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Apr 6th, 2017 at 00:24:24 - Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (PS4) |
This game ruined my life. I am wrecked. WTF. I was not ready for the plot twist at all, but then it happened and I was sobbing like a baby. I hate this game and I'm swearing off all video games for the rest of my life because of it. Okay, not really, but I don't even play games and this is what I chose and what I am exposed to?!?!!?
In all seriousness, I am really glad this was the last game I picked to play for the class. It had a wonderful storyline and was super creative in terms of the chapters. I seriously was not expecting that ending at allllll! *SPOILER ALERT* So, essentially BrotherS: A Tale of Two Sons turns into Brother: A Tale of One Son because the older brother dies!! LIKE WHAT EVEN HOW DOES A CHARACTER WHO HAS BEEN THERE THE ENTIRE GAME DIE?!!! ALL BECAUSE HE WAS STUPID AND WANTED TO FLIRT WITH A GIRL WHO TURNED OUT TO BE AN EVIL SPIDER BIATCH! The creators did a really good job of tugging at the heartstrings of players with the sad music in the background, and the way the younger brother cried in the rain and slowly walked with his head down while burying his brother. The first thing I thought of when the older brother died was how the little brother is going to swim now that his older brother isn't there for him to hang on to, so once the little brother got to a river and was scared and crying, again came the waterworks. I loved how the little brother then had to use the older brother's controls to do things on his own that he would have had to do with his brother in the past. Seriously so creative and emotional. I loved it and I hated it for doing that to me.
So obviously in the end the dad survives... but at what cost????? The younger brother is definitely going to come out of that situation traumatized. He saw it all. He witness dead giants, hanging people, and a spider kill his own brother. There weren't really any ethical decisions that had to be made by players of this game, but it did do a good job at shedding light on Virtue Ethics as well as the Ethics of Care. Again, the theme of love and family is SOOO important in this game. If the players were impartial to all characters of the game like some ethical theories prompt us to be, then the game would not have been nearly as emotional and interesting as it was. I love how the entire game is depicted through just body language and gibberish yet it could still evoke such strong emotions. TRULY POWERFUL. 5/5. Definitely my favorite game played in this class and probably in life? Everyone should play this, but at the risk of feeling a bit sad after (like I am right now and will probably be for 5938 days to come. No one talk to me. Thanks).
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Apr 1st, 2017 at 21:57:16 - Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (PS4) |
I found out that this game was released in 2013, which explains why the graphics seemed unappealing in comparison to the Witcher III, which was released two years later. The background graphics of this game with its landscapes are pretty detailed, but there's just something about the way the characters are rendered that irks me.
I realized after playing for about an hour and a half today that this game reminds me of the last one I played for this class, which was Thomas Was Alone. This is because in Thomas Was Alone, the AI characters must work together to advance through the stages and that also applies in this game. The brothers have to work together and each use their skills and capabilities to advance through the map.
Today, I finished the chapter with the trolls or ogres or whatever those creatures are and now I am currently at the chapter where the brothers have flown to a castle looking thing and are inside it, but it is falling apart. This new chapter requires a lot of coordination because the brothers are tied to each other and need to swing from their brother to catch on to things. It's challenging at times because I was holding down four buttons and had to remember which button to hold and let go of without having them fall and die.
Again, what was apparent throughout gameplay today is the theme of love and cooperation. It's interesting to note that even though there is no English spoken in the game (just gibberish), the body language of the characters help to illustrate what is going on. Even in the trolls who aren't human, we see that they are capable of care for each other and for the brothers, seen when the troll gets the brothers to the cave and finds its lover. In addition, the brothers face countless dangers such as the wild wolves, the malfunctioning airplane, the waterfall, and the evil troll and come near death, yet their will to find the cure for their father does not falter. I think this ties along with the Ethics of Care greatly.
So far, this game isn't like any other videogame I've ever played. I like the storyline and the map, and I like how users must use their brains and cooperatively play both sides of the remote as both brothers at the same time to advance through the game. It's not too difficult, but it isn't a breeze, so the difficulty is perfect as well in my opinion.
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Mar 31st, 2017 at 01:14:49 - Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (PS4) |
I played today for about an hour today. The first thing I noticed about the game is the quality of the graphics. Compared to the first game I played for this class, which was The Witcher III, the graphics are quite poor and seem a bit outdated.
At first, I was really frustrated with the game because there weren't enough instructions given in the game other than press L2 and R2 to interact with the little and big brother. I was stuck at this part where the brothers have brought the dad to a wooden platform that rises, but I didn't know how to get platform to rise and ran around confused forever until I finally figured that the brother could kneel near this one wall so his little brother could jump up using the big brother's knee as a step. I like how the brothers have to work together to advance through the map, but I wish the beginning had more of a tutorial about the game mechanics.
Currently, I am at the part in the game where the brothers are in some type of underwater cave. It's pretty fun how you have to find out smart ways to advance. For example, before this I had to pick up a sheep and place him in a wheel so that both brothers could cross a drawbridge and to get around this spinning wheel thing, the brothers had to pick up a heavy metal stick and place it into these revolving wheels so that they can stop thing metal thing from spinning and walk across it.
What I've noticed is that these brothers will do anything for their father and for each other even if it means doing dangerous things that endanger their lives. The brothers obviously care a lot for their dad that they are putting their lives in danger to find a cure for his disease. They also care for each other as seen when the older brother lets his younger brother climb on his back while he swims because the younger brother does not know how to swim. I think this ties in greatly with Ethics of Care and a theme of caring for family as well altruism because the characters are working together and sacrificing their time and energy to benefit their dad.
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Feb 23rd, 2017 at 02:52:47 - Thomas Was Alone (PS4) |
Played the game for a really long time today and made it to level 8.10. At the beginning of my gameplay I was really frustrated because to me the levels were extremely challenging and required a ton of coordination. There were two stages especially that made me really mad and almost caused me to quit the game because they were nearly impossible. One of these was when John and Claire had to reach the right side of the screen while avoiding the incoming spikes on the left side and the other was with these moving platforms where Sarah had to jump upward to real the portal at the top.
Since last time, a ton of new characters have been introduced. James and Sarah are the last two to join the group of the 7 Architects. Gravity is backwards for James so he sticks to the top of the mazes and jumps downwards. Sarah is really small and has the ability to jump again while she is mid-air. After the Emergence Event, characters such as Gray, Paul, Jo, and Sam.
The character development I witnessed during my gameplay today was quite extraordinary. Thomas became self-aware while in the simulation and there was a "networking error" that allowed him to connect to the internet for 12 seconds which opened his eyes to the rest of the world and made him want to become a creator of his own world. So together with the other 6 AIs in his group (who all eventually reconnected after being eaten by the pixel cloud), they decide to help each other free the rest of the AIs.
I got really sad towards the end of my gameplay. All the AIs have their own personality and realized that they have to sacrifice themselves to help the rest of the AIs "above". They become selfless and gain a do or die mentality because they want to free the other AIs. The characters that were previously self-conscious now realize that their quirks make them special. John who used to be conceited now realizes he can help others realize their worth. Claire still thinks she's a superhero and will do whatever it takes to help the others escape the simulation. Together, all 7 AIs, form the Emergence Event. I think this part of the game is really powerful because it ties to real life. There is strong symbolism here as the creators are showing that bad personality traits and low self-esteem can be shed and lost in growth.
This game got really interesting because after the architects are gone and new grey characters are introduced, it becomes apparent that these new characters can now acquire the powers of the 7 original AIs by jumping into floating rectangles of that color. For example, blue means they can float in water, purple means they can double jump, and pink means they become a trampoline. I really like how the creators added dialogue and gave names to the squares so we know that when a grey character hits a blue powerup thing, they have acquired Claire's power. Rather than being just a puzzle game, this game makes you feel close to the pieces, which is strange because I never knew how much little shapes could be personified until now.
Although this is my third log, I will continue to play the game some more. Where I'm at, Gray has betrayed Paul and wants to finish the simulation himself, but Paul is determined to warn the others about Gray. I don't know if the original AIs will make a comeback, but hopefully they do and hopefully in the end all of the AIs live in a world without simulations.
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michelle has been with GameLog for 7 years, 10 months, and 5 days |
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