I stand, back against the wall, dust – contained within a small breeze – blows past my sun burnt grimace. I wait, and my friends eventually arrive. “I’m going on ahead” I say, “You wait here and I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
I cross the road and slowly start moving past a burnt out car, all is quiet and the end of my journey is in sight, just a little… bit… further…
Then, oh dear, my brains appear to be on the pavement.
NOT A-FREAKING-GAIN! STUPID GORRAM SNIPER!
‘The Wall’ – worse than Hitler, Revolver Ocelot and Superman 64 combined. It makes grown men cry and gaming pads become one with the wall.
We’ve all experienced ‘The Wall’ – It’s the point in the game that you just can’t get past, it’s the insane boss level; that jump in Mario you just can’t do; it’s the point where the game that has been the focus of your life leaves your console and gets stacked up to collect dust because you’ve hit ‘The Wall’.
‘The Wall’ comes in many different forms: end level bosses; not knowing where you have to go to get further in the game or even thinking that you’re effectively hiding, and then someone, somewhere, still caps you in the head, like in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare with that cheeky sniper, high in the heavens, whose accurate eye is better than Columbo’s and the Terminator’s combined.
Making games easy allows more people to access them, although the ‘easy option’ seems to be the source of derision in gaming circles. For example, when designing ‘Rainbow Six Vegas’ who decided that only a certain chosen few should actually be able to see the game through to the end. Or is it that some games are only designed for gamers who can already kick ass at FPS genres?
Imagine if you were to watch the movie version of ‘Tomb Raider’ then twenty minutes into it, it stops and won’t continue until you can work out how to solve a logic puzzle. You’d be desperate to see more of Angelina running in slow motion, not see her drag large stone blocks slowly across the floor of a tomb.
Luckily for me, films do not do this, so if gaming is trying to become a form of entertainment accepted on the same level as film, why does is constantly feel it needs to rip your teeth out with a Gravity gun and then throw them back in your face?
Nintendo seem to realise that the casual gaming market exists because since the Wii there have been more demand for games that are accessible to everyone and a lot more new gamers.
Nintendo have patented a new gaming system that essentially treats a game as a movie. If you stop playing, the game carries on, letting you take part when there’s something that looks fun to play. You don’t get any achievements or unlockables in this mode, but you get to see how the game is played. Help with hints and options to watch the game being played is great for people who are newer to gaming or just need some small guidance. And if you want to play through yourself, at any time you ‘jump back’ into the action when the infamous wall has been crossed.
I know that some people think playing games on the easiest setting or being helped along is taking away the challenge, but for some people the ‘easy’ setting on a game will be a challenge. It’s better that people who are being introduced to gaming find it a fun experience, rather than being turned off it. The hardcore gamers of the future have to start somewhere. To be able to have options to help people ‘break down’ the wall could quite easily be an option in all games. If you’re an elitist or Columbo then you don’t need to touch it, but for me, I just want to see the end of a story for once. People who have been asked to play through ‘Ghouls and Ghosts’ a second time just to get the princess a bracelet should be able to sympathise with me.
“Just one more thing. If she sends you back for her necklace, she’s having an affair with the end game boss.”
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