Finally

Ghost in the Shell.
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Christ this will be tough. For convenience I will be assuming that you the reader are familiar with GitS and will not hesitate to spoil anything from the movies or TV seasons.

The Ghost in the Shell franchise generates a good deal of ambivalence for me. There are parts that I really love and parts that I really hate. The two sides meet, cancel out, and leave me unable to decide how feel about the series.

GitS in some ways is a return to science fiction's roots, ie showing the effect of new technologies on society. But unlike the sci fi of many decades ago it still tells a story and doesn't let itself get bogged down in intricacies of how it all works (that's the philosophy's job).
Naturally there are many plot points based off the impact of cyberbrains but GitS really shines in the subtleties when it doesn't draw your attention.
The most common example would be simply all the times when anyone casually communicates via what is essentially telepathy. A more awesome example is in the end of the first film. The snipers have lasers that are invisible to normal eyes, so they can have laser sights without alerting the target (unless their eyes can also see them). Simple but clever.

The counter point to the above is the philosophy, the deeper effects of a world full of robotic bodies and mind-hacking. For starters, it just isn't well implemented. There are occasions where someone (usually the Major) either asks a vague question or stares off into the distance, despite it being not the appropriate time (in either the plot or pacing).
Look at the first film again; Section 9 have just apprehended a victim of the Puppet Master and then everything is put on hold for the Major to go for a swim.
Innocence has what I can only believe is a parody of this guerrilla philosophy in the scene where Batou and Togusa are investigating the remains of the gynoid. The doctor present begins to talk all deeply about dolls for no good reason while Togusa just tries to get straight answers and Batou ignores both of them. To me, Togusa's exasperation and the doctor's tangential musings can only be a self aware joke by Production IG. Which makes it worse because that means they are aware of the awkwardly wielded philosophy.

Often tied into the philosophy in GitS is the politics. It generates obstacles and antagonists, and often leaves Section 9 struggling between what's right legally and right morally. What it doesn't do is be interesting.
All the politicians are the the 'Director of X' or the 'Such-and-such Minister'. Their motives are generally personal gain and their beliefs are either vague or outright unknown. They tend to be devices and contrivances more than characters and most disappear into irrelevance as quickly as they came.
What baffles me is how dull the politics is in GitS. The setting is perfect for it and the philosophical questions that get raised could be expressed in a smoother fashion. If some of the political groups or leaders were properly upgraded to the status of secondary characters and given some depth beyond 'nuisance' I think GitS could turn one of its weaknesses into a strength. Here's an example of what I mean:
Cyberbrains and cyborg bodies are divisive issues I'll call X and Y respectively; from here we can create four generalised viewpoints;

-'Luddites', Anti-X, Anti-Y: this group is full of those that feel threatened by the new tech. They feel that one loses their humanity and individuality the more cyberised they become.
-'Futurists', Pro-X, Pro-Y: this group is all about improving oneself, removing limitations, pushing the boundaries. The new tech is another step for society and personal freedom.
-'Instrumentalists', Pro-X, Anti-Y: like the futurists, this group is all about taking humanity to what they believe to be the next step. However they view the next step as only involving freeing the mind and dealing with cyberspace. To them any sort of physical body is a hassle,a distraction and something that will eventually be obsolete.
-'Realists', Anti-X, Pro-Y: this group is the inversion of the instrumentalists. Cyberbrains are the threat to humanity and cyborg bodies are the way of the future.

And there's four new factions who each have more depth than the majority of the ones in GitS. From here you could also weave philosophical ideas into the plot more smoothly; eg when dealing with some radical futurists that are now indistinguishable from androids the question of what constitutes a person could be raised. It beats having the Tachikomas do it at least.

Things a feeling a little too negative so let's look at another positive: the animation. I know it's shallow in comparison to the above but it must be said. GitS looks good, in all its animated forms. Quality is often related to budget and so it is natural that a popular franchise such as this will have more money to spend on the visuals than a lesser known show. But what makes GitS great and worth mentioning here is the fluidity of the animation, which in to me is more important than the actual level of detail.
All too frequently in anime there are moments that can only be described as wonky or awkward, which mostly occur in action scenes. It's the times when the characters gracelessly shift stances or casually ignore conventional time or motion. This tends to be a result of adapting straight from manga, as the panels will only show the important actions, and the movement in between is left unknown.
Getting back to the topic on hand, GitS rises above this to frequent fault. And in the action scenes it really shows. If only the action was a bit more frequent.

For a long time when I thought of Ghost in the Shell, I thought of it as primarily action, but with depth behind it. But as time progressed I realised I was getting the proportions of the genres wrong. GitS is not an franchise about gun play, it's just that sometimes the philosophy leads to someone firing a shot.
While typing this was going to say that GitS needs more fighting less talking, and then attempt to come up a valid explanation about why I know more than the makers of a wildly successful franchise. But then it hit me; GitS doesn't need more action, it needs more suspense.
Let's look at the episode in 2nd GiG where Section 9 has to take down the rogue military helicopters: I was thinking "this looks great" and "yes finally some action", not "oh I hope they make it out alright".
I say this because I've recently been re-watching Death Note and there are times were you're not sure who's going to come out on top and how. And this is mostly when characters are just talking, so when there's car chases and explosions involved it is even more intense. Whereas the dialogue in GitS is informative but dry.

Tied to this lack of suspense is the characters. They are a bunch of super skilled counter terrorists, equipped with cutting edge technology, and against direct conflict they are basically never threatened. Section 9's real threat is bureaucracy, which like Superman's Kriptonite is kinda lame.
The Major Motoko Kusanagi is an issue all by herself. She's the most talented (better than the rest except in their specialised fields), most knowledgeable (able to quote obscure philosophy to ease) and most focused (remains professional almost always) member of Section 9; she's practically a Mary Sue. The Major's only real flaws are her disconnectedness to humanity and slight psychotic tendencies. These sound like they are fairly major (no pun intended) but are downplayed considerably: her disconnectedness never seems to interfere with predicting how people behave and the psychosis shows up so very rarely and briefly.

Batou and Togusa bother me as well, but for a lesser reason. In comparison to the Major they are more rounded individuals but the plot treats them like devices. Batou's purpose seems to be to fail so the Major can succeed, to the point that he needs her assistance in a Batou-focused episode (the one with Angel's Feathers). Similarly Togusa mostly gets attention when the plot Section 9 needs to fail or at least be challenged, and what better way to do that than with the soft fleshy human.

Despite saying all this I still like ghost in the Shell; it's better than much of the anime out there. What I can't decide is whether it is a good show that could be great. or whether I just want it to be something it's not.

PS Although the date says the 9th, this was actually finished on the 22nd. Make of this what you will.

PSP Shenanigans: A True Story

I don't want to do my TAFE work so let's hear about a frustrating chapter of my recent life.

Ever since I'd sold my Gameboy Colour several years ago, I had not had any real desire to get any kind of portable console. My Ipod was enough in most circumstances and there were rarely games that caught my eye anyway.

Last year though I became aware of Dissidia: Final Fantasy, a fighting game which pitted the mian hero and villain of the first 10 games in the series against one another. It had the two thing I like in my fighting games: recognisable characters and unconventional gameplay.

But alas Dissida was PSP only and there was no real chance of it being ported (games only get ported from consoles I own, not to). As any person with basic comprehension will have figured out, I bought a PSP.

Realising I just spent several hundred dollars for a single game, I looked for others in an attmept to justify my purchase (although Dissidia did get me through Brisbane with my family so it has been fairly worthwhile).

On the suggestion of internet personalities I like, I bought Castlevania: Dracula X Chronicles. The downside with this is that it is a remake of game from era when games were still at ridiculous arcade difficultly, and so I'll probably never finish this. It did come with Symphony of the Night which was decent.

So it was around this point I decided I should actually do some research on the console I bought several months earlier cause I'm all about careful planning. Turns out that the PSP is the loser by far in comparison to the DS. It has a weaker battery life and game library. Just like with the N64 I made my choice and it was the wrong one.

Only recently a lot of my friends have been getting into mod chips for their DS's. Why don't I do the same I thought. Well I can't because my PSP is a 3000 with version 5.5 on it, and no one can hack that. Oh boy, things just keep going my way (irony).

And that's basically where I am now. Really the only good thing about the PSP is that it is region free so I can get games from the US and Japan. If only there was something particularly worth while.

PS I apoligise for all the dryness between the few interesting parts.

Steam Sale Conclusion

It's been almost several months but here we are at the end. One last post to bring all the games together in comparison and then let's never speak of this again.

Even before I finished all 10 games I had begun to try and rate them only to discover that I was more lenient the less I remembered about the game. This raised the question, what's a better indication of a game's quality? The recent memories of me frothing at the mouth over bad controls/camera angles/etc, or the more distant memories where the emotions attached have faded.

A more forgiving person would probably pick the latter as there would hopefully be less rage-induced bias but for me that just raises another issues: do the games deserve to be critiqued in a calm rational way. After all, the frustrating gameplay is still there, I just can't recall it as well anymore.

So here's the not-definitive-by-any-means-but-don't-expect-any-better final ratings:

10 - Painkiller

As the only game I couldn't bring myself to finish, Painkiller receives the very shameful ten. Seriously, who designs a boss fight to have several unavoidable parts where you take fall damage? When I'm more afraid of the physics than the giant flying demon, something is just plain wrong.

9 - Indigo Prophecy

I liked the premise and I was open to the interactive movie thing; too bad the premise went off the deep end and the gameplay was just badly implemented. When I encounter bad story/characters/setting I can get over it if the actual gameplay is good enough, and vice versa. This game obviously had neither and practically collapsed on itself while I watched with morbid fascination.

Here's where things get hard. Do I rate the remainders based on my initial feelings or current ones? What about originality? Is a game that tries to do something new but fails better than something that one that sticks to a formula and succeeds? Is replayability a factor?

8 - Eufloria

I'm actually a little surprised I put this here. The aesthetics were pleasing, so pleasing that they caused me to remember there's really nothing more to this game. No tactical depth, no evolution, no plot, no characters, no emotion. Eufloria is like some strange drug; you are doing something fairly boring for many hours, but you just don't care and you keep going back to do it some more.

7 - Beyond Good and Evil

I really want to put this higher because it has actual characters and tries to do something to my emotions unlike many of the games further down which seem to be excuse plots filled with 2 dimensional people. But then I remember the dull melee combat, awkward vehicle driving, and broken stealth. If only BGaE had had more focus instead of trying to be so many different things.

6 - Torchlight

I've put this game at 6. I've also played 53 hours according to Steam (I really want those last few achievements dammit). Two statements shouldn't go together but here we are. Torchlight shouldn't be above BGaE but that's what happens when your gameplay ain't broke. It may just be a pretty looking 'make numbers bigger' simulator but at least it works.

5 - Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3

RA3 gets this position by the virtue of being the last game left to place. There are no glaring flaws and no shining brilliance. It does have the advantage of having a lot more cash to toy with than basically all the other games bar Mirror's Edge, but this is countered by huge amount of nostalgia I have for earlier C&C games.

4 - Braid

I wish I could come up with a good reason why this game should be placed lower but I can't. As frustrating as I found the late game, I can't fault it for being difficult (except for a few parts that were just plain unintuitive). Despite the frequent pretentiousness of both the game and its fanbase, the gameplay both functions and is not repetitive, which is something I can't say about the previous games listed.

3 - Mirror's Edge

The time spent playing ME was a combination of screaming at difficult sections, cursing at screwy programming, and cringing at the plot. What put this so far up (down?) the list is that one day I may decide to replay this game, which is something that I won't consider for some of the others here, including Braid.

2 - Trine

I went to the enough of getting every single achievement for this game. It in my eyes is fully completed and experienced, Trine has nothing more it can offer me. But like Mirror's Edge I can see the possibility in a year or two of going back and playing it again. It also helps that there are no massive flaws in the game. Trine is the Mario, an all rounder in various stats/features, and in this instance that proves to make it the better than most.

1 - World of Goo

Things were always in WoG's favour. Where every other game was an unknown to some extent, WoG was something I had played and finished in the past but wanted to own for myself. It also has the honour of having a second post to make up for deficiencies in the first one. Other games probably needed that treatment but I didn't feel guilty enough to do one. I could mention actual features of the game which I think earn it the number one place but I'd prefer to go anecdotal. When I finish a good game I get a little sad as there is no more for me to play. Of the 10 games, only World of Goo caused this to happen and that is why it is in first place.

Steam Sale Review: Beyond Good and Evil

Finally last game:
When you look at that, what do you expect? When I bought this game all I had to go on was that picture, the title, and people occasionally mentioning this game as underrated.

What I expected:

I figured BGaE would be a mix of genres. There would be some Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider style adventuring mixed with some multi-faction conspiracies and some good old cosmic horror elements.

What I got:

Space opera.

You see those space ships in the above picture? I thought they were meteors. I hadn't been this wrong about a genre of something since Lost.

For those who may not know, space opera refers to series like Star Trek or Star Wars; sci fi at its softest.
BGaE takes place on a little planet called Hillys, under attack by a mysterious race called the DomZ. You play as Jade, a reporter who also looks after a bunch of orphans on a lighthouse. In need of cash to power the shield protecting the lighthouse, you take up a job to investigate the why the Alpha Sections (a military group whose exact political position is rather vague) are doing such a poor job of dealing with the DomZ.
Naturally there's revelations, tragedies and a big space battle by the end.

BGaE is another one of those games who, much to my chagrin, contains several gameplay styles. The on foot sections remind me of 3D Zelda games what with the basic platforming and 'dungeons', but the actual combat is fairly weak. There are also times when suddenly it becomes a stealth mission and then you are playing a poor man's Metal Gear Solid. Outside there's what seems to be a big open sandbox until you realise there's almost nothing there, and what is there is probably compulsory. You explore this pseudo-sandbox in a vehicle that handles like someone from Indigo Prophecy (woo continuity nod). and finally there is a small degree of RPG gameplay, but like the sandbox is either compulsory or just irrelevant.

As I must have said before, I'm not fond of things that jump between moods or genres. While I don't won't all fiction to instead to become either grimdark angstfests or wacky lighthearted romps, I wish that tone wasn't allowed to jump so far.
An early scene in BGaE has Pey'j your pigman accomplice demonstrate his fart-powered rocket boots. Much later in the game Jade breaks down after [MASSIVE BUT FAIRLY OBVIOUS WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT SPOILERS]. For me the emotional weight of the later scene was lessened by the earlier scene, and all of its ilk.

It's been so long since I actually played this game I've forgotten most of the details, and all I'm let with are slightly bitter memories. There's nothing inherently terrible about this game (hmm I think I've already used that exact phrase previously, never mind), there's just nothing particularly good about it. BGaE has developed a fanbase so who knows, perhaps this is all just a combination of my very high standards and my disappointment that this was not what I expected.

If nothing else I can say that BGaE is an experience you don't get all that often despite containing alot of typical features, kind of like Fifth Element.