Audiosurfin' USA

Anybody familiar with the gaming community/network Steam has doubtlessly heard (if not already a proud owner) of Audiosurf, a rhythm/"music" game with an interesting twist.

The megapopular mainstays Guitar Hero and Rock Band rely on a system of colored "bars" that more or less function as musical "notes" on a scoresheet. (Those unfamiliar with Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc. are probably already lost at this point: take a gander at the Guitar Hero video review here for a glimpse at what I mean). In Audiosurf,, these on-screen colored cues aren't notes on a scoresheet; they're cars on a highway, and rather than tasking the player with matching these colored bars to buttons a joypad or controller to "play" a song, Audiosurf needs no newfangled, awkward insrument-shaped controllers: you need merely the arrows on a keyboard or a computer mouse to navigate your vehicle as you traverse the musical highway...crashing into as many cars as you can along the way.

Well, sort of, anyway. Think of this game as "musical Tetris": the color-coded "cars" on the highway don't cause your vehicle to crash immediately; they are stored in one of three columns (each column corresponding to a lane on the highway), and by placing three cars of the same color in either a row or column, the player not only scores points, but like in most "falling block" puzzle games, the blocks (or cars, in this case) disappear and the columns are emptied. Likewise, if the columns are filled, the car crashes and the player loses points.

Keep in mind that the "cars" that appear on the "highway" correspond to musical notes of a song; the game also marks changes in the rhythm of a song with sudden sharp turns and uphill climbs. The best part? Audiosurf doesn't use a pre-set song list like most games of its type; any music file on yor PC harddrive, music CD, mp3 file, etc. can be used! Scores are tracked online, as well, if you wish, and it was quite a shock to see that I had racked up a 15,000 point score on the Salve Regina highway only to find out that someone had outscored me! Apparently I'm the only one who's been travelin' down Fr. Groschel's The God of Mercy and You freeway, though. No surprises there...

With a $10 price tag, I can't recommend this game enough. I'll never understand how I missed Audiosurf when it released earlier this year, but I'm sure I'll be playing it for many years to come.

An Echochrome Player Diary in Pictures

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With most puzzle video games taking the tetris rip-off route, It's refreshing to see something of the "sit-down-and-think" variety appear on any gaming platform.

Proof That God Loves Us and Wants Us to Be Happy

Looks Like I'm Not the Only Catholic Who Enjoys Video Games...

Brian Saint-Paul has written a quaint little piece over at Inside Catholic today regarding the new Pew research study which aparently found that 97 percent of American kids play video games. Being a gamer himself, Brian Saint-Paul does not use this study as an excuse to lambast the video game medium and the people who enjoy and utilize it, but actually thinks the findings of the study could be a good thing.

I guess I'm just glad that Catholics are on the forefront of the video game defense force these days. Video game "legislation" is a popular pandering point for politicians of many persuasions - everyone from Hillary Clinton to Sam Brownback seems to think it's a good idea. In Britian, it's not at all uncommon to see the Daily Mail publish asinine articles attacking the video game medium for causing virtually every societal ailment. The Fox News Mass Effect fiasco demonstrates that American news networks are equally nefarious in their treatment of the medium.

Kudos to InsideCatholic. It's nice to see that SOMEBODY gets it...

Player Diary: Tales of Vesperia

Since I am absolutely indisposed to reading Chuang Tzu right now, here's a few more tidbits about the game I managed to play for about 2 1/2 hours today:

-The game introduced the concept of an "over-limit", a special battle command that basically lets your character whale on enemies without reservation. No need to worry about combining attacks and special attacks (or "artes") together (though you still need to worry about conserving health, etc - no invincibility!); you can pretty much just mash the buttons on your controller and watch as the on-screen monsters perish. Unfortunately, enemies can use it too, and since the introduction to this new gameplay feature, the game's difficulty seems to have spiked dramatically. Some nasty Cerberus-like Cloverfield wannabe boss beastie completely annihilated me, and after grinding/"leveling up" enough to wipe him out and traveling to the nearest town, some red-eyed ninjas accsot me before I can save the game. Ugh.

- The story is quite openly discussing consequentialism. In two consecutive scenes, two different characters are faced with situations in which they are tempted to break laws for the sake of preceived righteousness. One character does so and another declines. Sequential scenes show the characters discussing which one did the right thing. Neither characer comes out particularly better off than the other.

I wrote about this in my last entry, but I will mention it again for emphasis: There is a pervading theme of "Just-do-what-YOU-wanna-do-when-faced-with- tough-decisions" in this game's narrative . I'm not sure if "hedonism" is the right word what the game is advocating here, but it's definetley the same "believe in yourself!" self-help rhetoric that seems to pervade Western culture these days. Come to think of it, it's pretty common in anime, too...given the throughly Japanese origin of this game, I guess I can't be too surprised with this thematic.

-Lack of puzzles I realize Tales of games are genearlly light on puzzles, but the near-total lack of them thus far is ridiculous. The game seems too easy without the occasional logic puzzle, even if they are of the thoroughly rudimentary variety.

- I don't understand the "cooking" system. I know what it's used for, and it's sure handy in a pinch, but I'm not sure how the cooking "menu" is supposed to work. Perhaps a reader could add a dash of knowledge (apologies for the VERY bad cooking joke)?

- Total Playing time so far: 7:57 (it's actually more since I had to restart after losing to a "boss" and the game just loads from the last save point. I've probably played around 8:15 or so.)

Storytelling in JRPGs

While I'm not nearly far enough into Tales of Vesperia to offer much of a response to my brother's recent critique on the dungeons, I can say that so far the game's thematic is making me a little uncomfortable. It's pretty much the usual self-help on steroids refrain of "do what you feel is right, don't let anyone stop you/believe in yourself" shlock. It seems overly self-righteous and preachy, evn darnright narcissistic. Bleh.

The battles, though...awesome, as expected. I really like the character development, too - no silly 'skill trees' that have become an unnecessary gimmick in most role-playing games; it's all handled through equipment. It's really nifty, but it still demands some of your attention during the game, too. I'm glad SOME game developer finally found a way to make character development involving without becoming distracting.

It's hard enough to find time to play anything with school, though (and I can't blog if I don't play!). With the release of Rock Band 2 imminent, though, I'm sure I'll find time to play again soon...

Tales of Vesperia!

The past two weeks have seen the commencement of yet another academic year (a tired excuse for such a long posting hiatus, I know) but I managed to take some time out amidst the hustle and bustle of the new school year to grab this little gem: Tales of Vesperia, a multiplayer RPG that released just in time for the long labor day weekend.

It's a shame I can't find that fourth xbox 360 controller...I may have to buy a new one just for this game...