Thursday, March 19, 2009

Small Blog Break...



No posts for a few weeks- see you guys back here in a few- have fun, be safe, rock out with your cock out- see ya!

David

ps. be sure to check me out on BONUS ROUND and 1upyours, lemme know how I did- thanks! :)

40 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:47 AM

    Come back soon, Jaffster.

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  2. Anonymous10:04 AM

    1UP Yours?? Don't you mean 4 Guys 1 UP?

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  3. Enjoy GDC. I look forward to your take on the show. Peace Jaffe.

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  4. Have a good time at G.d.c. Mr. Jafee. I look foward to what your thoughts are on G.D.C.. "Peace!"

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  5. Anonymous10:32 AM

    Good luck with those podcasts. Yeah, Clive Owen's done some great movies, Children of Men being one of his best. The man SHOULD be Bond.

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  6. Hey have a good break and have fun at GDC! Also be really cool if you could post the links to those shows on this blog just so we don't have to go searching for them.

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  7. At least twitter something while you're gone, lol. Have fun at GDC and perhaps, I do stress perhaps, I'll see ya there!

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  8. we miss ya allready... :(


    Cheers, and tear it up at GDC!!! :)

    scottRAYS

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  9. cool cool see ya in a lil jaffe.

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  10. For a second or two, I thought you were disappearing into the shadows similar to what you did awhile back. I'm glad to hear that's not the case, haha.

    I hope you have a good experience at GDC, and I wish you a good couple of weeks.

    I'll try and check out those podcasts.

    See ya later.

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  11. Anonymous1:42 PM

    You and Keighley always seem to get a good banter going whenever you talk. Looking forward to it. Any idea who else will be on the Bonus Round with you?

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  12. I think its Listen Up now, can't wait to hear that one. Favorite podcast...even though it is like 2 hours long.

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  13. So were Garnett and the 1UP guys planning to have you join them for GDC or E3? btw, did that article (and subsequent podcast) from that MSNBC reporter make print yet? Or is he still working on it?

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  14. hope to see you at GDC!

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  15. Shit, now whose blog am I going to come home looking forward to watching?

    Take it easy, CliffyB.

    Hey, should I quit calling you that? Everyone else seems to have forgotten.

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  16. Anonymous8:11 PM

    I LOVE you "hiatus's". LOL, the last time you had a "hiatus" you posted like 5 times in a week. I hope GDC is good.

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  17. Anonymous8:17 PM

    did you want to say "I love you, Man" for the 3rd movie?

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  18. Anonymous11:09 PM

    Carry on my wayward son...

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  19. Anonymous2:09 AM

    crunch time for an announcement maybe?

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  20. Hell yeah..i am going to fucking rock out with my fucking cock out

    P.S. : St. Patrick's day was my birthday.

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  21. try going on COOP or rebel FM

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  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  23. Dave, maybe you can stop by the PlayStation store one last time before we close.

    If I don't see ya, have fun in SF!

    -Oscar

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  24. Dear Jaffe,

    Thank you for continuing to recommend Flower. I kept hearing you talk about it and decided to download the game from the Playstation Store. It's one of the most creative concepts I've ever seen in a game and it's beautiful. Also, my grandma just passed away and the first night I bought it, I showed it to my mom and it helped her escape from the grief for a little while, which was nice for her because the loss of her mother is really hurting her.

    At the same time, I don't quite experience the same "emotions" as you do. I think it's a great escape game and a great game overall, but I don't feel like it's this incredible emotional experience or anything that takes me everywhere. I don't know, I do think it's a great game, but I don't think it creates this emotional experience at least for me.

    Your opinions on Metal Gear 4 and Flower and my opinions on those respective games are exactly the opposite. I felt like Metal Gear (along with the rest of the saga) is the most complete emotional experience in the gaming universe. I just think the characters build so well, and I think that Kojima really has a great flare for emotion.

    The last part of Act 3 in MGS4 where Liquid drops "Guns of the Patriots" on everyone is just mind blowing. Like, I felt so much emotion especially for EVA as she watches Big Boss (well, really Solidus, but she thinks it's Big Boss) burn and the devotion she feels to him as she burns alongside him is really one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in a game.

    I agree that the Big Boss story line at the end of MGS4 took it a little bit too far, but it was a great final moment between Snake and Big Boss.

    So, I don't know, I feel like MGS is the closest thing that we have (thus far) to an emotional gaming experience and it's the closest thing we have thus far that really can count as great storytelling in a game. Some of it I agree can go a bit over the top, but overall I think that Metal Gear's overall story is just about as complete and as visceral as anything out there.

    That's just my two cents. I agree that too many people just sort of suck up to games and get caught up in the hype, and I hope I don't come off as one of those people because I only recently got into Metal Gear over the last year, I didn't just get Metal
    Gear Solid and before even playing it proclaim that it was the greatest thing known to man. I actually had a rough time getting adjusted to it, but it opened my mind up to the possibilities of storytelling in a game, and I think it creates the ultimate experience because it's a game and it's a lot like a film. And the game play in all those games are just incredibly deep, even though the controls take a bit to get adjusted to.

    I don't know, I'm rambling. I'll stop. Have a good break, and good luck on the rest of the game.

    -G.W.

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  25. Graham- those were great scenes- but they were NOT gameplay. That's my whole point: just cause you stick an emotional cut scene in a game, if the gameplay is not emotional then the game is not emotional. I think Kojima is a master at gameplay AND directing cut scenes and he's come closer than most in melding story telling WITH his gameplay...but those two scenes- as amazing as they were- do not- for me- qualify as emotional gameplay.

    David

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  26. You should use square space, it's a lot more pleasing to look at and really easy to customize. Wordpress is good too and free. Square space cost money I think but has a really good customizing thing.

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  27. Anonymous4:08 PM

    I think that's an interesting concept... that the gameplay needs to strike emotion not the storytelling...

    I'm not sure that can be achieved by your definitions. I have to agree with graham about MGS4... I have told many people that its my top game of all time stating that it "plays like a movie". But your right too david, its the CG's not the gameplay in particular that make it feel that way.. (though I think you could make an argument thats its not as black and white as that).

    The difference in a movie is that you're sitting there watching it, with no phsyical connection so your mind can make all the emotional attachments it sees fit... but I bet if you put a controller in movie goers hands and had a movie that was interactive in some way, it would pull you out of the whole "emotional" experience.

    I think its because you become focused on a specific goal, and though you could say that because you chose that goal and were given the opportunity to interact therefore you should have a stronger attachment to the follow through and outcome... somehow when you're rushing towards the goal all of that's lost, and its really about just getting there. The emotional attachment to the story arc is no longer as important as my emotional attachment to completing the task.



    ... I don't know.. but that's a cool idea you got there. I never fully understood what you meant when you said you want to make games that give you the same emotions as movies, but I get it now.

    hope you get back to blogging soon

    cheers,
    mango

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  28. Oh ok, I thought you meant that the cut scenes didn't strike you as much as I had originally thought. My bad. In terms of emotional gameplay, yeah, as you've pointed out before very hard if not impossible to achieve.

    I think that the cut scenes lead to emotional gameplay. Just watching Liquid destroy everything and especially when EVA died made me want to kill the bastard more than ever.

    This leads me in the next part to feel this driving motivation, this emotion to stop Liquid at all costs because these emotional cut scenes lead to the gameplay being emotional, because for me it provides me with the basis to continue on this mission. If it wasn't for the cut scenes being so damn gripping it wouldn't lead me to continue the game.

    But you're right, like, solely from the gameplay, the only thing I can think of from MGS4 that was emotional was the oven part, but I know that you felt it was too much going on in one sitting because you just wanted to survive and couldn't concentrate on every little thing that was happening in the split screen ordeal. I feel that your opinion is justified. There might have been a little too much going on. But I don't know, watching Snake get burned and moving him towards GW, or JD (can't remember) while the "Love Theme" plays in the background was for me, pretty darn emotional. I was also able to take in enough of the split screen to get the sense of what was going on, but you're completely right, it was too much to take in at once, but I think it was definitely a unique stride forward in emotional gameplay solely based on moving Snake forward, slowly as he is being fried in the oven. And trying to combine everything else was a really nice attempt at it and I think even though it had its flaws, it was all and all a pretty mind blowing part of the game.

    Flower is a beautiful game though. Thanks again for that recommendation. Visually it is so stunning and such a fresh, and new idea.

    And oh yeah, Calling All Cars! is a hit on my dorm hall at college. People really dig the game. Multiplayer is great there.

    Thanks for taking the time to read my comment. Good luck to you, sir.

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  29. Anonymous7:04 AM

    I don't mean to butt in on this MGS discussion, but I think I will. MGS4 really isn't the best Metal Gear in terms of storytelling, even if understandably wrapping up the loose ends the series has been creating thus far is not exactly the easiest thing to do. Kojima has always had a nice old school touch with MGS, always having a lesson at the end of the game like children's stories have had since the dawn of time. Of course these are a lot more adult oriented.

    But what I've liked about MGS is the serious tone of the story, which is coloured by the humorous touches Kojima drops here and there, but with MGS4 it was hard to take it seriously. It starts off with the serious tone, but it doesn't take long before you're forced try and enjoy the story with a character on screen shitting his pants - all the fricking time. He just seemed to have run out of ideas, it was one big nostalgia trip, but in terms of the Hollywood-like cinemas and "emotional gameplay" MGS3 really nailed it the best. Over the top indeed, but if there was something that made me cringe in agony, it was pulling the trigger at the end of MGS3. Sure you don't have to do it, but if you give in, that's probably the better example of incorporating something emotional into pressing a button on your controller. The microwave oven was going for that, but it takes so long it loses the effect that it's aiming for.

    I'm all for good storytelling in games as well as personality, and games like Grim Fandango and Metal Gear Solid 1 were some of the most influential games that I ever played. I don't necessarily want anything emotinal, although Mass Effect is one of my favourite games in the recent years because it actually has an intellectual story that is built throughout in the same manner. It goes for a grown-up scifi story and succeeds, although it presents the loss of one of your squad mates. The great thing about Mass Effect is that you can choose whether or not to interact with these characters and learn to care about them, which in turn can make the scene more impactful. The RPG-nature of ME is great because the dialogue wheel is basically gameplay, because you don't know what your character is going to say, it's not just text that you pick, it's a reaction. Mass Effect is a better example of this "emotional gameplay" that you speak of mostly because the dialogue keeps changing according to you and it's not a passive moment for the player either.

    In my heart I think that games can have a great narrative and gameplay, and personally I'm excited about Heavy Rain because in it storytelling IS gameplay and is built around that notion. Games to me strike as a medium where at best you can incorporate the best of what movies, literature and games can offer. Where as movies always fail to offer the story of a book, games could succeed in melding a book-like narrative with great cinematics and immersive gameplay. It's quite the grand idea of what I would want to accomplish in games and would like to see some day. To me games, movies or literature is not about entertainment, it's about experiencing something, and I want games to be able to be an experience and not mere entertainment. Some try and succeed even if it's not their intention, but they're not quite there yet. Shadow of the colossus is good example of an experience in gaming. The ending is quite sad really, if you're man enough to relate to an emotion called love, which is all the game's story is about. Once again, it was an interactive scene, gameplay if you will, but it succeeds in emotion extremely well, even if emotion not what I'm seeking for in games, just a good storyline. However, if you can trigger emotion with that storyline, you truly are on the verge of creating an experience unlike most games.

    Just my two cents from on this subject, it really is where my passion for games comes from.

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  30. Anonymous7:10 AM

    And once again I missed some of my typos...grr

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  31. Anonymous10:07 AM

    Hey David, just wanted to say thanks for two of my favorite games ever. I have been watching your blog for a few months and I really appreciate your honesty and opinions. I just graduated from film school so if your new PS3 project needs a documentary (like on God of War) to cover the making of I'd be glad to help. LOL

    Peace

    P.S. Raiders of The Lost Ark is one of the greatest movies ever!

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  32. Anonymous10:29 AM

    I forgot about shadow of the collosus... damn, I want to play that again.

    Mass effect was okay, I actually really liked the gameplay, but that whole dialogue screen got boring after a few minutes. The problem with it is this and its not just mass effect that falls into this trap but so many others (fable, fallout 3, etc...) although it seems like you have this amazing option, its so bland so generic... good or evil and if you choose one, its really hard to justify why 20 minutes later you're choosing the other. Not to mention that other than a short little reaction on screen, which fair enough is cool for a while, there is no change in the game... no real consequences (except for a few key moments, but even then, I wasn't attached to those characters so it felt easy to let one die and one live).

    having said all that, its still a cool game (mass effect, not fallout 3... don't get me started on fallout 3...)

    cheers,
    Mango

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  33. Anonymous12:45 PM

    Heh, don't get me started on Fallout 3 either :D Horrible, horrible...I thought Mass Effect was short, but wow - Fallout 3 achieved a whole new level of RPG-shortness (and badness).

    But anyway, what really appealled to me the most in Mass Effect was the overall story and the amount of information the player had about the in-game world. It's a really well crafted scifi universe with its own history and background, if you read all the text there is to read it gives an extra oomph to the game. A very nice and needed touch to make believable world. Personally I love scifi and to have a well crafted game with its own universe is quite fantastic, it was the amount information that really finally sold Mass Effect to me (a bit too action-y and short for me overall, but a great story is always a great story).

    And uhh Nicolas Cage doesn't have any good movies? Well The Rock is probably my favourite ation film of all time, but if you're looking for good proper Nick Cage films I recommend Adaptation, The Weather Man and Matchstick Men. He has some pretty good roles in those ones.

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  34. Anonymous3:02 PM

    I'll be sure to rock out with my cock out.

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  35. Anonymous11:17 PM

    hey jaffe when you know the times for your podcasts post them for us. I would really like to hear them. I loved your lagtv interveiw. Your a open and honest person and give great interveiws. I hope you post again soon. peace chad

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  36. Anonymous9:02 AM

    yeah I'll give it to you there, mass effect definitely put in the work for the backstory. That was pretty cool.
    But MGS4 did the same thing with that downloadable content. I actually haven't even read through all of the stuff in there yet. Either way two great games.

    and don't forget about lord of war... great movie starring nicholas cage.

    cheers,
    mango

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  37. Anonymous12:25 PM

    David, can i take a shit on your chest?

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