Redfall, Cyberpunk and Potential

 The promise unspoken

What is the one thing worse than a steaming pile of irredeemable Saints Row 2022? Any game that is just as decrepit but had at one time the potential to be something more than it ended up being. I mean that's the one thing constantly hanging over the heads of the young, isn't it? The 'potential' of what they could be coming up against whatever way they've disappointed their elders today- those who live their own disappointing realities vicariously through the admonishment of the next generation on. But I am slipping wildly off track for the moment, let me refocus. Every game started with a great dream of what could be, and most every one that made it to market fell somewhat short of that promise. That's just the natural consequence of designing anything, afterall. But the dream of the creator is an unattainable high, it is the game's job to create the dream of the consumers- but that doesn't make that pinnacle any easier to hit, oh no! And the consequence for missing that peak is certainly a hell of a lot louder.

We talk about games that are fantastic all the time, and whisper curses at the worst of the worst that sully our memories to even linger; but it's only sadness that tinges the disappointments. Sighed wisps of cheers never voiced, praises never lifted and hearts never soared. We can almost see, behind the cobwebs of reality, the ideal that was promised, or which we conjured in our minds- and like a floating knife it's handle seems so real to clutch- only to prove intangible. The failure of a game is something that will forever hang over it like a cloud. The terrible could never have made it in the first place, pretending otherwise was delusional from the start; but we have expectations of our hero companies. We believe in Dice, in Arkane, in CDPR, such that the output regularly just seems to boggle the mind with how wrong it all is. No one can quite make sense of ruined potential.

Battlefield 2042 is perhaps a prime example of this idea being that it was not only going to be the next title to carry on the storied Battlefield legacy, but it was also tying into one of the most cult classic entries in the franchise that hadn't even gotten lip service in years by that point- Battlefield 2242. A sci-fi style Battlefield game like no other since, invoking that name was a signal to the player base that this game was going to go back to what made the franchise great. Complex maps, in depth progression and grand scale conflict. And of course the result was a half-finished battlefield title with blandly designed maps, an ill-fitting 'operative' player system reminiscent of COD Warzone and a whole heap of bugs and disappointment. After whipping the fanbase up into an absolute frenzy, this was about the worst case scenario for everyone involved- not least of all through Dice who shattered the last vestiges of hope that non-diehards had in their bodies. 

And in a somewhat similar vein we have old faithful in the Cyberpunk 2077 debacle. What can I say that you don't already know? This game promised to be Deus Ex stretched out into an open world, with all that immersive sim goodness on a grand scale. Branching narrative, interactive city space, progressively updated multiplayer- Cyberpunk 2077 wanted to be everything at once. Or more specifically, it wanted to be the GTA that even Rockstar couldn't make. And it wasn't that. The game is good, and I think the writing and performances are excellent, but the world lacked any of that immersive interactivity which was promised, the multiplayer was cancelled and the narrative branches were cut off the tree. For everything the team promised this game would be, repeatedly up until the final few weeks before launch, Cyberpunk will live on as a disappointment of cataclysmic proportions.

Which brings us back around to Redfall. Whilst not in itself a very fascinating concept, Arkane are a studio renowned for their complex and thoughtful approach to design when it comes to the games that they make and the worlds that they build. Whether it's robust gameplay systems or sprawling multi-faceted level design, Arkane are typically a developer you can rely on to put out quality games that will appeal to the immersive sim lover out there to some level. Even at their most dubious, such as Deathloop, it's more the direction of the game that rubbed me and some others the wrong way, not the quality of the game in of itself. That same gratis cannot be extended towards Redfall, however, for it's utterly unambitious and generic presentation that rivals Ubisoft in it's contrived nature. There's nothing of the creative flair to design that made Arkane famous here, and consequently nothing of the studio's soul and reputation. It's actually something of a wonder that a game like this could even have been made in the modern year.

Oh, but did I even mention 'Mass Effect Andromeda'? Yeah I'm going back to the past now with a game that tried to revive the legacy of the relatively recently concluded Mass Effect trilogy. As I always insist, I think Mass Effect Andromeda played it far too soon to follow up on what ME3 set-up, and that was somewhat clear in a game that neither matched nor pressed above the scope of the previous title. What was a sprawling galaxy spanning adventure was condensed into a narrow lens with barren worlds and a scant few alien species to get involved with. The narrative branches were lacking, the gameplay fell for the trap of making 'adaptable classes' which basically just melded every playstyle into on amorphous blob. Andromeda has glimmers of Mass Effect's glory in it's body, and the ambition of what they wanted to do seems to have run aground with the time available and the size of the team who worked on it. A sad disappointment, that one.

You see, potential is a swirling pool of feasibility muddied by a veil of dreams and expectation. Oftentimes the very concept of which can be the tool of disillusionment that taints what we expect and sullies the product. I think that objectively, Fable III is a pretty decent game with some solid gameplay ideas, like 2 and 1 before it. But like 2 and 1, Fable III had the spectre of expectation built up be the words of Peter Molyneux ruining each experience before they begun. I think Fable III suffered from those promises going unanswered for so long that fans just rallied up to take it out on an alright game like that one, lambasting it for potential that the game could never honestly have achieved, because of the illusions created by another. The same could be said for 'Dragon Age: Inquisition', which was sold as a successor to 'Origins' but ended up being more similar to Mass Effect in it's style and presentation. Not bad, just not what was promised.

Meeting potential is as much an art of wrestling with the audience as it wrestling with oneself, because the very idea of 'potential' is as ethereal as a dream. You can't realistically compare one piece of art with the success and achievement of another and insist that someone should be able to create something just as important or exciting because that standard has been proven as possible. Art is twisting and shifting and implacable; if you try and limit it down to definitive values then you suck all the life out of the craft and end up being Ubisoft. And no one wants more Ubisoft's in the world. (I shudder at the thought.) Still, it is the very inner force of 'potential' that drives us to be the best that we feel we can be so as to not waste what is said to be at our very fingertips. My lesson? Be guided by potential, not battered by it's heft.

Video games in TV shows

You hate to see it.

We've all had that moment when we're watching our favourite TV show, completely engrossed, and then get pulled the heck out when the showrunners try their hand at representing a subject that you're infinitely more informed on. It's the reason why nurses have trouble with medical shows, lawyers have to push themselves through lawyer shows (On an unrelated note; Why is 'Lawyer show' a genre now? Surely only Matt Murdoch has a 'TV show worthy' law career.) and it is the reason that I internally cringe everytime a TV show tries to show a video game.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the idea of video gaming becoming more prominent in the public eye, but I've always maintained the philosophy of no half measures. If I have to write a blog on the advantages and real life applications of transhumanism, you'll bet that I'll put in the time and effort to research the topic, at least lightly. I may not acquire a doctorate on the subject, but I learn enough to be able to hold my own in conversation on the topic. (And I feel that is what's needed in situations like this, at the very least.) I rarely get the sense that these show writers have so much as picked up a controller in the past 20 years whenever these references get made.

Perhaps I am being a little bit of a spoilsport, or an arse, for insisting that people put in their due diligence when writing, but otherwise I feel you only serve to deliver disrespect to your audience and the community that you're shouting out. Yes, gaming is becoming more prominent in the world, but the general public are still judging their opinions on the pastime through what they're told in The News and what they see in shows. The News may be a lost cause but that doesn't mean the TV has to be too. And if you think I'm taking this matter a bit too seriously, do you remember those two much meme-ed fellows who showed up at the GTA V reveal event all those years ago? Those, much derided, men who remarked how their favourite part of the GTA franchise was beating up hookers for money? (A comment that was met with awkward laughter all-round.) That's the kind of moronic opinion that is formed from someone who's only exposure to gaming is second hand. Either that or the guy was a genuine wrongun. But I tend to err towards the benefit of the doubt towards people. (If I didn't I'd just spend all day wrapped in a ball praying for a Noachian disaster to wipe the Earth clean again.)

In the spirit of deriding the misinformed, I've picked out a few examples of gaming in media that I have seen within the sphere of content that I consume. Obviously, that means that there are a great many examples that I am unaware of or have missed, but I always prefer to go for something of the personal touch with this blog. Sure I could Google someone else's list, but that wouldn't be fun for me. Therefore, don't be upset if I've failed to mention an example you were thinking of, chances are I've never watched that show/movie in the first place.

Firstly, as it's so fresh in my mind, I'll like to talk about that scene from the latest series of Black Lightning. (Light spoilers.) So, easily the grittiest arrow-verse show in existence, and the only one capable of intelligently discussing social issues, (Sorry Supergirl writers, but you know it's true) Black lightning has never been a show to shy away from diving deep into topics. Things are so heavy that there's a few topics mentioned last series that I've not even comfortable about bringing up in this blog. With all that care and attention that goes into the writing, you'd have think they'd have made time to read up on the light stuff too.

Early on in Series 3, we find out that Jennifer Perice has been going undercover in order to break curfew and mingle with 'ordinary people'. (I swear half her character is about feeling like a 'freak'. Get over it already, sheesh.) Whilst out and about with her digital cloak on, Jen decides to partake in the most 'normal' activity she can think of; sitting alone in a diner playing mobile games. (Actually, if that's her idea of normal than maybe she is a freak.) Whilst minding her own business, the silly camera man panned up enough for me to make out her game; Super Mario Run. (That, Mr.Director, was your first mistake.) Whilst mid-game, a young individual notices her and decides to shoot his shot. He peeps over her phone screen and makes the most cursed remark one could make regarding a Mario game: "Are you winning or losing?" At Mario!? Excuse me friend, I think you've had too much to drink, your common sense is clearly draining out of your damn ears!

Now of course, I understand that my man was attempting to perform, what those who travel in the same circles as folk like Richard de Ruina might call, 'baiting the hook'. An essential step in the journey of basic pick-up artistry. However, neglecting the fact that "Are you winning or losing?" is one of the weakest one-hit pick-up lines that I've ever heard, the context of the line actually makes no sense. (Yes, I'm about to lay into this throwaway line. No, I will not "Just chill.") Firstly, this mans was clearly established to be a younger gentleman around about the same age to our focal character, Jen is still in highschool and her reported age is 16. (That was around about the time of the first series but this show has a weirdly imprecise depiction of the passage of time.) That would put this fellow in the age group of those who grew up with the Playstation 2 and the Nintendo Gamecube.

So did any Mario games come out with the Gamecube? Of course they did, this is Nintendo we're talking about! During it's lifetime the Gamecube saw the release of Mario Party 4, Mario Party 5, Mario Tennis, Mario Golf and a little game called Super Mario Sunshine. (As well as re-releases of older Mario titles.) We know that gaming is hobby enjoyed by the younger generations so to the point that a majority of American kids over the age of 18 admit to playing a least two hours a week. (According to market research conducted by 'Limelight Networks' earlier this year.) This would make the existence of Mario games impossible to miss for our thirsty diner patron, giving him no excuse of ignorance. Even if he wasn't an avid gamer (As I assume the writers were trying to imply with his milk-toast chat-up line) he would have enough ancillary knowledge about the Mario series to be aware that the core games are not competitive and therefore the question of whether or not Jen is 'winning or not' is not appropriately relevant to the state of the game. Checkmate writers who get paid crazy amounts of money to do what they love, get served by a unemployed loner with depressive tendencies! (What do you mean I'm reading too much into this? Okay, I won't go that deep on all of them...)

There are some properties and creators that tend to put a bit more effort when introducing gaming into their script, and one of those folks is the wonder duo, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park. Admittedly, one could argue that the reason for that is because South Park tends to take a hyper focused approached in the topic it's satirizing and thus they have to put the effort in to learn the facts so that they can inflate them for the jokes. Which is, of course, entirely true. But that doesn't mean that other types of shows can't learn from South Park and their 'actually research the thing' approach.

Of course, the classic South Park gaming episode would have to be 'Make Love, Not Warcraft' in which the kids become swept up in the craze that was World of Warcraft. I won't go into too much detail about the events, but needless to say it's all hilarious and they make appropriate mention of the 'addictive' nature of the game. Yes, they embellished and dramatized in certain areas of the gameplay but I have no problem with this, it's not accuracy that I'm looking for, it's a just a little bit of knowledge going behind the interpretation.

That being said, there is one episode that I take issue with. Or rather, not the episode itself but the way the bring gaming into it. (The episode is great.) In the 9th episode of season 18 '#REHASH', the South Park fellows tackle streaming and Pewdiepie even shows up to play himself. However, there is one scene which shows Kyle watching, and becoming considerably excited about, a stream featuring 'Dragon Age: Inquisition'. I even believe that the kids sit down and play it at the end of the episode. (Although I might be misremembering that from another episode.) Now, seeing as how none of these kids are older than 10, I find it particularly hard to believe that these children have the patience to play through, or even watch, a high fantasy tactical RPG game with a story revolving around the evolution of a militant/religious movement. (Sure, there are dragons and demons, but those are merely the background fodder.) I know it's just a setup for a joke based on the popular game of the time, but that scene always rubbed me odd and I needed to talk about it some day.

Speaking of scenes that rubbed me the wrong way, who remember when Jesse was playing RAGE on Breaking Bad? Discounting my immediate assessment of his taste in games, I couldn't help but be confused when I was watching through his gameplay in the episode. (You know, instead of watching the award winning drama that was playing out.) Where was the HUD? Why was everything on-the-rails? And why, in gods name, was Jesse controlling the thing with a light gun? (Yes, I know it was to create a visual link with violence and guns that would follow him to his every activity! I'm being facetious.) The answer was, of course, that this wasn't RAGE, merely a fake demo put together as a marketing trick to make sure that the game appeared on one of the most popular shows of all time. (The game itself wouldn't release for another 5 weeks.) Due to the weird history around this one, I'm a bit more forgiving to it's existence. It's fun to think about the on-the-rails RAGE demo that Id Software scrambled together for the Breaking Bad team. (Shame that the real game sucked.)

Finally, I wish to mention one of the most surprising gaming cameos in the general public's pop culture sphere that I have ever seen. Yep, I'm talking about the moment that Fortnite showed up in the biggest movie of all time; Avengers Endgame. Just to recap; Thor, distraught at his inability to reverse Thanos' snap, withdraws to New Asgard in order to eat himself into excess and become a coach potato. (An honourable profession in certain circles!) When he is introduced, it is in the middle of a Fortnite match on the Xbox, just to hammer in how pathetic the god of thunder had become. (That one hurt a little Marvel, I'm not gonna lie.)

Do you want to know what the worst thing is? The real kicker? This scene actually portrays Fortnite distressingly accurately. I mean, the scene is fairly short and throwaway so I'd be surprised if they did mess it up, but I've seen boomers do much worse with much less so this was commendable. I suppose this was likely due to the fact that Fortnite's appearance in the film was part of a two way brand deal between Epic and Disney. After Infinity War, Fortnite boasted a special event with a playable Thanos wielding his Infinity gauntlet, in return they got a shout-out in the follow-up movie. (And Fortnite got the go-ahead to do another crossover event after the movie. Seems Epic really got the better the end of this deal, if you ask me.)

Regardless of how much I "um" and "ah" whenever I see video games in pop culture, I must admit it does make me a little bit giddy to see my favourite pastime slowly seep into the mainstream. Everytime they get something wrong I groan but smile in the knowledge that they'll get it right one day. Or maybe they won't, I find it amusing either way so I don't sweat it that hard. Maybe the day when the mainstream actually understands what video games are and how they work, that will be the same day that we'll finally get a good video game movie. Although perhaps it's not fair to go that far. Afterall, they've already decided to give us another Tomb Raider movie.