Someone trying to create a successful video game has a difficult task ahead of them.  They must constantly be mindful of the balance between innovation and gameplay.  You can make a finely crafted game that simply rehashes old themes and styles seen hundreds of times before, and people will accuse you of being just out to make money.  You can innovate too much, and people won’t be able to relate to or appreciate your game.  Now, this isn’t to say that heavily leaning in one direction or the other and not be successful.  Gears of War, for instance, is a textbook example of a game focused on gameplay.  Controls are tight, and it’s pretty.  It’s also about as common as a MySpace spam profile.  It did well, and I imagine it’s because gameplay is the safer of the two sides to lean to.

That brings us to Alone in the Dark, Atari’s attempt at resurrecting the beloved franchise.  If you haven’t played the old ones, please check them out.  The series was the true beginning of the Survival Horror franchice, and the first real attempt at making a game designed to scare its player.  This modern version takes a more action approach than its predecessors, creating an End of Days meets Prince of Darkness scenario involving an amnesiac Edward Carnby, a downright apocalyptic Central Park, and a plot to raise Lucifer himself.  There are numerous points and experiences in the game that seem custom made to feel epic, raising your hackles and bringing you to the edge of your seat.  I found myself saying “holy crap” at some of the things I was seeing throughout the game.  The plot, while hackneyed in spots, stays for the most part compelling, and should have little trouble keeping all but the most jaded horror fan at least interested enough to continue on.  Additionally, the DVD ‘chapter skip’ function, in which you can effortlessly move back and forth to individual points in a particular stage, adds not only as relief from frustrating points, but also a method to share with friends.  If I want someone to see a particularly neat moment, I need only go back to near that exact moment and relive it, instead of keeping multiple saves or playing through tedious extra parts just to get to that scene.

The game is not without its flaws though, and those flaws are glaring.  The control scheme is frustrating at best, with numerous incongruous actions tied to the same button (for instance; running, interacting with the environment, picking up items, and turning on your flashlight are all tied to the A button).  You can switch from first to third person at will, but movement in third person is clunky and difficult to do precisely.  I really think, with the general public as familiar as they are with a dual analog stick controller, that the old Resident Evil-style ‘tank controls’ need to be done away with.  So many innovations in this game revolve around you feeling like you are truly in Edward’s shoes (the viewable inventory and wounds system, hotwiring cars, most interactive set pieces), and to add in this type of control set hurts what the other steps have created.  Some of the physics are also broken, most notably in the few mandatory driving segments.  Several times during my game, the car would careen off, flipping into the air after hitting some invisible obstacle.  Sufficient weight wasn’t given to cars and other objects, making them like cardboard set pieces.  The game feels, as a whole, unpolished.  A few more trips to QA could have made this game a blockbuster.  As it is, it feels like a very expansive demo.

A simple trip to MetaCritic shows that this game has become a divided issue among game reviewers.  I think the question that divides them is how much credit you are willing to give the developers for trying new directions.  As it stands, the problems are frustrating, but only that.  I have not seen anything that was gamebreaking.  This may still turn off many gamers, and that is their prerogative.  It is, in fact an unpolished experience, with several flaws that can take away from your enjoyment of the experience.  On the other hand, it tries several interesting new things in the game, adding to immersion and making it feel exciting.  At worst, the game is a failed experiment in breaking new ground.  At least, it is a warning letter to other developers; “We may have missed the mark, but we and others will build on this.  There is never a time to rest comfortably.  We must always redefine what we are doing to make it.”

In the meantime, I'll leave you with a list of links to my favorite internet time wasters that are non-horror related. When I'm bored at home, work, or the local Starbucks, these are the sites I'm surfing to for some mild stimulation. This should tide you over for a few days. Enjoy and see you next week!

Office Tally - for fans of "The Office"

Keith and The Girl - The best podcast...ever

D-Listed - I'm a sucker for down and dirty celeb gossip

Twitter - Because I'm soooooo interesting

Entertainment Weekly - The Pop Watch blog is great

Mugglenet - Shut up, I like Harry Potter

TV Squad - Intensive television news/reviews/information source

Hulu - I love Hulu so much, I want to marry it

CNN - Because Cincinnati TV News Anchors are hideously ugly. I shouldn't have to waste my time looking at them.

On Episode 107 of our podcast, we got into a heated discussion about the 1951 Robert Wise film The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the film, an alien named Klaatu visits planet Earth on a peaceful mission and is welcomed by a suspicious and aggressive American military that shoots first and asks questions later. Understandably, this leaves a bad taste in Klaatu’s mouth for earthlings and confirms his prior assumption that we are warmongering animals that should not be allowed to continue to live among the peaceful intergalactic community. The gist of the sides of the debate amongst the NOTLP Crew was pro-intergalactic policing versus anti-intergalactic policing. Fans of Gort and Klaatu’s anti-aggression stance were quick to point out that world peace is a good thing and ask why one would think the promise of a golden age with no war could be a bad thing. Some of us, me included, thought the concept of being policed by an inhuman machine that was willing to obliterate an entire species because of their “warlike” ways was at its best hypocritical and at its worst genocidal.

I had seen the film a number of times before watching it for this most recent episode of NOTLP, but this viewing had a different impact on me. Before, I had considered The Day the Earth Stood Still the same as I would a feature length episode of “The Twilight Zone” TV series. It had a clear anti-war message, and it effectively made its audience stop to consider their place in the universe. As a nation, we were barely into the peacetime that followed World War II, and we were already embroiled in a “cold” war with the Soviet Union and on the brink of sending forces to both Korea and Vietnam. It raises an important question - Can the human race ever stop fighting wars with one another? How would we cope if compelled by all-powerful force to do so?

I really began to wonder what happened the day after the Earth stood still. Would we as a species make it to the end of that next day, or would Gort destroy our planet because a suicide bomber somewhere on our planet didn’t care to follow his rules? How is this different that the United States pointing long range nuclear missiles at “problem” countries and compelling them to “behave themselves” or face fallout? Is it acceptable because Klaatu and Gort are from a different planet where they bow down to robot overlords that they compel all of planet Earth to do the same? Aren’t they just looking out for the greater good? Where do we draw the line? Is an end to war enough? What about poverty and indifference to the homeless and starving inhabitants of our planet? Should we be threatened with obliteration for all of our less than satisfactory and humane proclivities?

These are important questions to consider in a world where many of us are sacrificing some of our civil liberties for a safer nation and world. Please visit our discussion board and tell us what you think.