Recently I have been in a few different bookstores with display signs proclaiming, “If you loved The Hunger Games, try this!” Beneath which are stacks of Koushun Takami’s novel Battle Royale.
A Japanese novel first translated into English about ten years ago, then retranslated in 2009, Battle Royale is something of a cult novel. I don’t know if it will use The Hunger Games to piggyback into the mainstream, but it’s already well-known enough that there are plenty of blog and forum posts claiming that Suzanne Collins ripped it off.
While that’s a debate I don’t really care to explore, the similarities between the books are striking. Battle Royale posits a totalitarian Republic of Greater East Asia, whose government annually kidnaps a class of middle schoolers, puts them in an arena with an uneven distribution of supplies and weapons, and forces the children to kill each other until there is only one left alive.
There are significant differences, as well. Unlike the Hunger Games of Collins’ books, the battle here is done in secret, with only government agents watching. Battle Royale is told in a third-person narrative voice, and it manages to invest each of its forty characters with at least the amount of life needed to make their deaths meaningful. It is an extremely violent novel—it makes the violence in The Hunger Games look somewhat tame—but it strikes me that if violence ever has a purpose in fiction, it certainly does here. The violence is not glorified, it is simply shown, as if the author is saying, “This is what we mean when we talk flippantly about war, murder, etc.” At the same time, the violence is used to show the depravity with which human beings—even children—will behave, if given permission. Like its literary ancestor Lord of the Flies, this novel could be read as an essay on original sin.
Like Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games too, Battle Royale could be read as an indictment. I don’t know enough about Japanese culture or recent history to pick up on any subtle political agendas that might be there, but Takami’s and Collins’s books are both indictments of the complacency necessary to create a culture in which children are regularly murdered and nothing is done to stop it. Both books seems to me to ask the question, How close is this to happening? And to answer, closer than you think.
Is Battle Royale worth reading? I am loath to recommend a book based on its last line, but the last line of Battle Royale is one of the most striking I have ever read. It is this ending that lets the book avoid the accusation of voyeurism and acts in a similar way to the psychologist who says, “Every person in a dream is you.” Battle Royale is an indictment of sin, on a societal level and a personal level. As such, it is a book I think Christians would do well to read and carefully consider.
Christ and Pop Culture
When Games Matter is a weekly exploration by Drew Dixon of meaningful moments in games. Operating under the assumption that games do in fact matter, Drew seeks to highlight those moments that have much to say to say about who we are and the world we live in.
Interactivity distinguishes games from other media. This simultaneously makes games a fascinating medium and one that can easily be exploited and one that opens games up to a great host of experiences. Authoring meaning in game design can be particularly difficult to achieve because no matter how the developers intend for their games to be played, the mere fact that they will be “played” opens their games up to a host of divergent experiences.
Thus you have guys like Daniel Mullins who is playing Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as a pacifist and Ben Abraham (and many others) who conducted permadeath playthroughs of Far Cry 2. Additionally there are gamers who regularly conduct “Iron Man runs” (attempts at perfectly running through entire games without ever dying) through platformers like Super Mario Br0thers or the more heinous Super Meat Boy.
These three different “styles” of play illustrate three very different game experiences. Mullin’s approach to Elder Scrolls is one that would likely require saving the game a lot–particularly early in the game. A permadeath playthrough of Far Cry 2 would obviously require very little saving and lots of careful calculation. And finally an Iron Man Run through Super Meat Boy would surely require a tremendous amount of practice, memorization, and dexterity. These various styles of play are ways that the developers who made the game probably didn’t think a lot about as they made them.
Skyrim was certainly developed with certain quests that provide the player with nonviolent options but the game also constantly tries to force the player to take violent action against violent bandits and creatures. At the end of each level in Super Meat Boy the player is treated with a simultaneous replay of his every attempt to complete it–thus Edmund McMillan understood that he had made an incredibly difficult game and integrated that realization into its design.
Thus, there are a whole host of ways to play games that their designers may or may not have anticipated–this makes videogames a particularly difficult medium to pin down. Its possible that the silliest and poorest made games could be approached by players in meaningful ways. Its also quite possible that the most meaningful games could be approached by players in ways demean the experience.
Last night I loaded up one of my favorite games, Shadow of the Colossus and attempted to take on the third Colossi. To access this battle, I had to jump from one platform to another–the platform was at the top of a long ramp that curled around a huge cylindrical platform about 200 feet tall. Missing the jump does not kill you but causes you to fall into a vast pool of water and forces you to swim back to the ramp and walk up it again–it’s a long walk–each time took me about 2 minutes. For some reason, I could not make this jump–I tried and tried and tried again. I even got onto Youtube and watched a walkthrough video (something I very rarely do) to make sure I wasn’t missing something obvious–the player on Youtube made the jump with ease.
I was home alone while my wife was at a book club meeting. My 8 month old daughter had just gone down for a nap–it was a rare moment when I could game uninterrupted. 30 minutes passed and my daughter woke up and started crying. I spent that entire 30 minutes trying and failing to make that silly little jump in Shadow of the Colossus. A game that represents one of the single most meaningful experiences I have ever had gaming was utterly frustrating—I turned it off and spent the rest of the evening playing with my daughter.
I recognize that my problems with Shadow of the Colossus were personal–I searched but couldn’t find any angry forum posts by other gamers who couldn’t make that jump. Nevertheless–my incredibly frustrating experience with Shadow illustrates how risky it is to put an interactive piece of art in the hands of a player whose experiences can dramatically vary. This experience did not make me angry at Team ICO (developers of Shadow of the Colossus)–it actually made me respect them for their daring to make the game despite the presence of idiots like me who for some reason can’t make a simple jump.
Christ and Pop Culture
When Games Matter is a weekly exploration by Drew Dixon of meaningful moments in games. Operating under the assumption that games do in fact matter, Drew seeks to highlight those moments that have much to say about who we are and the world we live in.
“An imagination is a terrible thing to waste.” That’s not a direct quote but I remember my mother saying something similar to me quite often growing up. My brother and I took this mantra to heart as we became proficient at creating fascinating worlds in which we were knights, ninjas, explorers, and heroes. As we get older and more aware of the world around us, we lose a bit of our childhood imagination, or at least we find it more difficult to tap into. Once we grow up, it seems we gravitate toward media that spells everything out for us and leaves little room for imagination. Perhaps this is why television, movies, and games seem to offer us a steady fare of hyper-realism.
Hyper-realistic stories, however, distort reality more than many abstract offerings. For instance a game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare deceives its player. It possess a very realistic art style but its mechanics betray reality by making a game of war. That which would horrify us in real life is made to thrill us. By comparison, abstract media possesses a unique ability to speak truth into our lives because it does not abide by any particular view of reality and opens the door to profound feelings of surprise, fear, and amazement.
The appeal to such emotions is what makes Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet a fascinating experience. The beautiful side scrolling adventure game by Michael Gagne and Joel Olson refuses to spell out the contours of its world or even to explain to the player why he must traverse it. The game sets you in the cockpit of a flying saucer and simply asks to explore its world. You have a map on which a destination is marked telling you where you need to go. Getting there, however, is no simple task. Exploring the world and learning what tools you need to traverse it, drive the action. This would not be interesting if the world of ITSP were not compelling in and of itself. Thankfully, exploring the planet and coming in contact with its various mysterious life forms is fascinating. The world of ITSP is strange and wondrous and you are constantly discovering new creatures, locales, and tools that manipulate the environment. The lack of heavy-handed narrative explanation allows the player to be immersed in the simple task of discovery.
Sadly, too few games today tap into our imaginations. Instead games tend to tell us exactly who our character is and what we need to do. They present us with direct, manageable worlds. The result is a slew of rather predictable games. ITSP, however through its mysterious world, taps into the players imagination and in so doing evokes a sense of awe and wonder in the player. I no longer possess the vivid imagination I had as a child, but games like ITSP help me keep from losing it altogether.
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Christ and Pop Culture
When Games Matter is a weekly exploration by Drew Dixon of meaningful moments in games. Operating under the assumption that games do in fact matter, Drew seeks to highlight those moments that have much to say about who we are and the world we live in.
My mother would tell you that I am really bad about keeping in touch with her sometimes (ok most of the time), and she would probably be right.
Hence, Words with Friends. It’s basically a version of Scrabble that you play on your mobile phone or tablet on your own time. Your device alerts you when its your turn to play – each player taking their own turns on their own time. It’s an incredibly convenient way to play a game with another person. Additionally the game has a chat function in which you can leave messages for each other as you play, so this has been a fun way to interact with my mother in the context of a game.
A few things you should know about me. First I don’t play Scrabble–I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have played it over the course of my life. Second you should know that my mom is very intelligent and good at word puzzles and such. Thus I was elated when I was able play “datary” and “treats” on a triple word on her and amass a substantial lead over her. a few turns later, however my mom played “hibiscus on me for 76 points and is now beating me by about 50 points. The teacher is not greater than the master, it seems.
Consequently I think I will be playing Words with Friends against my mom for a while now, at least until I beat her. Hopefully even longer, because it has been a fun way to interact with and keep up with her, and I do in fact love my mother very much.
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Christ and Pop Culture
When Games Matter is a weekly exploration by Drew Dixon of meaningful moments in games. Operating under the assumption that games do in fact matter, Drew seeks to highlight those moments that have much to say to say about who we are and the world we live in.
Metro 2033 didn’t impress everyone, but it provided one of the most memorable game worlds I have ever experienced. The game is based on a book set in postapocalyptic Moscow and nuclear fallout has forced a very small group of survivors to seek shelter in the Metro Tunnels. Trips to the surface are dangerous and consequently seldom made. Unlike other postapocalyptic games, there is very little brevity in the world of Metro 2033 and rightly so–the world is falling to pieces and the few people left continue to kill each other while being attacked by ravenous monsters created by the fallout. Most of the game is made up of treks between small settlements in the tunnels which sometimes require brief trips to the surface–these treks are difficult because of confrontations with warring parties, monsters, and the fact that you are often armed with constantly malfunctioning equipment and low quality ammunition.
Time in the tunnels is so eerie and chaotic that the peaceful moments in various settlements are a welcome if not necessary break from the madness. In each settlement you are free to wonder around for as long as you like–your character never talks but as you explore people will talk to you. They will share bits and pieces of their survival stories, some of which are gripping. There is very little joy in these settlements as the sting of tragedy is still clearly felt and the promise of more is all too real.
The most meaningful moment in the game came in one such settlement when I came upon a small group of people huddled around the fire listening to a man play the guitar. There was nothing particularly special about what he played other than it having a distinctly Russian feel to it. In short, it was nice. What made this moment meaningful was the realization that the survivors were trying to preserve art and culture in a world where there is very little beauty.
We live in a dark world–a brief scan of current events, namely wars in third world countries or own nation’s politics confirms this. We must give a thoughtful eye to these events, but sometimes when we do, we can be overwhelmed by a sense despair. This moment was a welcome reminder that there is beauty in the world worth preserving. The player is free to breeze right past this guitar player, some people may not have even noticed him, but the world of Metro 2033 was so lacking in hope, I elected to stay until he finished playing. It seemed like the right thing to do.
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I realized while playing Fallout: New Vegas that I was bored. Savvy gamer that I am, I quickly pin-pointed the source of boredom to some of the game’s more monotonous features. Don’t get me wrong, there were aspects of the game that I found great—namely interactions with the competing factions and the cheesy plotlines that remind me of westerns I used to watch with my grandpa (I mean that as a compliment). These elements, however, were not enjoyable enough to make me overlook a particular gameplay feature that was boring me to death. After all games are supposed to be fun and the customer is always right. I know the medium and I often take pride in pinpointing games’ strengths and weaknesses, so if I wasn’t having fun playing FNV it had to be the game’s fault. However, as I began to write a review of the game in my head and started thinking critically about my complaints, I realized I wasn’t having fun and it was my fault.
The gameplay element that was irritating me was FNV’s inventory system. There was nothing particularly radical about the inventory system, save for the giving weight to the ammunition you carry around the wasteland (in hardcore mode), but I found it particularly irritating. If you have played Fallout 3 or any number of similar RPGs you know that you have a limited inventory—there is only so much weight you can carry and consequently you have to decide what to pick up and what to leave behind—if you try to carry more weight that you can bear you become over-encumbered and move unbearably slow.
There are houses or rooms in certain towns where you can store your extra possessions so as not to lose them while simultaneously avoiding over-encumberment. Add to this the option of fashioning weapons and supplies out of various scrap parts found throughout the wasteland and I ended up with an inordinate amount of traveling between quests and my storage house. All of this inventory management and unnecessary traveling was annoying. Why didn’t Obsidian take a page out of Mass Effect 2 and streamline the inventory system so I could just step out and enjoy exploring the wastes?
You may think I am weird for blaming this on Obsidian but my guess is that you probably sympathize with my frustration because we gamers are trained to champion fun and blame the developers when we are bored. As I was slamming FNV in my imaginary game review, I realized that my biggest complaint against the game, the one that was turning life in the wastes into monotonous inventory management was completely my fault. I didn’t have to keep harvesting scrap metal or wasteland settler outfits to sell for 3 caps. I could actually pass up on things! When I made this discovery, I immediately loaded the game back up and started tackling quests refusing to pick up anything that wasn’t necessary and avoiding the temptation to fast-travel back to my storage room in the middle of quests. When I met a couple companions who nearly tripled the amount stuff I could pick up, I relapsed back into my old ways and started hoarding every virtual possession I could find. Realizing this, I drank some coffee, woke up and redoubled my attempts to streamline my FNV experience.
The result of my amended game strategy and my refusal to blame Obsidian was that I began to appreciate FNV’s design and learned a valuable lesson about myself. I was exhibiting one of the most annoying traits of survivors of nuclear apocalypse, I discovered I am a hoarder. I don’t think I am in danger of having an A&E film crew come to my house but I am not a good manager of my possessions. I have two file cabinets in my home office full of notes on various lessons I taught or classes I took that I will never read again. I have a massive stack of papers waiting to be filed in those same cabinets full of unnecessary papers. When my wife threatens to throw away various food items I usually offer to immediately eat said food item whether I am hungry or not. I have strategy guides for video games whose consoles I don’t even own any more let alone the games, add to this the fact that I no longer like strategy guides (they are designed to make us lazy) and there is no logical reason my night stand should be full of them! I also have a road bike and a mountain bike in my garage that haven’t been used in years. And the list goes on and on.
It turns out FNV served to do more than entertain me—it was a catalyst to reveal my own shortcomings. What I detested about FNV was actually due to a personal flaw to which I was blind. Games are a unique medium because of the ways they allow us to interact with their world and their story. The easy thing to do when we are not enjoying a game is to blame its developers but this is not fair to the game or ourselves. Before we criticize a game’s makers let’s take responsibility for the way we’ve been playing. It could be that our frustration is born out of our own flaws. I love games, mostly because they take me to new worlds, but I want to grow to appreciate how game worlds can illuminate my own. You will have to excuse me now, I need to get to work on organizing my office.
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Christ and Pop Culture
Far from an objective declaration of the best video games out there (you’ll notice a distinct and shameful lack of Wii games), the following is a list that we have compiled of our favorite games of the past year. These are games that we had the chance to play, and that we loved not just for their value proposition or for their genuine ability to entertain, but for their undeniable beauty. For the most part, this is a list of experiences. The great thing about games, is that they are experiences that can be recommended and passed on. That’s what we hope to do with this list.
1. Limbo – Xbox Live Arcade
Limbo doesn’t look like much, and in truth it’s not. It starts with a simple title screen. The controls are uncomplicated. There is no multiplayer and no long list of features. Once you start the game, there’s no words of any form, and no color. It’s just the silhouette of a boy, and the things around him that want him dead. Trying to articulate exactly what makes Limbo a harrowing, haunting and ultimately hopeful experience is impossible, but I can tell you that it’s well worth the small price tag you’d pay to play it on Xbox Live, despite the lack of features and special modes. It’s a game that causes you to remember what it was like to be young and alone, that reminds you what it was like to long for someone, and ultimately, it’s a game that changes you if you let it. -Richard Clark
2. Bioshock 2 – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Bioshock 2 and the Power of Influence,” “Time to Revisit Rapture – Again”
After such a complete and artistically flawless experience as Bioshock, the announcement of a sequal drew a large amount of skepticism, and I’ll be the first to admit that the skepticism was indeed fair. The sentiment only got worse when it was revealed that Irrational Games, the studio behind the original Bioshock wouldn’t have anything to do with the sequel. Throw in an arbitrary multiplayer mode and you’ve got all the ingredients for a disaster.
Instead, 2K Marin made Bioshock 2 their own, and in doing so managed to unequivocally improve the gameplay while also embracing an entirely different mood and theme than the first. While the original Bioshock contained a satisfying mix of mystery and philosophical rumination, the sequel embraces the emotional and relational impact of certain ideas. Yes, this is a game about collectivism and its affect on a community, but more importantly it’s a game about its affect on families and individuals. If I can make one recommendation, it’s this: if you are a father, and you play games, you should absolutely play this one. -Richard Clark
3. Red Dead Redemption – Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Recommended Reading: “Read Dead’s Particular Brand of Redemption,” “Read Dead Redemption’s Squandered Potential,” “The Dastardly Achievement.”
Red Dead Redemption is on the top of most everyone’s list and for good reason too—it’s graphically beautiful, boasts an intricately detailed game world and a dynamic main character. All that said, what was most memorable about RDR was how much it frustrated me. If you make it to the end of RDR, you will never forget the way the story was brought to a close and the way in which the game forces you to take part in that ending. I wish I could say more, but I would ruin for many who really ought to give this game a try, but in short, I would say that the story was as memorable if not more so than the original Bioshock.
Red Dead Redemption, as the name implies, is meant to be a story of redemption, but it’s certainly muddled in the way that redemption comes about. If you are like me and like to play the hero in video games, you will find that although there is much to be done that is heroic, being a true hero in RDR is impossible. That frustrated me and forced me to step back and observe John Marston and the story that is RDR. In fact, I would say RDR refuses to let you take ownership of Marston and forces you to deal with him as he is. Despite my disgust at some of Marston’s decisions (mostly his compromises to help shady characters), I began to empathize with him. Sure there are lots of things I didn’t like about Marston, but by the end I wanted redemption for him because there was much about him worth redeeming. This journey of hating and growing to love Marston was intentional and makes the games’ ending all the more brilliant. -Drew Dixon
4. Halo Reach – Xbox 360
If you think Halo Reach is stupid, that is partly because you have never been involved in one of our CAPC and friends’ multiplayer matches. Reach deserves to be on this list if for no other reason than it is the best console multiplayer experience available right now. That may sound like overly boastful praise and perhaps it is, but Reach excels at giving its players a myriad of options for how to best enjoy multiplayer. If you like to play co-op you can play with 4 people in both campaign and survival modes. If you like to play small games you can do that. Large games? Yep. Lots of vehicles? Yep. You just want to play on the same team with your friends? Sure can. Want to play with 3 other friends online on one Xbox? Of course. Want to play against uber competitive people? Yep. Want to play just for fun? Indeed. Basically, Reach makes every effort to make your multiplayer experience enjoyable. Finally, I feel like I have found a multiplayer experience on a console that is pretty much everything I want it to be. What games like Call of Duty: Black Ops get horribly wrong on multiplayer, Halo gets consistently right.
I have had more fun playing Halo online with good friends than any game I can remember. Its almost as fun as the massive LAN parties I used to have with friends in college playing Halo 1 and 2, but at least we don’t have to lug our consoles and TV’s around anymore to have nearly the same kind of experience. If you haven’t joined in one of our CAPC multiplayer games, now is the time to start—tweet me your gamer tag and we will invite you to the next game. We are going to tentatively shoot for having a CAPC game most every Monday Night around 10:00 P.M. Eastern time. -Drew Dixon
5. Mass Effect 2 – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Mommy, What is that Alien Doing?”
Mass Effect 2 improved on its predecessor in many ways—numerous critics have hailed it due to the lessening of RPG elements so as to appeal to shooter-fans—in so much as they succeeded in that goal, I applaud them if only for putting this fantastic game in more people’s hands. ME2’s greatest achievements, however, have been largely overlooked—its world and its characters kept me playing to the very end. The world of ME2 feels massive, complex, and detailed. To me it rivaled the world of a good science fiction book. ME2 is less linear than the first installment but still a largely linear game and yet, I never felt forced to do anything in the game. I wanted to complete the quests, I wanted to do more than I had to do to complete the game and I think this is due mostly to the compelling characters of ME2.
ME2 gives you quests to complete on behalf of each of your playable characters and each quest reveals more about the characters who are helping you on your quest. I found this fascinating because the people helping you are complex and their desires often conflict with each other and their pasts intertwine to make every decision you make, to support them or not, very important. Most of the characters have at least a few redeemable qualities and this makes your decision to support them all the more difficult. These characters, their back-stories, and your interaction with them kept me coming back to ME2. I would have liked to see ME2 make more of my decisions in ME1, but nonetheless, I think ME2 is a tremendous example of character writing in video games is capable of rivaling that of other mediums. My ability to influence these various characters in their growth made that element all the more fascinating. -Drew Dixon
6. Super Meat Boy – Xbox Live Arcade, PC
In what world does a game titled Super Meat Boy deserve to be on this list? That is an excellent question and it is worth noting that SMB’s story is less than moving in comparison to many of the games we have included here, but SMB, after all, pays homage to Super Mario Bros (also SMB) as its spiritual successor. It plays like a 2D Mario game on steriods. The hero is Meat Boy—a boy with no skin who is determined to save bandage girl from certain peril at the hands of evil Dr. Fetus. I am not making this up and yet I promise you this is a great game. SMB will take you back to a time when game consoles didn’t have hard-drives and finishing a game felt like a significant achievement. In short this is an incredibly difficult platformer that will frustrate you. Still, the accomplishment of actually beating some of its most difficult levels is so rewarding that I couldn’t pass up the chance to write about this game.
Some of SMB’s levels will take you dozens of attempts to finish and there are no checkpoints. You die and you go right back to the beginning. Thankfully the levels are all rather short and once you finally do finish a level, you get to watch a replay of every single attempt you made to complete the level at once—all the struggle that led up to your eventual victory is summed up in a 10-15 second clip. If you could beat every level on your first try the game would probably take less than 30 minutes to finish. Unless you have super human dexterity and concentration, you will surely be playing much longer than that and yet despite your failed attempts, none of these levels will ever feel unbeatable and when you finally beat them you will relish the replay of your every failure and your final victory. If you are like me, you will be so delighted you’ll save many of them and reminisce on the insanity of their difficulty. Although SMB is single player, this is a great game to play in groups and take turns seeing who has the chops to take on various insanely difficult levels. SMB will make you laugh, cry, and potentially break your controller and its this combination of emotions that it will produce in you that makes it one of the year’s best. -Drew Dixon
7. Fallout: New Vegas – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Fallout 3: The Challenge of Gaming Morality,” “Gamer’s Choice”
The Internet tells me I should warn you about the myriad of bugs that are a part of this game, but to be truthful, I haven’t experienced even one of them. What I have experienced is a game of limitless possibilities in a haunting environment with a heart-wrenching series of plotlines. Sure, some of the games narrative turns are silly, but the most resonant moments are those when you are forced to make hard choices between two equally good or bad ideas.
One of the most interesting changes from Fallout 3 is the inclusion of factions, which seem to basically represent different ways of looking at the world. Each of these factions see the world differently, and it’s up to you to decide not only who you most relate to, but who you’re willing to allow to exist. -Richard Clark
8. VVVVVV – PC, Mac
What’s so special about a bare-bones pixelated 8-bit style platformer? At first, nothing, but the longer you manage to stick with this game, the more depth you’ll find in every facet. The gravity switching mechanic never seems to get old, as the game iterates on it in increasingly unique ways. The concept of an 8-bit open world platformer is carried out flawlessly. Bring up the map at any given time and the sense of endless possibilities is inescapable.
By the way, have you ever noticed that when a sense of endless possibilities is inescapable what that really feels like is a sense of being lost? Welcome to VVVVVVV, where it’s all about being lost and helping those who are lost. The varying characters may only consist of different colored stick-people, and their expressions may not span beyond huge smiles and distraught frowns, but you will get to know them, and eventually you will care for them. As an experiment in minimalism, it’s a huge success. As a game, it’s creepily affecting and undeniably resonant, not to mention a steal at . -Richard Clark
9. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Recommended Reading: “Assassin’s Creed 2: Shot Through the Heart”
Many dismissed Assassin’s Creed:Brotherhood as Assassin’s Creed 2.5, and in some ways they’re right. More than anything, this game is an iteration on the previous, picking up immediately where AC2 left off and adding a few intriguing mechanics to an already full gameplay experience. The final product, though, is markedly more satisfying than its’ predecessor. With the tech mastered and the format established, the team that made AC:Bros were able to take that foundation and build one incredible game on top of it. On top of all of that, the game includes a multiplayer mode that’s by far the most unique we’ve seen all year, rewarding patience, focus and subversiveness rather than indiscriminate killing and destruction.
But of course, for Christians there’s a bigger question: does Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood continue the precedent set by AC2 in its excessive railing and preaching against organized religion? The answer is complex. The game builds on the foundation that was set in AC2, operating on the same assumptions of the world and the characters within the fiction. Still, the game also manage to call a number of those assumptions into question, and very little of the game is spent trying to convince us of any truth at all. Instead, Ezio and Desmond’s quest is a search for answers. As the game progresses, we actually become more and more unsure of the truth that was set forth in AC2, even if organized religion is still portrayed in a less than stellar light. In perspective, it’s set against organized religion, but unless you’re paying attention, you’d never know it. All the more reason to play this game, and pay attention. -Richard Clark
10. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit – Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii, PC
Racing games have always been a fun diversion, but they have also felt a bit shallow and monotonous. After all, there are only so many variations of beating other cars to a finish line. Games like Mario Kart and Burnout have given the genre some much needed variety, but only by adding arbitrary and disconnected elements. With Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, Criterion (the studio that brought you Burnout: Paradise) managed to develop a racing game with something the racing genre has never really had before: import.
You know that feeling you get when you’re speeding, and you realize too late that you’ve passed a cop, only to see him turn on his lights and pull up behind you? It’s a truly sickening feeling. Dread, panic and guilt set in all at once. It’s a feeling you’ll get the first time this happens playing NFS:HP. Having the opportunity to keep driving is truly a guilt-ridden fantasy come true. When the roles are switched and you are that cop, the feeling of fighting for justice at the expense of order and caution is exhilarating. The climactic moment in that game, when you “bust” a racer and his car flips spectacularly across and off of the road, is a moment you will not soon forget. -Richard Clark
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