Friday, July 17, 2009

Culture by the dozen

Dear Internet,

I wanted to share with you a surreal experience I had last night.  It involved a huge field of grass, some hot dogs, an extensive amount of apes and an Opera. You know, the usual.

Imagine, if you will, the following scenario: A crowd of literally thousands of people gathering in a park around a big stage. As the distance between the throng to the stage gets smaller, the density of human flesh per square meter grows ever larger. The weather is hot and humid, as if the park resides in the very center of god’s armpit. The crowd thickens and thickens. Brawls between sweaty, angry people sprout randomly for dominance over their 1x1 patch of grass, their swears drowned only by the shouting voices of the teenage hot-dog vendors and the sound of enormous electric generators. Some of the more “innovative” people climb onto those generators in order to both escape the crowd and maybe catch a better glimpse of the stage.

This whole sight might have been typical for a soccer game, or a rock concert. What made this whole ordeal so surreal was that it took place in an opera concert. The absolute polarity between the cultural significance of an opera and a crowd of aggressive, sweaty commoners shoving and hitting each other to get a better look – believe me, it was… something else.

Everything took place in an event called Opera in the Park, which is an event organized by the city of Tel Aviv, in an attempt to expose the general public to some culture. While the idea seems good, it just isn’t applicable for the type of people who live here. Hearing the sweet voice of the singers while seeing people hurting each other like animals was a sad experience for me. Having never been to an opera, I am a little sorry about this being my first experience with it. This is something I will have to remedy.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Speaking of Remakes…

In my previous post I talked about remakes and my ambiguity towards them. This week I have played a little bit of Street Fighter IV, which is mostly a remake of the good old Street Fighter II. Why mostly? Well, there are some new characters, and (if anybody cares) there is a new story for each of the characters.

In any case, I consider this game a remake, and, in my opinion, it is a good thing. I loved playing Street Fighter II at the arcades as a kid. I loved playing it years later on emulators and consoles. Street Fighter IV is almost identical in gameplay to Street Fighter II. The graphics are “next-gen” and there is a more than functional multiplayer mode and other goodies, but the core gameplay is the same. Even the moves for the old characters are played in the exact same way, so old geezers like yours truly can find themselves right at home from the get go.


Fast action flawlessly combined with spectacular graphics. I can almost feel her pain… 

And still, the game feels fresh, and I believe new gamers will find it no less attractive even without the nostalgic factor. How can this be explained? Is it because other fighting games, such as Tekken, rely mostly on button mashing while Street Fighter still requires some tactics and finesse? Or maybe I really am blinded by nostalgia? Whatever the reason, I am enjoying this game, whether its when I perform an ultra combo finish or when a friend wipes the floor with my dignity (you know who you are!), I am having fun with a fighting game like I haven’t had in a long long time.

So here is a remake I know exactly how I feel about. Maybe this is the answer I was looking for. I cannot have a specific opinion on all the remakes in the world. Some could be really good and polished such as Street Fighter IV, some might not.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Doing and Redoing

I don’t know what to make of remakes. It seems to me that a gaming company that releases a modern remake of an oldie is either doing this to please the fans of the original game, or just because they want to milk the franchise to death. What I cannot decide is whether or not the reason even matters.

 
No doubt that the remake looks amazing. But then again, we all know that the original was great.

With the impending re-release of The Secret of Monkey Island by Lucasarts, I am trying to focus on whether or not I am excited about this release. After all, this was an adventure game that stood above all other adventure games of its time and gave me hours of fun and laughter. And pirates. lots and lots of pirates. So a modern remake of the game with new graphics, music and voice casting must certainly swash my buckles, right? Who cares that Lucasarts are releasing this game really close to Telltale’s own version of Monkey Island that was released 3 days ago? Why should it matter that Lucasarts, who abandoned the adventure games genre years ago in order to focus on releasing tons of Star Wars games is suddenly releasing an adventure, which is a remake of an old favorite? Why would I mind that they are publically saying that they promise to release more adventures only if this new remake sells well?

 
At least Telltale is trying something new.

Well, I don’t know why, but I do mind. It does matter to me. Where Telltale attempted (with more success than not) to recreate the franchise and came up with a brand new Monkey Island adventure, Lucasarts is reusing its old material and is also “holding hostage” its other franchises unless their demands are met. It just feels wrong to me. Its the difference between a company that creates and therefore contributes to the advancement of video games, to a company that recycles for money. Lucasarts used to be the first type of company when it came to adventure games. I really hope that there is at least some soul behind their actions.