A Game of Dicks Pt. II

This is part two of the explication started below on how Shadows of the Damned is really a narrative which explores a man's relationship with his penis and sexuality. So let's talk cock.

Garcia's constant companion and guide is the ex-demon Johnson, if you don't get the penis reference in Johnson it's OK, there are more. Johnson takes many forms, a torch to light the way, various guns, the boner, the big boner, the skullblaster. Guns as phallic symbols are obvious, their shape, a symbol of power, the explosions they make, and Hotspur's gun is named after an erection. Garcia is Mexican, and the hell he travels through starts as a Mexican town, but Johnson speaks with a British accent- his desire is both part of him and alien. Johnson is always able to meet his need and fit the situation, apparently telepathically since Garcia doesn't tell it what to do, but Johnson also has a mind of his own, and also has his own desires when in one portion he gets demon phone sex and grows much larger (the big boner) and has his own ejaculation scene, Garcia is shown holding the gun in such a way it appears as a five foot, metallic, phallus. As stated earlier, Garcia is guided through the hells by Johnson, who also lights the way. The whole story seems to be a metaphor of Garcia controlled by his desire and desire for release. He does not really know why he does what he does, where he is going, or why Paula was kidnapped, the situations move from a realistic town, to dungeon, to garden, to swamp, to (ahem) tower; the levels follow no reason and are sometimes juxtaposed in terms of opposites- they are all different metaphors for sex (taken in the above order would be pleasure/pain, utopia/natural/beautiful, beautiful/wet/treacherous, phallus). A few levels are dreamlike paper cut-outs of Hotspur and demons, during which Hotspur flies across the level, further demonstrating the (sexual) fantasy atmosphere of the worlds. He is called to these levels by a opera singing demon woman who only sings and dances, again a symbol of desire without any humanity, she has no idenity besides herappearence and has nothing to say for herself. She also leads him into greater and greater levels of danger.

This all seems to be in his head. He pretends to be chasing Paula, who appears, dies, disappears, runs, disappears again, but often exists in the background dying again as Garcia ignores her and shoots demons with his boner. His desire is focused on what is in front of it. Johnson goes from confident to afraid to sarcastic, and himself not always clear on what is happening or why they are progressing- desire only aware of itself and its need always pressing forward. Garcia is trapped in this world where he is powerful and powerless- Paula keeps dying in front of him and revealing herself as a pretty costume for demons to wear and Hotspur falls for it each time.

So what does all this mean? Read Part III.

A Game of Dicks

I finished playing Shadows of the Damned, and I'm not going to spoil it for you, so relax, let's just sit down together and have a conversation about cock, and how the game might be deeper than you think. Together we will deeply penetrate the shadowy recesses of the game. Also, (more sexual innuendo about anal sex).

Now that we got that out of our systems let's get down to brass tacks. The game is set in the tone of Day of the Dead or From Dusk Til Dawn. The protagonist is Garcia Hotspur and his shapeshifting ex-demon, Johnson. Garcia's girlfriend is kidnapped and killed over and over again by the Demon Lord Flemming and his minions. There are many, MANY, penis jokes, MANY! but I believe the game is not about Garcia's search for his love, but instead his relationship with his wang.

First, Paula, the woman he professes to love, is mostly a stranger, we know nothing about her except what she looks like, the first we see of her is when she is hanging in a noose above his bed- her thong is much in evidence. She dies at least three times in the opening, demons crawling out of her flesh (like a baby from a vagina), this will happen often in the game, we see her and then a new demon crawls out of her, because, according to Flemming, all demons want to be in a nice piece of ass. Her dialogue in the game is mostly a screaming of Garcia's name, and inquiries on why he isn't saving her and why he keeps letting demons kill her. Eventually we find out little bits about her, like that Garcia found her in a dumpster and took her home. So, basically she's trash someone else threw out (or she lives there?) and since she was discarded Garcia just takes her home and she says nothing to him for months (or was she talking and he not listening). Garcia often claims to love her, but obviously knows nothing about her, and it isn't even clear she likes or wants him. She is almost always in negligee that Hotspur says he picked out for her. So, woman as fantasy object and not person, so much so that she came across to me as beard. She is supposed to be what he desires, but he obviously has no idea what real women are or of any sort of complexity of emotion. This is not a game about love or any kind of intimate relationship. There is nothing real about Paula, and Garcia tries way too hard to convince us he cares about her and how sexy he finds her. You may be thinking now that this is just a cheesy horror/adventure game, and what should one expect from this; it's cheap, vapid, and schmaltzy, but there is a complex relationship explored in this game and it is between Garcia Hotspur and his penis.

Part two of this post will explore genitals, so keep reading.

Replay Act Two

So, you ask, "What else makes you want to replay stuff, Dean?"

Go ahead, ask.

.....

I'm so glad you asked.

4. CONNECTION This is a broad category. If I'm connected and compelled by a character (Martsen for his struggle for redemption, Monkey, for his mystery and strange humanity, Yuna for her gentleness and strength, Auron, Kanji), a conflict that feels human or epic, maybe even a time period (my first boyfriend bought me a strategy guide to FF VII when we started dating and he had no interest in games- I knew then he was awesome, and that game is very connected to that segment of my life). There is also connection to franchises and universes I love (KOTOR springs to mind). Finally, I am loving in game connections where you see the consequences of your actions in the game or between games like how Mass Effect 2 checks your saves from Mass Effect, where the story is your story.

5. FUN is the gameplay fun, interesting, is it complex in its simplicity? Do I feel like I am accomplishing something. I replayed both Force Unleasheds because it was so much fun to be a sexy badass jedi with cool powers.

6. EMERGENCE When a game has a series of complex systems sometimes outside the player where unscripted or unplanned events make the universe seem more alive. Unscripted isn't quite the right word; in Dragon Age when NPC's banter with each other as you move through the world, or react to a situation, in Dead Rising where zombies do crazy stuff or fall into your traps, passerbys in GTA4 and their craziness. The Dead Rising Franchise and the Bioshock ones also do a good job of allowing you to play in a variety of different ways and approach enemies with creativity, avoiding the "Use this new power now and your other ones are useless" tropes I hate.

Replay Act One

I am not a rich man, so when I throw down 60 american dollars I want to know it is worth it (especially because I am a geek that preorders any game with a pretty cover and a hint of magic). I want to be able to spend some time with that sucker (and honestly that $60 doesn't seem so bad when I think about how much a movie costs, or a night out). I can double my time with it if I can replay it, so this is what will make me do that:

1. STORY, big surprise, right, my answer to everything. Story in video game is not just the plot or the cutscenes, it is setting, character, detail, ambiance, mood, attention to detail, mythology... Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption, Bully, Final Fantasy IX, X, XII, both Dragon Ages, had such depth that there was more to see each time I went back, plus visiting my favorite characters and favorite scenes was a treat.

2. NEW GAME PLUS By the end of the game we get the cool weapons and the cool powers- it is the coolest and most powerful we will ever be, we have the most choices as far as tactics and it lasts 15 minutes? A half hour? New game plus allows you to see and play the game differently- to really see what this thing has "under the hood." Of course it sucks when looking at an enemy kills them or that everyone else is just as powerful as you, or half of your abilities are negated when enemies have new immunities. It's a tough line to see.

3. VALUABLE DLC Add abilities, explore characters, add settings, expand conflict, these are the types of dlc that make me want to play again. Minerva's Den of Bioshock 2 has done this the best so far. The den gave us a contained story that fit well into the mythology and was true to the feelings and themes in the game; it offered us more of a glimpse into Rapture it's citizens and its tragedy. You got new weapons and abilities. It was well written. Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 had some good ones with simlar features, in Lelianna's song we dumped our Dragon Age warden and played as one of the NPC's and found out more about her. If the dlc is just "Here's a bunch of enemies have at 'em!" then I'm bored.

Gay Pride

SO because of Dan and his fucking research I had to pick up Persona 4 and it came today, Hooray! Of course I have to use my PS2 and I can't find my memory card, but it does not dampen my excitement, because it came with an instruction book! And not one half in French telling me how to open a disk tray, insert a disk and turn on the console. This instruction book has character descriptions and their pictures, a prologue to the story, detailed instruction of various aspects of the game, a glossary of terms, so e mythological explanations. YES!! I miss these. Honestly, I have gone back to some PS3 games, even started new ones (DCUniverse I'm looking at you) and had no idea how to make my character do things anymore, or I had to suffer through and hour or more of tutorial which might be fun the first time, but not at all after that.

I am also excited when I read about the game because it is unlike any other game I have played, character studies and super personas, social relationships, weather being important; these things my be dumb or annoying during the game, but the fact that someone is making games this strange is awesome to me and makes me want to support them with my money. Also there is a gay tough guy, and a trans girl, and so fantastic. I'll let you know how it goes.

Proof of hotness

Problem solving upsets me

Last night I sat down to play Dragon Age and realized I couldn't handle an evening of problem solving. Problem solving is what playing video games is all about, and sometimes I don't want to have to do any of that. So instead I cracked open a new book, "Stranger In A Strange Land", that my boyfriend gave me for Christmas last year.

It got me to thinking about the way I spend my free time and the way my brain works. I've always had a VERY low threshold for frustration, hence my joking about playing games meant for 12 year old girls. This being the case, I've started a ton of games and then given up once they get "too hard", which sometimes has meant that I've died once. Umm-hmm. Once. I gave up playing Resident Evil 4 when this guy chopped my head off with a chainsaw and I never played it again. To reconcile this, I've started playing games on "Easy", with the hope that it will make the experience of playing through the game more of a relaxing, rather than stressful, experience. Sometimes, though, even "Easy" mode kills you.

I read an article a while back about a game mode on the Nintendo system that would literally play through sections of the game that you're finding difficult. Say you're playing "Kirby's Magic Yarn" and you keep getting stuck on the crazy jumping section where you have to time all your jumps and have nasty-nimble thumbs, etc. You could engage this play mode where the game would go on auto pilot, you, the player, could simply watch through said tough section, and then game play by the actual player could resume once a certain button combination was pressed or something to let the system know to stop auto play. At first I was like, "Say what?" But then I was like, "That's a game mode for people like me."

Anyway, my attention span has run out, but I'm curious to know if there are other people like me out there; people who play games specifically to relax, not to stress out; not to fight through; not to overcome.

I'm out.