作者：Whachoo Talkin Bout Willis

就像我之前多次提到的，自《吃豆人》和《Pong》诞生以来，游戏已经取得了很大的发展，并且随着技术的进步，创造出更深层次且更具有魅力的角色已经成为与其它游戏元素一样重要的内容。（请点击此处阅读游戏设计元素之美术方向）

当你在思考娱乐业的历史时，这毫无意外的是一个重要元素；我们已经从数百年中的无数书籍，以及最近的电影和电视中看到了优秀角色的重要性。因为我并不是一个忠实读者，并且我所玩的一些游戏也都很少出现有关角色或故事情节等内容，所以我将在本篇文章中侧重阐述自己所喜欢的电影角色。

characters（from blogspot）

我认为那些能够引起人们关心的角色才是最有魅力的。如果我能够真切感受到角色的情感，我便更有可能融入整个故事中。而有关兄弟姐妹的故事总是能吸引我的注意。我们家有三个儿子，而作为哥哥的我与弟弟们有着深厚的兄弟情，并且愿意为他们做任何事，我也根本想不到失去其中一个兄弟会是怎样的打击。许多电影都不能从情感上真正触动我的心灵，不过尽管我很少在看电影的时候哭泣，但是的确有两部电影每次都能直击我的心灵。

第一部带给我强烈情感波动的电影便是名为《太极旗飘扬》的韩国电影。这是讲述有关两个韩国兄弟Jin-tae和Jin-seok在1950年韩战爆发后参军的故事。一开始两人被分配到不同的营队，而在后来能够并肩作战，直到被敌军捕获。之后出现了动乱，韩国军队炸毁了监狱，Jin-tae在动乱中昏迷过去，当他醒来后认为自己的弟弟已经死在大火中了。他为此感到深深的自责，并对自己的国家萌生了巨大的仇恨，迫切想要复仇。但事实上，他的弟弟已经被其他监狱伙伴救出去了。

Taegukgi The Brotherhood of War（from blogspot）

随着时间的发展，Jin-seok在韩国军队中的地位不断提升，同时Jin-tae在新阵营中亦是如此。他们俩都深信对方已经死了，而自己也没有什么活下去的理由，所以总是会毫无畏惧地上阵杀敌（尽管Jin-seok更愿意相信哥哥还活在世上的某个地方）。

这部电影最终以两兄弟经历重重困境，在战场上见面为结局。那时候，Jin-seok立刻就认出那是自己的哥哥，内心充满了喜悦与困惑，但是Jin-tae却像个机器人一般麻木。那时候的他完全就是个没了灵活的躯壳，整个大脑中都充满了复仇，所以他才会认不出自己的弟弟而继续攻击对方。Jin-seok尽量避免了战斗，并想方设法去告诉Jin-tae自己就是他的弟弟，但是这么做却反倒惹恼了Jin-tae。最后哥哥将弟弟打倒在地，并用他的刺刀刺伤了弟弟。Jin-seok即使濒临死亡也仍然拒绝回击，并不断呼喊着Jin-tae的名字，而Jin-tae也开始感到困惑。随后Jin-seok从口袋中掏出了一根银色的钢笔，这是Jin-tae以前所给他的礼物。这根钢笔让Jin-tae彻底醒悟过来，他才意识到眼前的人便是自己失散多年的亲弟弟。

在朝鲜军队冲上前时，Jin-tae找到机会去救弟弟，他爬上炮塔，将弟弟交到自己的士兵手上。电影的最后一幕是，迎着无数子弹的Jin-tae最后一次回过头，朝着远处的弟弟微笑。

最后一幕真的非常震撼心灵，我所有的情感都被激发了出来，可以说是倒叙方式让整个场景变得更具有感染力。看着角色每天的生活以及其中所出现的特殊时刻（如作为礼物的钢笔），我们更能够感受到他们的情感。在如今的时代中，随时都有可能爆发战争，而这部电影引发我去思考“如果我和兄弟经历了Jin-tae和Jin-seok这样的分离会是怎样的情况？”当然我们并不可能经历他们这样的情况，但是每次在看到电影时想到如果兄弟也出于同样的环境中，我便会充满感触。更何况这还是基于一个真实的故事所改编的！更加震撼心灵了！

另外一部强烈影响了我的情绪的电影便是《勇士》。这并不是典型的“催泪”电影，也许大多数女生不会因为这部电影而流泪，但它的确深深影响着我。这是关于两个基于不同目的的综合格斗（MMA）选手的故事。Brendan是一名大学物理教师，为了赚取足够的钱去支撑家庭，他决定重返赛场。另外一个角色Tommy，也就是开启游戏故事的神秘人物。一开始我们只知道他是一个年轻，无所畏惧的人。这种角色设定非常棒，能让我们带着这种神秘感继续观看/阅读/游戏，并开始创造有关他们的想法。

warrior（from blogspot）

Tommy是碰巧来到MMA，即在一次酒吧格斗赛中，他的表现被传到网络上，并受到终极格斗锦标赛（UFC）的邀请而参加即将举办的“Sparta”大赛，最优秀的选手将赢取500万美元的奖金。Brendan恳求教练帮助他进入Sparta，但是该请求却屡次遭到拒绝。幸运的是有一次教练的第一选择参加者受伤了，所以机会自然落到了Brendan的手上。

在那时候，观众才第一次发现这两个人其实是兄弟，他们在青少年时期因为父母的不和而被分开。Tommy因为哥哥抛弃自己和多病的母亲充满怨恨，并在缺少哥哥的保护中走上了错误的道路，而与此同时Brendan则接受了良好的教育并做着自己的美国梦。尽管他们的分离与后来的生活是因为父母的问题所造成的，但是Tommy的嫉妒和憎恨却让他将Brendan当成了眼中钉。

在比赛中，Brendan并不被人们所看好，但是他经过自己的努力而击败了一个又一个对手。尽管他比许多对手年长并缺少经验，但是激情与欲望却始终推着他前进。而Tommy则像是个机器，完全是依靠力量去战胜一场又一场的比赛。就像你所想的那样，这两个兄弟站在了最后的竞技台上，对方变成了阻挡自己获得巨额奖金的绊脚石。而就像《太极旗飘扬》，Brendon拒绝与自己的弟弟较量。不管怎样他都是爱着弟弟，并且不愿伤害他。但是Tommy却仍因为自己被抛弃而充满愤怒，不断攻击。最终哥哥不得已只能回击，并想办法让Tommy投降；从理论上来看，格斗的最终结果必须是一方拍垫认输，但是Tommy却始终不肯这么做。

warrior（from blogspot）

Tommy拒绝投降，仍然带着仇恨坚持着，尽管他的体力已经块支撑不住了。最终Brendan迫使Tommy拍垫，并不断地对Tommy说着自己多爱他，并深深感到抱歉。最后比赛宣布Brendan获得胜利，但是他并未为此庆祝，相反地他走向Tommy并不断呼叫着医疗人员，帮助他缓解腿部的疼痛。Brendan举起了Tommy的手表示胜利，并且他们搀扶着彼此走出了竞技台。虽然他们之间的经历是不同的，但是他们的兄弟之情却再次被维系了起来。

正是这些角色及其故事让电影变得更加感人，并让我的情绪能够始终伴随着电影的发展。这是另一部让我会想起“如果我和兄弟也处于这种情境下会怎样？”的电影。我可以保证我们中的任何一个人都不会经历这种的情况，但是终有一天我们却有可能彼此竞争，或者是在某些争论之后，从而让我们想要一拳揍扁对方。我的兄弟并不会做一些让我想揍他的事，并且我认为，如果他真的想要打我的话，也会三思而后行的。

在许多电影中都能找到许多我所喜欢的角色，并且每个角色都赋予了故事特殊元素；不管是《恐惧拉斯维加斯》里的Raoul Duke还是《超级坏》里的McLovin。但是我一直以来最最喜欢的电影角色还是《浪漫风暴》中的Clarence Worley。

《浪漫风暴》中包含了许多有趣的角色，并聚集了Gary Oldman以及Christopher Walken等优秀演员。但是不管怎样Christian Slater所扮演的角色才是我最喜欢的。我并不是欣赏他的演技，我们只是单纯地喜欢这个历经种种事件而发生改变的天真的漫画书店员工。

true romance（from blogspot）

Clarence是一个20几岁的单身青年，他的生命中最钟爱的便是猫王和功夫电影。每一年的生日他都会只身一人到电影院观看功夫电影。而今年他遇到了一个貌美的年轻女性Alabama，碰巧她也非常喜欢猫王和功夫电影！整个晚上他们都非常投机，并迅速爱上了对方。但是Alabama却为此感到愧疚，因为她是是受到Clarence好友的委托，假装与Clarence巧遇而让他这次的生日变得与众不同，但是Alabama却出乎意料地爱上了对方。

在获得虚构的好友“猫王”的建议后，Clarence决定前往Alabama的公寓，将她的财物从皮条客Drexl Spivey（游戏邦注：由Gary Oldman所饰演）手中抢回，并告诉对方他们两两不相欠了。Drexl并不会轻易放他走，于是便展开了一场搏斗。更应该说是攻击而不是搏斗，Clarence未持有任何武器，不过他机智地推翻了各种物件，并最终杀了Drexl及其手下而带着Alabama的手提箱逃了出来。

关于《浪漫风暴》唯一让人失望的一处便是Drexl出现在电影中的时间并不长。他是一个很复杂的角色，能够有效地吸引观众的眼球。作为一个毒品交易皮条客，他真的是一个坏透了的角色，所以才能有效吸引我们的注意。

再次回到Clarence。当他带走了Alabama的手提箱逃向爱人时，却发现箱子里装满了100%的可卡因。而电影中接下来的内容便是这对爱人为了逃走并过上幸福生活而想办法将这些毒品卖给好莱坞一个顶尖导演，但却最终被西西里黑手党（由Christopher Walken所率领）抓获。

观看Clarence的困境时最有趣的便是关于他是如何因为各种事件发生改变，并且他从不会后悔自己所做的一切。他是一个愿意为爱付出一切的人，并因此而做出各种疯狂的事，但也只有这么做他才能与Alabama一起生活。

《浪漫风暴》其实也就是影片名所描线的这样，这真的是现代生活中的爱情故事。由Tony Scott导演，Quentin Tarantino编写的这部电影中充满了各种机智的对话以及丰富的想象。而众多一线演员的参与也大大增添了这部电影的吸引力。

我所喜欢的另外一个角色便是《四个房间》中的Bell Boy，由年轻演员Tim Roth所扮演。在电影中，这个角色的台词并不多，几乎每一次的交流都是通过肢体语言和脸部表情所完成，不过他偶尔会发出一些吱吱声。就像Clarence，我们对Bell Boy的初印象也是一个无辜，友好且害羞的形象，说话总是结结巴巴的，但是一到晚上他就会变成另外一个人，开始对付那些不守规矩的小孩，性饥饿的女巫，充满嫉妒心的爱人们，麻木的妓女等等。贯穿整部电影，他的自信在不断提升着，他的行走方式也从大阔步变成最后的优雅跳跃。他的话变得越来越多，他变得不再害怕说话并敢于做自己想做的事，不过他也仍保留着工作所需要的良好服务态度。

我想说的是，如果没有这些充满魅力的角色，这些电影对于我来说便只是一些有趣的故事罢了，没有什么特别之处；而正是角色赋予了电影特色，让我们愿意一遍又一遍地观看。游戏角色亦是如此。如果一款游戏的角色不能吸引你的注意，你便不会愿意再次打开游戏。

最后我们来说说环境。与本系列文章所提到的其它元素一样，随着技术的发展，环境在游戏中的重要性也日益凸显出来。我玩过的第一款具有早期环境形式的游戏便是NES上的《超级玛丽兄弟》。

与那个时代大多数游戏一样，这也是一款横向卷轴平台游戏，并不存在太多探索空间。你的前进道路已经被设定好了，而不像其它同类型游戏，你只能一直向前走，没有回头路。（游戏邦注：《索尼克》就不是这样）。

sonic（from blogspot）

在那之后许多游戏都维持着这种方式，甚至在不断发展的第一人称射击游戏，如《Doom》，《Quake》以及后来的《Golden Eye》中亦是如此。我认为比起之前游戏中的环境，我们能够呈现出更多内容。那时候的图像都非常逼真，我还记得自己甚至花很多时间去玩游戏只是为了看那些资产的纹理。那时候我们并不知道精彩的还在后头。

mario（from blogspot）

第一款能让我自由探索的游戏应该是《马里奥64》或者《塞尔达传说：时之笛》。这两款游戏都有其局限性和道路，尽管与之前的游戏有所区别，但是仍具有很大的局限性。它们都带有界线。

《Mario 64》可以说为接下来的系列游戏铺好了一块较高的踏板。任天堂大胆地改变了获胜方式，并转向了3D世界。实现了完全的360度视角以及上下左右移动的能力。就像你所期待的那样，整款游戏都是基于3D模式，这便意味着你可以采取各种方式从A走到B。游戏中突出了山脉，鼠丘等等内容，你可以在此跳上跳下。这是一种全新的尝试，并为今后的游戏改变提供了模版。

我认为第一款让我比起游戏更想要探索的游戏便是育碧的《刺客信条》。游戏环境是基于中世纪的耶路撒冷。这就像是《一千零一夜》中背景的原版再现。玩家可以在每栋建筑物上奔跑，攀爬，跳跃，并且其游戏场景也都很美丽。

我之所以花这么多时间去玩这款游戏只是为了爬到更高的地方去目睹整个游戏世界。

但是，这款游戏也具有它的局限性，即玩家经常会被一些无形的墙阻挡了前进道路。尽管环境本身在一开始带给我们许多惊喜，但是在后来便开始出现重复了。不过不管怎样它都推动着游戏环境的界限，并且是值得我们注意的一大改变。

最后我想说到的一款游戏便是《上古卷轴V：天际》。这是另外一款具有让人吃惊的环境的游戏。

玩家真的能在游戏中自由探索。你可以走路或开车到世界的尽头，穿越森林，山脉，村庄，河流，并历经各种天气变化。白天与昼夜的循环也很棒；Bethesda想要因此创造出一个让人信服的虚拟世界。

游戏地图也很广阔。实际上，我已经玩了数千个小时的游戏，但却仍未到达地图上的每一个地方。我只完成了故事情节中三分之一的内容，但这对我来说并不重要，因为比起其它内容，我更希望在此进行探索。

年初我的一个同事提到一个术语，即“虚拟旅游”，而这也正是游戏的发展方向。虚拟世界是那般逼真，让你只要按压按键便能够感受到遥远世界的美丽。所以比起真正触及故事情节，越来越多人更愿意静静地感受它的美丽。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Elements of Game Design Part 3: Character

by Whachoo Talkin Bout Willis

As I’ve mentioned so many times before, games have come a long way since the days of Pac-Man and Pong, and as the technology has advanced, the need for more in depth, captivating characters has become just as important as any other element of the game.

It’s no surprise really that this is such an important aspect when you think about the history of the entertainment industry; the importance of a good character has been evident for hundreds of years in books, and more recently in films and television. As you may or may not know, I’m not a big reader, and the games I tend to play have very little in the way of characters or even storylines, so for this post I will be discussing my favourite characters from movies.

When I think about what makes a good character for me personally, I’d have to say that the ones that interest me the most are the ones I can  relate to. If I can somehow empathise with a character, I’m more likely to be gripped by the rest of the story. I think the one thing that never fails to catch me is when a story involves siblings. Being one of three sons, I have a strong bond with my little brothers and would do anything for them, the idea of losing one of them or falling out out with them is unthinkable to me. There aren’t many films that hit me emotionally, and although I’ve never cried at a film, there are two movies that bring me close every time I watch them, and before you guess… Bambi isn’t one of them!

The first film that brought on this unusual wave of emotion is a Korean film called “Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War”. It’s the story of two South Korean brothers, Jin-tae and Jin-seok, who go to war when North Korea invaded in 1950. They are placed in different regiments but end up fighting side by side later in the movie, until they are captured by the opposition and taken as prisoners of war. Chaos ensues and the the prison is bombed by South Korea, Jin-tae is knocked concious and awakes believing his younger brother to be dead in the fire. He becomes consumed with the guilt of not protecting Jin-seok, which turns into a deep hatred for his own country and desire for revenge, but unbeknown to him, his little brother had been rescued by a fellow prisoner.

Time passes and Jin-seok moves up through the ranks of the South Korean army, while Jin-tae does the same for his new allies. Both believing the other to be dead, the brothers have nothing to live for and often go  on rampages, fighting without fear (although Jin-seok clings to hope that his brother is still alive somewhere).

The film culminates with the two brothers meeting face to face, against all odds, on the battlefield. Jin-seok instantly recognises his brother and breaks down with joy and confusion, but Jin-tae is almost like a robot. He’s a complete shell of the man he once was, brainwashed by his thoughts of retaliation and vengeance so much that he doesn’t even recognise his younger brother and attacks him. Jin-seok refrains from fighting, trying to tell him who he is, but this just fills him with more rage as the scene goes on. Eventually the elder brother has his sibling grounded, still begging him to recognise him, and stabs him with his bayonet. The soldier is seconds away from death yet he still refuses to fight, still shouting the familiar name to Jin-tae, which makes him visibly confused. The wounded soldier then produces a silver pen from his pocket, which was given to him as a present from his older sibling. This small object breaks Jin-tae and he realises this is infact his little brother who he thought he’d lost.

With the North Korean soldiers advancing on their position, Jin-tae seizes the opportunity to save his younger brothers life, mounts a turret and turns it on his own soldiers while Jin-seok runs to safety. The scene ends with Jin-tae looking back and smiling at the distant image of his brother escaping as a blizzard of bullets fly through him.

The final scene is breathtaking, and full of every kind of emotion going, but its the flashbacks and back stories that make that scene so much more powerful. Seeing where the characters came from, clips of their day to day lives and special moments between them (such as the gift of the pen) make these two all the more relatable. The way the world is these days, a war could probably break out at anytime, and this film really got me thinking “what if me and my brothers were drafted against our will like Jin-tae and Jin-seok?”. I know things would never turn out the way they did here, but just the thought of my siblings being in that sort of environment hits me every time I see the film. And its based on a true story! Powerful stuff!

The other film that can almost reduce me to a quivering wreck, is Warrior. These aren’t your typical “cry baby” films I know, and I highly doubt most of the girls I know would shed a tear to either of them, but its just how they affect me. Warrior is about two Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters, who are seemingly from opposite ends of the scale. The first one, Brendan, is a college physics teacher, husband and father who is struggling to pay make enough money to support his family and so decides to take part in low level amature MMA competitions, something that he endured when he was younger. The second character, Tommy, is a mystery who unfolds as the story goes on. We know that he is young, angry and fearless, but not much more than that to begin with. This is a nice approach to a character, mystery keeps us watching/reading/playing and we begin to build up our own ideas about them.

Tommy almost accidentally falls into the MMA scene after a bar fight knockout goes viral on the internet and is approached by the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to feature in their upcoming “Sparta” tournament; a competition pitting the best of their semi-professional fighters against each other for a grand prize of $5,000,000. Brendan begs his trainer to enter him into Sparta but his request is repeatedly knocked down. By a stroke of luck, his trainers first choice entrant is injured and the opportunity falls to Brendan.

It is only then that the viewer finds out that the two men are infact brothers, separated by feuding parents as young adolescents. Tommy resents his older brother Brendan for leaving him to look after their sick mother, which eventually left Tommy to fend for himself, and going down all the wrong roads in life without his older brother to protect him, while Brendan got educated and lived the american dream. Ultimately, their separation and lives thereafter was the fault of the parents problems, but through Tommy’s jealousy and hatred, he see’s Brendan as the cause.

The tournament proceeds with Brendan as the underdog, struggling his way through the rounds, and shocking everyone in the process. Even though he is older and less experienced than a lot of his opponents, his passion and desire spurs him on. Tommy is a machine, and powers his way through his matches with very little standing in his way. As you can imagine, the two brothers end up facing each other in the final, with only each other standing in the way of a life changing amount of money. Much like in the previous film, Brendon refuses to fight his younger brother. He loves Tommy no matter what and won’t hurt him. Tommy on the other hand is still scarred by his abandonment and goes in full pelt. Eventually his elder has no choice but to try and get Tommy to submit; in theory ending the fight with the least possible damage, but he refuses to tap and Brendan ends up snapping his arm.

Tommy refuses to give up, still driven by hatred, even though he’s in a bad way. The match ends with Brendan forcing another submission move, all the while telling his younger brother that he loves him and he’s sorry. He finally breaks and taps out. Brendan is declared the winner but doesn’t celebrate, instead he tends to Tommy, calling for medics and helping him to his feet. A clearly broken Tommy has his arm raised by his brother in victory and the two help each other to exit the arena. Their differences sorted and their bond rekindled.

I’ve told the short version ’cause I’m aware I’m rambling as usual, but again, these characters and their individual stories make the film extremely moving for me and grip me completely from start to finish.Its another film that makes me think “what if that was me and my brother?”. Now I can guarantee you that neither of us would ever be in that exact situation, but we could one day be pitted against each other, maybe after some kind of huge arguement that ends up with us wanting to punch one another? I don’t think my brother could do anything to make me hit him… but I doubt he’d think twice before smacking me if he really had too! No I’m joking, he’s got a heart of gold but he’s strong minded and he doesn’t back down from people if he knows he’s right.

I have many favourite characters in many many movies, each and every one brings their own special element to the story; from Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to everyones favourite geek, McLovin’ in Superbad. But my all time favourite movie character has to be Clarence Worley in True Romance.

True Romance is packed with interesting characters, and shows what is arguably both Gary Oldman and Christopher Walken’s best acting performances. However, its Christian Slater’s character that I hold highest. Not because of the acting, I mean, its hardly an oscar worthy performance (unlike the previous mentioned actors) but simply because of the way we’re instantly made to fall in love with this sweet innocent comic book store worker, who we see transformed over a series of events throughout the story.

Clarence is a twenty-something single guy who has two loves in life, Elvis and Kung Fu movies. Every year he visits the cinema alone on his birthday for a Kung Fu movie marathon. This year he bumps into a beautiful young woman named Alabama, who also loves Elvis and Kung Fu movies! They hit it off and fall in love over night, but Alabama has a confession to make, she was hired as a prostitute by his friends in order to ‘bump into’ Clarence and make his birthday special, but she fell in love with him, for real.

After some advice from his imaginary friend, Elvis, Clarence decides to visit her flat and take her belongings from her pimp, Drexl Spivey (played by Gary Oldman), and to politely tell him that she quits. Drexl’s not the kinda guy that just lets people walk away from him and a fight breaks out. More like an attack than a fight, Clarence is unarmed but quick witted and thus manages to overturn the the odds, killing Drexl and his men and grabbing Alabamas suitcase.

One of the only disappointing aspects of True Romance is that Drexl doesn’t feature in the movie longer. He’s a complex character who you can’t take your eyes off from the moment he appears on the screen. He’s an ethnically confused, drug dealing pimp and he’s rotten to the core… which makes him fascinating to watch.

Back to Clarence though! So he grabs her suitcase and flees to his new love, only to find that the suitcase is actually full of 100% pure cocaine. The rest of the movie consists of the the two lovers attempting to sell the drugs to a top Hollywood director in order to runaway and live a dream life together, all the while being hunted down by the Sicilian Mafia (headed by the amazing Christopher Walken).

The best thing about watching Clarence’s plight is seeing how the events that take place change him and how he never once gives a second thought to the reason he’s doing it all. He’s a man consumed by love and it drives him to do crazy, but necessary things so he can live the rest of his life with Alabama.

True Romance is just what it says on the tin; a true modern day love story. Directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino, the movie is laced with clever dialogue and powerful imagery. Add to this the insane amount of A-list actors and actresses, this is a movie that almost shouldn’t even be able to exist… but it does! Every character is brought to us with amazing performances, any of which is worthy of being the star role in the show. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it now!

Another favourite character of mine (and I promise this is the last one), is the Bell Boy in Four Rooms, played by a young Tim Roth. The character has very little dialogue throughout the film, and almost every bit of communication is made through body language and facial expressions, although he occasionally lets out a little squeak or a “hmmph”. Much like Clarence, the Bell Boy that we first meet is very innocent, friendly and shy, constantly twitching and stammering any time he attempts to speak, but as the night goes on and he has to deal with unruly children, sex starved witches, jealous lovers, dead hookers and coked up Hollywood stars we see him finish his shift as a new man. His confidence grows throughout the movie, his twitch loosens and his walk changes from brisk regimental stride to a suave dance that glides across the floor. He talks more and more, no longer afraid to say or do what he wants, whilst somehow retaining the aspect of good customer service that his job requires.

This is another movie packed with great characters, and some interesting acting too. It’s no True Romance, but I’d definitely recommend it to anybody looking for a good all round visual pleaser!

I guess what I’m trying to say is that without all these beautiful characters, these would just be another interesting story to me, nothing special; it’s the characters that make these movies so great to watch again and again, and the same goes for game characters. A game can look and feel amazing, but if the characters dont grip you, you’ll probably never pick it up again.

Elements of Game Design Part 4: Environment

So here it is, the final chapter in Elements of Game Design; this time I’ll be rambling about Environments. As with every other aspect covered in this series, environments in games have become more and more important as technology has progressed. The first game I probably ever played had a very early form of environment; Super Mario Bros on the NES.

As with most games of its era, this was a side scrolling platform game, in which there was very little room to explore. Your path was set, and unlike some other games of its type, you could only move forwards ie. once the screen had scrolled across there was no going back (unlike Sonic).

Games pretty much stayed that way for a long time after too, even the uprising of first person shooters like Doom, Quake, or even as late on as Golden Eye. I mean, there was more to the environment than their predecessors, a lot more infact! The graphics at the time seemed almost photo-realistic and I remember spending a lot of the time whilst playing these games just looking around at the textures of assets. Little did I know the best was still to come (and probably still is).

The first game I really remember feeling like I was free to explore was either Mario 64 or The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Both games had their limitations and the path, although somewhat less closed as previous games, was still quite restrictive. Both games had their boundaries.

Mario 64 was an amazing step up from the rest of the series. Nintendo took the bold step of changing a winning formula (platform scroller) and moved into the 3D world. Full 360 camera angles, and the ability to go up, down, left, right and diagonal. My mind was officially blown with this one! As you’d expect, the whole environment was 3D, which meant there were various different routes to travel from A to B. It featured mountains and molehills and everything in between, and you could pretty much jump on and off of everything around you. It was a real breath of fresh air and shaped the way for games to follow.

I think the first real game that I truly enjoyed exploring more than playing was Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed. The environment was based on middle age Jerusalem. It looked like a real life setting for Disney’s Aladdin! The level of detail these guys had gone into was incredible; every building was interactive, every asset infact. You could run, climb and jump of every piece of architecture. And it was so beautiful too!

I spent most of my time on this game just going out to the furthest reaches and climbing spires so I could just look over the in game world.

Again, sadly, this game had its limitations, and you often got stopped by invisible walls. The environment itself, although initially breathtaking, was somewhat repetitive (as was the gameplay). Nonetheless at the time it really pushed the boundaries of game environments and therefore deserves a mention.

The last game I want to talk about is a popular one on our course; Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim. This is another game where the environment literally took my breath away.

It really is unrestricted too (kind of). You can walk or ride to the ends of the world, through forests, mountains, villages, rivers and lakes and features every cycle of weather possible. The whole day and night cycle is really nice too; Bethesda really managed to create a convincing virtual world with this one!

The map is huge too! Infact, I’ve played roughly a thousand hours (most of which was just exploring) and I’ve still not covered every inch of the map! I’m probably only a third through the storyline too, but that didn’t matter to me cause I just love exploring more than anything.

A term I heard in one of my colleagues presentations earlier this year (based on Far Cry 3) was “Virtual Tourism”, and thats essentially what games are becoming. Virtual worlds that are so realistic that they let you experience the beauty of faraway worlds at the click of a button. Its almost becoming more exciting to roam these worlds in awr of their beauty, than to play the actual storylines themselves. But games are essentially what you make of them.(source:blogspot)