So I just glanced at the pre-E3 stuff on Gamespot and behold: in-game footage from Mortal Kombat vs. DC. I don't know how this thing ever got the green light. I'll grant that I've never liked Mortal Kombat in the first place, but this in particular simply doesn't look appealing.
Actually, has there been a DC game since the 8-bit days that was any good? It's upsetting that nothing comes to mind. A couple of months ago I got the notion of a free-roaming Batman game and was pleased to see in an interview in the May issue of Game Informer that someone in the industry, Todd Howard -- project leader of Morrowind, no less -- has the same idea. I'd only gone as far as imagining a completely free-roaming Gotham and crime-solving gameplay, however; Howard has even more gameplay features in mind, like a "vigilante" rating that determines how much the police force trusts you. One can only hope such an awesome concept should actually come into being; unfortunately, the best we can hope for is LEGO Batman.
Another game concept I had envisioned (like some kind of cyber seer) was the free-running simulator. I'd actually imagined it as a racing game that friends could compete in, but DICE's Mirror's Edge will do. First person acrobatics are something to be wary of (see "first person jumping puzzles" under the third commandment) and I think what I really want is a evolved spin-off of Prince of Persia's gameplay, but this game is too intriguing to go unnoticed. I'd initially been turned off to the first images I saw of the game, which rely too much on a futuristic style that comes off as being oddly bland. The feeling is emphasized by the story trailer they released recently which looks like an ugly Esurance reject. I stand by my opinion that the game's style (though certainly not the graphics) is ugly, especially the character design, but when I watched the gameplay footage, I realized that the blandness of the environment serves an important purpose: objects that are brightly colored -- red waterworks pipes, blue sky roofs, orange paint -- stand out against the overwhelming white sterility of the rest of the world and direct you on a subconscious level through each "level." And this has forced me to acknowledge that this is a fully-realized project, one that isn't only about the superficiality of action and generic sci-fi yarns, but one that has themes that reside in not only the story element but the gameplay too. It's surprising to see such a thing spawned from a developer that has produced naught but licensed games and an apparently endless stream of Battlefield sequels, but it's just as encouraging as surprising and I hope the game turns out great.
1 comment:
This really isn't that different than Marvel Vs. Capcom conceptually. Granted, there hasn't been a good Mortal Kombat since they went full 3D. (I rather enjoyed the originals.)And the only "good" DC game in my memory was the Batman Returns beat-em-up on the Sega Genesis. But that's it, and even then, it was just a brawler. I'm not sure what it is with DC and making terrible games. I certainly like their roster of heroes much better than Marvel's but for some reason they seem compelled to go with horrendous developers when they think of a game.
And if you ever take my addition of the word "dumb" onto things I will cut your face.
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