects are necessary to create successful inventive gameplay?
Why is inventive gameplay fun (the answer is more obvious then you might think)?

Please post any thoughts you have in comments. Also, if you have played Crackdown, tell us some cool minigames you've come up with.