07-28-2011, 10:54 AM
yes/no.
whether or not a game is popular doesnt inform whether or not i think a game is good. i approach each game on an individual basis: devil may cry and shadow of the colossus are critically acclaimed and i adore them.
really, thats how everyone should approach gaming.
ico and sotc did a lot more to push games towards that "art" label than bioshock ever did: you cant transcend games to a new level by creating an amusing and awkward dichotomy between the game as seen and told (what the game tells you, the plot, et cetera) versus the game as played (how its mechanics actually function). bioshocks primarily failing is that its illusion is easily shattered, it is nothing but a pretty, hollow shell.
during the games open, you can sit around and float for hours after the plane crashes. you can swim through fire with no repercussions. there is only one body floating on the wreckage. there are blatant invisible walls.
instead of trying to provide anything resembling a contextual reason for any of this, it simply exists as convention; because it is a video game. the entire game is littered with this nonsense. puzzles are convenient and quickly solvable. the level design is a nonsensical mess of samey looking hallways. power ups, like ENRAGE (ENRAGES target, causing it to attack someone other than you) are bought in vending machines. it makes me wonder at what point something like that would have any practical application as a salable good available to the mass market.
there is another part early on in the game where a glass tube cracks. the door shuts behind you, and water starts pouring in. but thats nothing but a visual effect: the water level, once it reaches its base point, never actually rises. i left the game sitting at that point for about an hour while my friend showed me funny videos online; water spewing in like the entire ocean was trying to make its way in, tense music, and yet that tension was hollow because none of it actually mattered. it was a momentary illusion, tricking only the unreceptive or the gullible.
bioshock is not art as created by an artist, bioshock is a gamers attempt at art.
whether or not a game is popular doesnt inform whether or not i think a game is good. i approach each game on an individual basis: devil may cry and shadow of the colossus are critically acclaimed and i adore them.
really, thats how everyone should approach gaming.
ico and sotc did a lot more to push games towards that "art" label than bioshock ever did: you cant transcend games to a new level by creating an amusing and awkward dichotomy between the game as seen and told (what the game tells you, the plot, et cetera) versus the game as played (how its mechanics actually function). bioshocks primarily failing is that its illusion is easily shattered, it is nothing but a pretty, hollow shell.
during the games open, you can sit around and float for hours after the plane crashes. you can swim through fire with no repercussions. there is only one body floating on the wreckage. there are blatant invisible walls.
instead of trying to provide anything resembling a contextual reason for any of this, it simply exists as convention; because it is a video game. the entire game is littered with this nonsense. puzzles are convenient and quickly solvable. the level design is a nonsensical mess of samey looking hallways. power ups, like ENRAGE (ENRAGES target, causing it to attack someone other than you) are bought in vending machines. it makes me wonder at what point something like that would have any practical application as a salable good available to the mass market.
there is another part early on in the game where a glass tube cracks. the door shuts behind you, and water starts pouring in. but thats nothing but a visual effect: the water level, once it reaches its base point, never actually rises. i left the game sitting at that point for about an hour while my friend showed me funny videos online; water spewing in like the entire ocean was trying to make its way in, tense music, and yet that tension was hollow because none of it actually mattered. it was a momentary illusion, tricking only the unreceptive or the gullible.
bioshock is not art as created by an artist, bioshock is a gamers attempt at art.