MGS and CSI

[davidn]

My life tends to go through a set of stages in a cyclical pattern - sometimes I'll have extended periods when I'm in the mood for writing, musicianship or game-building (and you can tell which one I'm in by the relative number of posts I make to this journal or various other forums around the Internet). At the moment, after a brief spurt of activity on CT2, I think I'm slowing down again and am getting into the mood for creating... nothing in particular. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing, because it allows me to have some actual free time instead.

I don't know what all that nonsense was about above, but the point is that Whitney and I were in Gamestop the other day to pick out a couple of PS2 titles after it hasn't had much activity for a while. Now that the next generation of consoles are becoming this generation, it's not uncommon to find at least a couple of gems in the second-hand bin, and on this occasion I found Metal Gear Solid 3 for $10. Meanwhile, Whitney picked up a CSI game, which I promise you is called "Three dimensions of murder", from the other end of the store - a surprisingly quick visit.

America has a slightly ELSPA-like rating system for games (in that it's separate from the film classifications) in the ESRB ratings. And the people in Gamestop ask for my ID whenever I buy anything in the "M" category. Do I still look six years younger than I am? I know I'm short, but I even had a rubbish beard last time it happened. In addition, this time the woman at the till cheerily told us that they had a seven-day return policy, specifically in case we wanted to bring back CSI after playing more than five minutes of it. That's what I call thoughtful service.

When we got home from our other tasks of the day, Whitney's CSI game went on first. And, indeed, first impressions were that it was an abomination. It could be vaguely described as something that might have come out of point and click adventures if anyone did them any more, but with said pointer stuck in the centre of the screen and first-person shooter controls added instead. I have enough difficulty with FPS controls through dual analog sticks, and I think Whitney finds it totally impossible to point in the right direction half the time.

The game consists of going from location to location via a dull overlong control-explaining loading screen that looks like something that would have been stuck on a demo in a hurry, clicking on things and then using appropriate equipment to gather evidence (you're guided by a vague likeness of someone from the TV version during this, so that you don't attempt to do things like pick up blood using tweezers). After floating around bumping into everything and clicking on them, you then go back to the lab, where the 3D engine wheezes and puffs as it strains to show more than ten objects on the screen at once as you spin round looking for the right bit of equipment to piece together, pull apart or compare the things you've grabbed from the crime scene.

It's not fantastic by any means, but it seemed oddly interesting after a while, if only to see what incriminating things you'd find in new locations as you gathered likely addresses. Games based on TV programmes don't tend to work very well (I have difficult imagining how even Knightmare could be done decently) and there's only so much you can do with a format like this. Dull adventuring, then, to sum up, but we're unsure whether to return it just yet, and I think that's just about the highest praise you can give it.

I had a brief go at Metal Gear Solid 3 in the evening - this was something that had completely passed me by when it was released, and I'd only played the demo of it before. And I say I played it "briefly", but the actual game time on my save is two hours in - Hideo Kojima is known for his long cutscenes, but so far this game's been virtually nothing but them. I'm unsure how I feel about the lack of a radar in favour of a camouflage system and ability to look round a bit further than before - it would certainly required a change in tactics if it would let you actually play the game long enough to work anything out.

Even though it's cutscene-saturated, though, you have to admit they're good (when they're not just half-hour-long radio conversations, anyway). I particularly liked the introduction of not-Revolver-yet Ocelot and his Red Dwarf-style automatic pistol ricochet shooting. But I'm not sure if it's just because I'm older now or the token supervillains really are more ridiculous this time, but it really does seem from the introduction section that we're going to be fighting the X-Men (complete with a creepy hornet-summoner, an old man with bulgey eyes and someone who I've chosen to christen General Electric).

So far we've just gone through the start of what I thought was the game, then in true Kojima style it ripped us out of that and put us in a different one, so I don't actually know what it's about yet and will have to update this as soon as something interesting happens.

Comments

[kjorteo]

Okay, stop. I'm sorry, but as your friend, I simply have to intervene.

If you're thinking about something resembling a point-and-click adventure game format that involves crime/murder-related mystery solving, it's called the Phoenix Wright series, it's on the DS, and it's absolutely amazing. It does have a slightly unrealistic portrayal of the criminal justice system, in that it's apparently up to the defense attorney to do everything from investigating the scene and stealing every piece of evidence that isn't nailed down and using a crowbar to nab one or two that are, to singlehandedly having to build and solidify your entire case, burden-of-proof rules be damned. (It appears that in the Phoenix Wright world, the only real difference between the defense and prosecuting attorneys is that one prosecutes the defendant and--assuming the defendant is wrongly accused--the other prosecutes the actual true murderer.) However, you're playing CSI.

Plus, Phoenix Wright is just genuinely fun, lighthearted enough most of the time to write off all the hazing you go through as part of the humorous mood, but serious enough to actually deliver some shocking moments and profound elements of character development here and there. Phoenix Wright 3 in particular has a wonderfully complex nemesis, and just thinking about all that happened with him has stuck with me long after I actually beat the game, which is about the highest praise you can give to a character, I think. (You do have to go through them in order, though.)

[davidn]

I deny all responsibility for it! But I think Whitney is rather disinterested in it too, so hopefully I'll take it back later in the week and our game shelf will be free of duffers once again (I've been rather proud of that up to now).

I've heard a lot of good things about the Phoenix Wright series... mostly from you, I think... though I still have only a vague idea of what actually goes on in it. We don't own a DS as yet, but it would certainly be a handy thing to have for the subway... and I'd imagine she'd rather enjoy the Phoenix Wright games as well.

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

My shelf is relatively free of duffers, though I haven't actually played the worst one: The Punisher, for PS2, where the emphasis is on beating/shooting people up and then torturing the survivors for information.

Yeah... I'm not playing that.

[kjorteo]

The best way I can think to summarize the gameplay (I wouldn't recommend looking for videos, by the way, as Phoenix Wright has reached meme-like levels of popularity, so 95% of them are people goofing around with the sprites) is if someone made all those old Encyclopedia Brown/Two-Minute Mysteries books into a point-and-click adventure game.

You're a defense attorney around whom the world apparently revolves (even the homicide detective mostly seems to be there to serve as another person you talk to to get clues and cross-examine later, since it's really up to you to do all the detective-ing around these parts.) People have this way of being wrongfully accused of murder, so the games are broken up into a series of cases where you defend them. They're broken into two modes--an investigation-type phase where you wander around, click on things to examine them and grab clues (you're kind of a kleptomaniac when it comes to incredibly important evidence) and talk to people and otherwise basically try to piece together the mystery.

Then there's the courtroom phase, where the prosecutor parades out witnesses who testify against the defendant, and it's up to you to cross-examine them, which is where it becomes Encyclopedia Brown-style "which part of this story doesn't add up" in DS game format. (Conveniently, every criminal in the PW world seems to believe that posing as a witness and testifying against the guy they're trying to frame to help put him away is the best strategy.) Their testimonies are usually broken up into about six to eight different one-or-two-sentence points...something like:

I was closing up the shop, like I usually do at 10:00.
Suddenly, I heard a loud noise!
I went over to the window, and saw what looked like a fight.
Then, the defendant ran away.
I knew it was him because I recognized the clothing.

Cross-examining usually involves looking at your inventory...sorry, your Court Record for something that contradicts a part of the testimony, scrolling to that particular part, and using...sorry, presenting the evidence that contradicts it. So, if I had an autopsy report that says the victim died at 7:30, I'd scroll to the very first point ("I was closing up..") and present it there (why would the victim be fighting with someone who died two and a half hours beforehand? Dun dun DUNNNNN) and it would continue from there.

Then, there's usually an overarching story with the main characters that gets built on between the cases ("Why does this prosecutor seem so hellbent on beating me in court at any cost, to the point of dropping whatever else he may be doing just to take whatever case I happen to be defending again and again?") The seriousness level of the series is masterful--it's lighthearted enough in general to make a game about solving five murder mysteries in a row not be depressing (and watch for every minor non-main character having a name that's a stupid pun, and things like random pop-culture references in some of the dialogue) but it can get surprisingly profound when fleshing out the overarching story and relationships between the main characters and all that.

Anyway, yes. Highly recommended.

[davidn]

I'd meant for ages to say thanks for the giant description of this - it does sound like the kind of thing I'd like. It's strange you should mention the Encyclopaedia Brown and Two-Minute Mysteries books in particular, because I've no idea if they ever became anywhere near as known in Britain as they are in America, but I did read a few of them and they're now stored in my parents' basement somewhere. I remember some of the Two Minute Mysteries books having particularly unlikely solutions (one involved having to know that on the telephone system in Somewhere Or Other, only the originator of a call can hang up) - but the main character's name is totally escaping me, and I only remember that it was something foreign. I will look it up just after hitting this button.

[kjorteo]

Dr. Haledjian! I can't believe I still have that memorized after all these years.

[stubbleupdate.livejournal.com]

Objection! (http://www.biggercheese.com/index.php?comic=734)

[pookatimes.livejournal.com]

Referring to your last few paragraphs, the best game for that sort of thing is undoubtedly Batman Begins - the cutscenes are often part of the game, with speech of characters - and Alfred's voice giving Bats advice - happening while you control him. There's rarely an actual cutscene that lasts any more than a few seconds.