DISPATCHES AUGUST
Violence
As we gear up for summers trapped indoors, gaming is becoming more and more a part of all our lives. I loved seeing people who’d abandoned gaming return to it in lockdown, and many were thrilled at how things had changed. However, as I watched the trailer for The Last of Us Part II, my heart sank. Not because of the massive spoilers that leaked to the internet, and not because of the behaviour in response (although it was unedifying to say the least). It wasn’t even over the game itself, which has earned its grimdark future through groundwork laid in the original game.
No, it was for the developers. We hear about the trauma experienced by people working on the Mortal Kombat series, and as I watched a character knife another opposing force member, I thought, ‘What a waste.’ As I watched Ellie’s green jacket darken with water, as the rain lashed down so accurately that if I was glancing I would mistake it for real, along with the amazing animation which was kinetic and exciting, all I could think was ‘What a waste of talent.’ Imagine being so good at your job that triple-A comes a-calling, and says, “Hey, take this fat stack of cash, and can you now program how you would slit someone’s throat with a Coke can.” I am not judging people for taking those jobs, or for people necessarily wanting those games (although I am a little).
I know there are other developers out there, both indie and big, building truly innovative and exciting content that isn’t predicated on murder – Animal Crossing being a prime example – but I’m pretty sure the next generation will be similar to the last few, where our collective thirst for photorealistic violence will maybe scratch the sociopathic itch we seemed to have developed. I’m glad for my PS4 Pro, but for
No Man’s Sky, Journey, and other meditative games like Tetris Effect. I am playing my Switch more and more because it is home to joy, not murder. Considering the news is about ever-rising death counts, I really don’t care about KDRs any more. I care about breeding a black tulip.
Anand Modha
Entirely understandable, Anand (even though Animal Crossing has made us angrier than any other game this month; we are increasingly convinced blue roses are a myth). There’s merit, we suppose, in games such as The Last Of Us Part II exploring why much of humanity feels compelled to commit such hideous atrocities – even if they don’t always make for easy playing.
“As I watched a character knife another opposing force member, I thought, ‘What a waste.’”
Anthem
While I was reading your excellent write-up of the equally brilliant Session last issue, I got thinking about the integration of music into games. Throughout lockdown, something I’ve missed dearly is walking the streets of London with my earphones plugged in, dwelling on the big and small things while working through my backlog of albums. Games such as Session, that allow players to explore at their own leisure, could benefit from allowing players to integrate their streaming service of choice in the game.
Imagine cruising down the streets of New York in Session, bumping Beastie Boys through your earbuds and the game mixing the track to imitate the tinny buzz of cheap earphones. I’m giddy thinking about it. Nothing cultivates a sense of place more than small, accurate details like that. Bonus points if your skater reaches into their pocket whenever you change tracks.
Music plays such a huge role in evoking atmosphere in games. Kamurocho in the Yakuza series wouldn’t be the same without
the jeering street drunks and the incessant dings of pachinko machines mixed in the rumbling city soundscape. Being able to choose your music while you explore these gorgeously hand-curated game spaces would mean more right now than ever.
Will Butler
Marcus’ earbuds in Watch Dogs 2 are one of our favourite takes on this – the choice of tracks is limited to a soundtrack that is as curated to the game’s themes as its world is. Would we really want to override that?
Wasting time
Despite the global pandemic meaning people are playing more videogames than ever, I can’t stop thinking about how games are still wasting so much of players’ time.
Earlier this year I was between jobs and decided to use this time to play Death Stranding – a game that was divisive for several reasons, most of which I was able to overlook. However, one thing I couldn’t was just how much time was wasted. In menus, listening to dry dialogue about how people are so addicted to delivering that they’ve turned into terrorists, or even just crafting ladders to make it to your next drop. Don’t even get me started on the ending!
Then came Final Fantasy VII Remake, a game I and so many other people were unbelievably excited to get stuck into. The filler in this game is well-documented by this point, but even aside from the new ‘go find some cats’ quests, everything took close to an hour to achieve. Even progressing the story by doing a high-five took a long hold of the triangle button. Agonising stuff for me and for my fiancée watching.
But looking ahead at what’s to come, it feels like developers are finally starting to get the message. The Assassin’s Creed Valhalla developers have come out and said that despite a larger map, there will be much less filler content than Odyssey. Another Square Enix title, Final Fantasy XIV, will soon be releasing a patch that removes a huge number of quests to reduce the amount of wasted player time. Are we finally starting to see large studios move away from the ‘more is better’ philosophy?
Stuart Fraser
Dammit (growing up)
Being genuinely surprised and saddened to see Computer Arts shutting up shop in recent weeks, I’ve been living in constant fear of a similarly disheartening email regarding my
Edge subscription. The Post Script for your Resident Evil 3 review was a timely reminder of my appreciation for your more measured approach; the considered definition of value. While our attention-deficit culture has its own lamentable downsides, games seem to be a strange anomaly across the media landscape, with duration often seen as an exponentially positive factor. Personally, it’ll take something special for me to be drawn into another open world; the promised ‘ten times larger map’ or 60-plus-hour selling points being the biggest deterrents imaginable, a cost of entry rather than added value.
All of this was highlighted by the inclusion of Days Gone in this year’s Days Of Play sale offering. Surprised by the amount of positive opinions flooding the comments section, with many citing it as their favourite game of the generation, I began to wonder if I’d somehow overlooked a hidden gem. I came back to reality when I realised many of the comments focused on the sheer number of gaming hours included for the discounted price.
Maybe it’s a sign of getting older, but as much as I love a bargain (something which my ever-growing backlog can attest to), my days are far too precious to be spent on even the most heavily discounted timesink, regardless of the medium. With an infinite amount of options available to us, surely it’s time we learnt to judge experiences based on their ability to enrich life, not merely consume it.
Si McCoy
We might have saved you a scroll if you’d only remembered our Days Gone review, which dubbed it “the most generic, overlong openworld game around”. On the off-chance you haven’t played Breath Of The Wild yet, which is precisely that “something special” you’re hoping for, have an 8BitDo controller on us.
Feeling this
I’m extremely grateful that videogames have kept my usual pub group in contact. With the help of Discord and World Of Warcraft we’ve been in touch more than ever. Nowadays we bring our own drinks, and we meet in Azeroth rather than our local. George is our everreliable healer, Jack the Leeroy Jenkins of the group, Tom is always competing with Jack on the dps chart, I’m the newbie Warrior and Matt, aka Wikipedia, is our WoW veteran. With abilities such as Cleave and Execute, WoW really didn’t suit the Feel Better edition of Edge. On the other hand, the coordination and communication involved, mentioned as a highlight in a few of the games in E345, has provided a great environment for our group to have a giggle while attempting to achieve a common goal.
Each evening the banter rolls on as it used to, but these days there’s the addition of a dungeon tactics discussion. Most of our early PvE runs ended in chaos. However, when we finally listen to the tutelage of Wikipedia Matt, it slowly clicks into place. Beating a challenging dungeon with my mates is a high I haven’t felt in many other games. We’re by no means an adept group – more like a rag-tag bunch that somehow get the job done. Success is usually met when our very own Leeroy Jenkins is behaving himself, or when we finally stop trying to outdo each other on the DPS chart and focus on the job at hand. Whichever way the result goes, we’re usually laughing by the end.
Zak Evans
Heartwarming stuff, Zak, but get back to us once World Of Warcraft is able to pull us a pint directly into our open mouths. (We are not sure our local will be letting us back in after all this is over, in any case.)