Back to the Job Hunt AND "The Simple Truth of the 'Are Video Games Art?' Debate"

So I'm giving up on the QA Job in Montreal. Trying to figure out visas just proved to be to much of a hassle for me. I was feeling the urge to hit my head on the desk every time I attempted to work on it so I gave up. I'm now back to the job hunt.

I posted this as a sample article for examiner.com and they want to "hire" me because of it so I thought I'd share it with all of you. I usually stay out of the "Are Video Games Art?" debate but I figured I'd weigh in on it for examiner.com to see if they'd like to hire me and hey it worked so here's the sample article for you to enjoy:

Can Video Games be considered art? There is a lot of debate surrounding this subject both for the “Yes it is art” side as well as the “No it is not and never will be” counter argument. There are a lot of experts and celebrities weighing in on the subject, from Roger Ebert the film critic to Samoa Joe the wrestler. It is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong at the moment because the debate is so heated and could sway in either direction at the moment.

However, there is one thing that could definitely help the “Yes it is art” side. And that is, surprisingly enough, History. Many years ago the motion picture was invented. It didn’t do anything of any real artistic value. It was used to record two people sharing a kiss or a man sneezing. By modern standards these movies would hardly warrant being posted on YouTube, unless the two people were considered incredibly attractive or the man sneezed milk out of his nose. But even still they probably wouldn’t get many hits.

Time went on and movies became more complicated and eventually were considered art. Then came Rock n’ Roll. When Rock n’ Roll first debuted it wasn’t considered art. It was considered the Devil’s music and a travesty to music as it was known around the world. Then in the 90’s the same thing happened with Rap music. But they have both, more or less, become respected art forms now.

Video Games are at the same precipice. Hated by the older, more conservative, art aficionados and loved by the younger generations. If History repeats itself than Video Games will be considered art eventually. If for no other reason than the younger generation will outlive the aficionados.

I hope you enjoyed that little sample article. I could have written much more about this topic but the article was supposed to be 200-300 words and I was pushing 300 as it was. Who knows maybe this examiner job will turn out to be so rewarding that I'll become a professional blogger about Video Games. You can do that and earn a decent wage right?

Assassin's Creed for the PS3

Perhaps I should apologize for all the PS3 games I've been reviewing recently. However, I'm currently in the process of moving and the PS3 is the only system I have hooked up and have games to review with. So on with the review!



Concept: 5/5

This has been one of the more refreshing game concepts I have seen in a while. The game is set in the crusades but my first thought for a crusades based game would be to have it be an RTS or a hack and slash 3rd Person action game. And while Assassin's Creed is a 3rd Person action game it's not a hack and slash game. It's a, more or less, stealth game. I enjoy this concept because I do not think of subtlety or stealth when I think of the Crusades I just think of big massive armies. Then you take the game idea a step further when you add the concept of the main character is actually "reliving" his ancestor's memories that have been stored in his genes.

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are pretty good. I have two complaints about them and one is more of a personal issue that I'm sure other people had no problem with and in fact I'm not even sure how I feel about it. It's such a strange nit pick that it's sort of in limbo for me when it comes to my opinions. This "complaint" is that the HUD that the player uses is all very technical and futuristic looking. Which does make sense, considering that the main character is using a sci-fi machine to "relive" his ancestor's memories. But when playing through his ancestor's memories I get so immersed in the crusade era that when I see the futuristic HUD it kind of jars me and reminds me of all these other things about the game taking me out of my little circle of the crusades. So yeah that's a pet peeve, maybe others share that maybe they don't I don't know. My other complaint is clipping issues. On a number of occasions when climbing a wall Altair's arm would stick straight through his body to hold onto a handhold. When it first happened I thought his arm had been chopped off in a sword fight and I didn't notice. But I quickly realized what had actually happened and put it down to complain about later.

Sound: 4/5

The sound like most games to me, is the sound. I do not find the sound to be amazing or terrible. It simply is. So I give it a slightly more than average rating to signify that the sound designers did a good job on the immersion of it all without distracting me.

Playability: 4/5

The climbing walls mechanic is great, I absolutely love it. I've played a few other games that have wall climbing and they didn't do it well to the point where it became annoying to climb walls. But in Assassin's Creed I found myself preferring to climb walls and go in a straight line rather than try to navigate the city streets.

Now the gameplay does get a little repetitive. But if you find this to be particularly annoying to you than you can actually avoid most of the repetition. This is because you have to go to a section of the city and do certain deeds before you can assassinate your target. But you only have to do these deeds, which are the same every time basically, 2 or 3 times. If you want to 100% complete the game and do everything there is to do in the game than you have to do it 6 or so times in each area of the city you unlock. So if the repetitive nature of the game is getting to you don't try and 100% it. I actually found doing all of the tasks over and over again a bit relaxing and therapeutic.

Now the combat is a little less likable than some of the other parts of the game. To make the importance of staying secretive when assassinating people and to not just hack and slash through the entire population of the cities the developers actually gave the guards brains so that they know how to use their swords and actually fight. This is true enough to the extent that I quickly stopped attacked and relied on the one move that the guards didn't have. Counter-Attack. All my little battles and skirmishes quickly became, "wait for it... wait for it... wait for it... There! He's attacking me press the counter-attack button! Oh it didn't kill him, just knocked him down... oh well maybe next time... wait for it..." I think you get the picture.

This made the combat a bit simplistic and a little boring. I mean the developers gave me a sword, a dagger, throwing knives, a hidden blade, and the ability to punch people. But when in combat all I ended up doing was pulling out my dagger or sword and waiting for someone attacking me to make the first move so I could use their own attacking against them. Basically waiting for an opening. Now this is probably a great way to fight in the real world. But it's a pretty dull way to play a game.

Entertainment: 4/5

Regardless of any complaints I have made about the playability. This game is quite entertaining. Learning the secret plans of the Templar and finding little clues and things to interact with and decode through out the game was quite entertaining and brought me back to when I was a kid and love to try and decode things and solve puzzles. This is probably the first game in a long while that has gotten me to pull out a pad of paper and decode a secret message or jot down some passcodes, which was not necessary but I did it anyway. It made me feel young and giddy again.

Plus I had some people that would come and watch the game for a bit, intrigued by the secret plans and stories that the game was telling. If you want to know if a game is entertaining, getting people to watch you play even though you're the one playing not them, is a great way to tell.

X-Factor: 4/5

Assassin's Creed definitely has an X-Factor. Even now I want to go back and perhaps not play through the whole game again but take a look at some of the clues, puzzles, or perhaps it's gibberish, and try and figure out if there's a code or hidden message. Try and find some new little bit of knowledge that I can learn. The X-factor is so strong that it makes me just want to walk around in the game not just play it again.

Total: 25/30

Amazing. Assassin's Creed is definitely a game to pick up. You may not love this game but it's definitely one of those games that if you on a PS3 or an Xbox 360 you need to get this game, if for no other reason than to have it in your library. Because it's going to be considered a classic of the current generation of consoles.