Story twists in Games

Yes, I know I'm late. Yes, I have a million reasons. Yes, I know you don't care to hear them. Let's move on. :)

So one of the things I get excited about (#2) is story twists - especially in games. The parts where you see everything come together and just completely shift the course of the story. Sometimes these things work and sometimes they don't, but just the fact that they're in the game already makes me giddy. See, I got into gaming for the same reason I got into books: I want to go on a journey. I want to leave my room and go somewhere else and everything that pulls me towards that is awesome; everything that pushes me back into feeling the seat I'm sitting on isn't. The fact that the stories are getting more involved and more prominent in games is awesome. Now of course, everyone's idea of being taken away is different. But we won't go there. Instead, I'm going to list a couple of twists that make me react the moment they come into remembrance.

Three things to note:

1. Spoilers will be present if you haven't played the game. If you're planning to, take a skip. In a lot of them I still try to stay really vague. So those who haven't played the games and still read the parts might not actually get everything either and end up going WTF?
2. I don't own a Playstation. So I can't comment on PS games. I haven't played Uncharted (which I hear is awesome and the reason Tomb Raider has been MIA for the past couple of years) and I haven't played Hard Rain (which I hear has an awesome twist in it). So don't whine about me not mentioning a zillion games that Sony was too hard assed to share, okay? Okay! If Sony comes up with a decent controller that doesn't end up hurting my hands, I'll consider buying it. Until then... toughies. They're not getting my money. I'm sure I can hear them sobbing in a corner somewhere.
3. Both good twists and bad twists in here. Those that are the most memorable to me.

Knights of the Old Republic (2003) - The revealing of Darth Revan


KoTOR remains one of my favourite games of all time. The way they hinted yet still managed to leave the punch of who Revan was up until the 'right' time is just sheer brilliance. And when the player finally gets told and the sequence gets played showing you all the little seeds dropped along the way... Wow.

Mass Effect 2 (2010) - The Beginning


So there BroShep (as the male version of Shepard is called) stands looking pretty on the front cover of the game you have just purchased. You eagerly launch the game, smile as you see the Normandy again (say, did Joker get fat? Presley never looked better!) and then the Collectors attack and your heroes are horribly outgunned. But wait! Mass Effect 2 can't be ten minutes long! There must be an out somewhere right? Shepard's going to pull something out of his pocket and save the day, right? Right?! And then they give you this:

Whhhhhaaaaaaaatttt?!

Mass Effect 2 = awesome. Just so you know.

Call of Duty 4 (2007) - The nuke


I'm not really an FPS type of gal... especially if my foes are monsters or animals. But oddly, give me something like SWAT or a war game or something like that and I'm all too happy playing the whole day. I don't think it's a wonderful reflection on myself that I don't mind shooting human-looking (and sane! Sane is important!) characters and yet a killing spiders and monsters freak me out... but there you go.

CoD games aren't really known for their story. They tend to be simple "That dude's bad. He's planning bad stuff. We have a million things to do to stop baddie. Here's a gun. Go!"

"Sir! Yes, sir!"

But they are trying to put more into it and they did some interesting things in CoD 4: Modern Warfare. The most shocking one of them all though is having one of your soldiers (yes, you play a few) go through this:

I remember sitting there, my heart in my throat, my eyes wide as my character got out of the helicopter. I remember thinking: There must be somewhere I should go. Come on, just keep moving. I watched my character stumble, but he was still trying, still fighting on and then...

Still one of the moments where the world stops once it comes to mind.

Mass Effect 3 (2012) - Running to the beam


I'm still planning on commenting on the whole game at some point. This is one of the final moments in the game where the stakes are still incredibly high. Whenever you hear of "the last ten minutes" that were so horrible, this is the last bit before that ;)

So what happens? It's the last big push, the last big race. You're goal is to get to the beam, then all will be saved. So many people dead by this point, so much tension, so many crazy reaper-modded creatures fought off and then, stomach as hard as a rock, you run and try to avoid the evil red lights...

The XBox version has no second pause before you meet a red light. It's just bam. I remember doing something like a choked cry when my controller suddenly came to life in my hand. And then you get up and you're as determined as Shepard to get to the beam...

... it's just a pity that, in hindsight, both you and Shepard should've avoided that bloody white beam completely.

Far Cry 2 (2008) - The Ending


So Far Cry 2 isn't getting a vid. That would be because there are too many bits that make up the end to just chuck in together. Plus, I couldn't find a decent one. Teehee.

I was a little awestruck by Far Cry 2. In it they managed to create an awesome African landscape, grass that shifts and moves with a life of its own, animals that run around dumbly... okay no, I didn't like the animal so much for the fact that they were dump, but they were pretty. I LOVED that some of the mercenaries were shouting at me in my language. I giggled every time I heard them. And it wasn't just that they were shouting at me in my language, they also were native speakers. Seriously, that was awesome and I loved it.

The story is surprising and a bit baffling though.

After all your fighting through everything, you basically end up with diamonds that the people you fought with want... and so you have to kill all of them (WHAAAAAT?) and then the dude you were sent to kill tells you how the two of you are wretchedly broken and need to die. You're given two options. Either be blown up by dynamite or cross a border with a brief case full of diamonds and shoot yourself.

.......... o-kay....?

It was weird, but it definitely was a twist. It was the creepiest thing ever watching from first person how 'my' hand bringing a gun to 'my' temple... *shudders*

Portal 2 (2011) - GLaDOS, Wheatley and Caroline

Wheatley, I wuv you!!!

Portal 2 is an awesome game. It needs to be gushed about somewhere in future. What could've been a horribly boring game was given a story that made it absolutely awesome. Plus the whole thing left you rewarded. But as I've said, gushing later.

Why did you betray me, you little bastard!

The story has moments that are truly poignant and surprising. The character you love from the first moment betrays you horribly. If ever there was a story about power corrupting characters, this would be the one to tell that rather well.

And then there's GLaDOS. Evil, crazy, demented GLaDOS whom Chell had ripped into iddy biddy pieces and thrown into a furnace in the previous game. She isn't quite as happy about being treated so unkindly for some reason... And of course, she's looking for the perfect way to kill you because of that little stunt you pulled way back when.

That is until Wheatley gets pissed off and puts her in a potato battery. *laughs*

Heart Cube!! *huggles*

But no, the awesome story doesn't stop there. Down in the bowels of Aperture Science, you and potato GLaDOS (who has developed a healthy hatred for birds) come to discover where the crazy AIs actually came from. The origins of GLaDOS - and the end of Caroline - is a masterstroke... and actually really sad in a way. The change in the AI's personality or at least her reactions towards you is remarkable.

I'm still not convinced GLaDOS managed to get rid of Caroline. Are you?

Force Unleashed 2 - The Clones
What on earth were they thinking?

So there you have Starkiller in all his awesomeness, making himself look pretty in a game that takes a complete step away from the SW cannon - since hey, you're supposed to be dead, what's up with that? The whole time, Galen is trying to figure out who he is. He has memories of the Galen of Force Unleashed, and for the most part that's who he believes he is. Surely he cannot be a clone. Since when can force sensitivity exist in a clone? Wouldn't that be completely crazy and make you ask questions like 'So then why did the Sith not just clone a crazy number of themselves to wipe out all the Jedi?' or 'Why didn't the Jedi clone themselves during the Clone Wars (hey, the fad was there) or after when ol' Palpatine went all Order 66 on them?'

Imagine all the little crazy Yodas that could be jumping around and speaking in awful English.

Absolutely preposterous.

They have to pull something amazing out of their hats. This must be a feint. Just you wait! Just you...

Damn, really?

The whole clone thing caught me off guard. Therefore, while not completely fitting in with the idea of a twist. It was pretty much one for me compared to most of the SW canon I was aware of at the time.... and what I'm still aware of, to be honest.

Prince of Persia 4 (2008) - Elika


So for you who can't figure out which Prince of Persia this is referring to, it's the one that should've been the start of the second trilogy and ended up tanking the series. Yes, that one.

It had its faults, but it had one helluva story. I'm sad to see them not continuing and making a sequel that would have addressed all the issues that the first had. Oh well...

So the beautiful Elika is seeking to undo a terrible wrong her father has done onto the world. Our handsome Prince (who isn't actually a prince, but anyhoo), quite taken with the Princess decides to help her. They leap through various sections of Elika's home, finding the fertile grounds in each which Elika - with unique powers not explained until much later - can revitalize and so lock in what daddy dearest let loose. Throughout all of this, the most interesting part of the story is the relationship that develops between the two protagonists as both shares hopes and longings. The whole time Elika seems hesitant to dream with Prince about life after this adventure. By the end you know why.

A second play through of this game was needed as I sat and listened through all the hints Elika gave. Despite all that was against PoP4, damn, it was actually a brilliant story twist.

SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST


Bioshock (2007) - The big reveal

'Would you kindly?' has never been the same since I've played Bioshock. It took me several years to get to the point of playing it and even while playing I was totally tempted to switch it off (creeeeepppyyyy!!). But the world drew me in. I was scared through most of it. Scared of the water rushing into Rapture, scared of the crazy people (seriously, the amount of times all kinds of frightened girly sounds came rushing out of my mouth while my character ran away from cackling crazy people is incalculable), just scared of everything.

And yet, I HAD to keep going. I HAD to find out what was going on. Why was my character there? What's up with these people? What's at the heart of it all?

This is the best twist in video gaming I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. And the creepiest, unpleasant thing I've had to witness in a game.

Babble: Marvel's The Avengers

Wow, where to begin?

If you’ve been watching the Marvel movies, you’ll know that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been busy behind the scenes (mostly behind the credits) to assemble heroes for a special team. The time has come that these heroes band together to take on something none of them can fight alone: Loki and hordes of creatures that I’m not comic book geeky enough to know.

As I said above, I am not a comic book geek. I think that mostly was due to the fact that I was never really exposed to them and then I moved to this geek wasteland… and yeah. But I followed the mainstream stuff. I knew who Iron Man was and the Incredible Hulk. I had no clue who Thor was until the recent movie (I knew there was a comic about Thor, but nothing beyond that). And of course, who could not know about Captain America? I still remember a platform game with him throwing his shield all around the place. As for the Avengers… I knew the name, knew it was kinda like the Justice League Marvel style but nothing beyond that.

I was excited about this movie though (Ooh! I have another thing to add to my 100 things list!). And the reason I was excited was that Joss Whedon was going to run the show. That instantly made Marvel’s The Avengers a must-see movie for me.

At the same time I was sceptical. There would be so many obstacles to climb over in a movie like this. I didn’t really know whether one could actually make a hit from it. Let’s just have a look:

• You have six Avengers, four of which are power houses with their own fan base. I don’t know how popular Hawk Eye and Black Widow are… I didn’t know about them at all, but anyway. So for each of the Avengers, you’ll need to give a particular amount of time depending on how the story is shaped. Seeing as this movie was about assembling the Avengers for the first time, and not about only one particular Avenger, one would think that all of them would get close to the same time.

• The story would need to touch on the movies made before. With Iron Man you have to have Pepper there; with Thor there has to be some reference of his separation from Jane; with Captain America you have to make sure everyone knows he wasn’t smart enough to turn his plane around.

• You have a cast of established actors – some of which aren’t even part of the Avengers – whom each need their face time
  

• Being a Marvel movie, the story needs to be action packed and entertaining while also taking all of the points above into account.

That’s one massive challenge.

I’d like to think Joss and his crew kicked ass and did it in style. He made the Avengers three dimensional, each with personal issues, their own way of thinking and talking which are unique to each them. They’re all flawed, as they should be, but without melodrama. No one was left behind in terms of character progression and that in itself is one helluva feat.

The story was engaging. I did feel that it they started it off slow – which was actually necessary given the amount of exposition they had to do – but the end was also really fast. There were some things that just ‘worked’ too quickly but then the movie was already over two hours long and taking ten minutes to establish one particular moment would have been a waste of time that they didn’t have.

The movie had a great deal of visual effects – some breath taking, others hardly noticeable and then a LOT of flying monsters.

In the end, all I really cared about was the characters and Joss knows how to take care of his characters. Well, those he doesn’t kill off. He is Joss after all. I loved what they did with the Thor-Loki arc. While not my ‘favourite’ hero (although, sjoe! He’s yummy! Ahem…) Joss really did something special with the two brothers. I also absolutely loved the Hulk’s “puny god” moment with Loki – a Joss special if ever there was one. It was very cartoony, but I was laughing so hard I couldn’t care.

Funny, action-packed, engaging and incredibly entertaining – Joss managed to make something unique and exciting. He has definitely set a really good stage for future sequels. I just hope the next writer/director doesn’t mess it up.

I’m definitely buying this one when it comes out on dvd.

A shout out for Lisa Lassack who was involved with editing the movie. I was so happy to see her in the credits. She’s the fifth geek of the Geekson crew and she’s awesome.

100 Things

 

A friend of mine pulled me towards this notion of blogging about a 100 things. You get to choose a subject and then do a hundred posts on that. See more here. There are no time limits, no ‘have to’s and don’ts. It can take a week or a year or ten years.

I’ve decided I’m going to sprinkle some of these things into this blog because the whole idea behind it is to talk about things that interest me and basically to share whatever nonsense comes to mind.

My list will definitely fit into that description:

100 things that make me excited.

I think that, as a geek, this won’t be a difficult list and it could end up being very broad in scope.  Also, I could end up babbling about books, movies, tv shows and games which will fit what I’ve been doing here anyway whooo!

So let me start off since I’m here.

#1 – Excited about getting excited.

As much as I can be the one who’ll bounce around giddily about some kind of random subject that sparked my interest, it doesn’t happen nearly enough in my opinion. So when I do actually stumble onto something that gets me that excited, I take a moment to savour the feeling. I get excited about the idea of things making me excited. It’s like the explorer who longs for the feeling he has when he has discovered something.

It’s silly and odd, but there you go.