Stray Dog Strut

All this talk about Tombraider got me enthusiastic about trying Tombraider III again. Famed as the hardest of the series so far, it’s no joke – or maybe i’m just out of touch? I used to be so good at cracking the puzzles in the first one…a sign of age I think, heh

Anyway I had been stuck on the London Aldwych level – there’s a bit where you slide down a ramp onto some crumbling flooring and a fatal drop below. There’s a mincing machine coming down the shaft so you can’t linger and because of the awkward camera angle I could never see what way to jump.

I had a guilty sneak-peak at a Googled TR3 walkthrough and found that by sliding down the ramp, jumping left, sliding again, jumping forward, grabbing the crawl space, shimmying along, dropping onto more crumbling ground, falling through onto another ramp, sliding, jumping off and somersaulting in mid-air, and grabbing another ledge opposite…phew…you can avoid the descending machine! I actually did a roll on the crumbling floor instead of somersaulting in mid-air as it’s easier and has a higher success rate!

But the Aldwych level is infuriating. By skimming the walkthrough I realised I had missed alot of the secrets (although not actually secrets so much as vital level items!) and had to figure out how to backtrack to find them. This resulted in several deaths and, since i’d saved at a save crystal quite far in, I had to jump deadly traps and fight thugs with burning torches all at the risk of dying and having to do it all over again – and I did have to do it all over again (four times!).

You also have to get it right in a specific order – I got all the way to the end but, because I couldn’t find a door the walkthrough talked about, I thought I would look for it – only to find it and get the secret but get myself locked out of the exit room i’d just been in! Aargh!

This meant I had to load up a previous save game – back to before I’d found: both Solomon’s keys, the Ornate star, the Masonic mallet, the old penny, and the maintenance key. Before i’d dodged the flaming vents, killed all the thugs and attack dogs, dodged the underground train and clicked all the switches/moved all the blocks you have to do before you can get the right doors open…gah…I should be bald by now!

Anyway, for future reference you need the maintenance key (found in the ticket booth) to open the storeroom to turn on the platform lights so you dont miss the old penny that you need to buy a ticket to let you through the turnstyle….and you need both Solomon’s keys to open the sealed door to get the Masonic mallet. In the same room you need to jump through a hidden curtain (over the deadly spikes) to get the Ornate star. The star is used to open another ticket booth to climb up the ventialtion shaft and find the secret save game crystal, and the mallet is used to open a door to flick a switch to open a hatch to flick another switch to open another hatch to let you into the area where you chase a thug who opens the final door. You kill the thugs that emerge, flick more switches to open more doors (supposedly to make it easier if you need to go back for anything), and slide down the ramp to the end of the level. Gonna remember all that?

I missed a secret or too but I can’t be bothered staying on that level to find them, i’m just glad to have finally moved on.

I’m currently downloading the 15-day trial of Ragnarok Online as reccomended by NobleMinded (Tales Of A Boring Life on the right). The graphics look great, unfortunately it’s a 915Mb download so, even with a download manager to pause and restart, i’m still waiting. I might play some Dawn of War to pass the time – nothing like having my Dreadnoughts mow down a horde of advancing orks!=)

What makes a strong videogame character? In this article I will attempt to discuss some of the considerations that go into the design of a gaming character in order to make them more appealing � and ultimately to help the product sell.

I will try to investigate how differences such as game genre and intended audience affect the character design, and in the case of 1st person games, how are we made to feel �in character�? I am not an expert on this matter � it�s just something I�ve given a bit of thought to. Also, I haven�t written an essay type document for a long time so ignore my amateurish effort please=)

THE TARGET AUDIENCE

It is no amazing discovery that the age of the intended gamer should affect the style of the game � you wouldn�t market the likes of Manhunt for 12 year olds � but what about the game character?

In games such as Pac Man and Asteroids it�s fair to say that the audience is universal. While Asteroids involves guns and destroying the odd enemy ship, and Pac Man has you fleeing from Ghosts, both are entertaining games to play. They are simple, brightly coloured and good for hand-eye co-ordination.

The Pac Man character himself is simply a ball with a wedge shaped mouth � you can�t get much simpler � but has become an instantly recognisable symbol worldwide.

He bears no resemblance to any real-life creature so we are somewhat alienated from the character. The only thing recognisable about him is his act of eating all the time. In aiming for as large a target audience as possible, the creators have extended the simple aims of the game (Eat all the dots, avoid the ghosts etc) to the character.

His bright colour will appeal to younger audiences, while the puzzle-like nature of the game appeals to all ages. Such a simple character design is easy to transport cross-platform. He�s basically a series of images repeated (A sprite).

While the controls and concepts of the game will obviously be harder for a younger person to grasp, the images I�ve found of Pac Man games has them shown as suitable for ages 6 and up (An �E� for Everyone rating) as the �violence� in the games is mild.

What about games with more realism? In games like Tombraider and Metal Gear Solid the target audience is obviously older. The original Tombraider in the UK had an age rating of 15 year olds and up, it may since have dropped. But considering the content of the game � death by: drowning, killer wolves, angry bears, fiendish traps, lava, crocodiles, and lots and lots of falls� – I feel it�s justified.

While I think 12 – 15 year olds would be able to grasp the storyline � would they care for it? Stealing ancient artefacts from sandy tombs and a main character that is essentially a millionairess � pah! I think the target audience has to have something in common with a game character.

THE CHARACTER � APPEARANCE & HISTORY

In the case of Lara Croft, okay we are not all millionaires with our own butler and mansion, but the ideas of exploration, travel to far flung destinations (The Great Wall of China anyone?), and finding the elusive prize appeal to a lot of us.

The character herself has gotten a bad rep for the marketing team�s airbrushing � �they� are a lot bigger on the cover picture than they ever were in the games (Okay maybe not in Angel of Darkness�heh) but if your sole reason for buying the game is to ogle what are essentially some coloured polygons being refreshed repeatedly on screen, you are seriously missing the bigger picture. In the original Tombraider her chest is nothing more than a wedge shape for chrissakes.

**PICS**It is suprisingly difficult to find front facing screenshots of the early TR games!**

Yes they have made Lara beautiful � it�s the done thing in any media � but she is not just a pretty face. Despite her posh background (The daughter of Lord Henshingly-Croft), Lara is very down to earth. She uses her wealth to fund her expeditions and is not shy to work hard. Check out her history at the Tombraider Chronicles website for an idea of the detail.

She is physically fit. She has to be for all her adventures and while the developers may have gone to excess with her slim waist, she is still believeable. Lara is voiced by Judith Gibbins, (originally Shelley Blond in the first game, Judith Gibbins in TR2 and TR3, Jonell Elliot in TR4: TLR, TR5: Chronicles and TR6: AoD, Keeley Hawes in TR7: Legend, TR8: Anniversary and the forthcoming TR9: Underworld) and the accent is well-spoken but cheeky. She will regularly talk back to her adversaries and her speech in the cut scenes helps to define her personality further. A Core design spokeswoman, Suzie Hamilton, once said: “We wanted an upper-class accent with character, a strong but sweet voice. Judith’s was just right.”

Most games really only tell you the main character�s name, job and why they must defeat that bad guy. The developer�s at Core Design have given Lara a whole history � there are actually graphic novels and books written about Lara � all this extra effort makes you actually like the character you are playing. I like Lara, she may be the envy of many females, but having played the games I know there�s a lot more to her than that. You can have the sexiest character in the world but without a fun game she�s no more than a cheap trick to sell the game to horny teenagers.

Don’t you ever wish you could stop a bus with raw strength? I saw an episode of Smallville a while back where a car wraps it’s bonnet around Clark and he doesn’t budge an inch. If only…

I have never been a violent, looking for a fight, kind of person. That’s a fact. I was alot more hot-headed when I was younger though. That’s also a fact. I haven’t actually been in alot of fights. Everyone fights with their brother or sister, and sometimes exchange some heavy blows, but something about it being a relative puts you at ease – you know they won’t kill you on purpose.

Most of the time I just wrestled with my older brother rather than trading punches, learning techniques to wriggle out of holds he would put on me – it’s no boast to say I was a real Houdini at the time.

I can, however, catalogue my life with a series of incidents, or ‘confrontations’ as I like to call them.

I can remember walking home from primary school with my younger sister and classmate. As we approached my house I think my classmate said something about my parents, to this day I have no idea what, but it must’ve pissed me off because I grabbed him by the shoulder/throat and held him against the hedge outside my house. I could feel the strength in his arms as he gripped me back and he was atleast a foot taller than me but I must’ve scared the crap out of him* because he backed off. We were still friends years later however.

*My brother used to comment on the crazy face I would pull when in a rage, all red with scary eyes, so that’s probably what freaked out my friend the most.

In another incident, at High School another of my friends got into a fight with a guy in our year. Things weren’t going too well for him so I leapt off the top of the flight of stairs I was on and ripped the pair of them apart. It didn’t happen as smoothly as I’d hoped (I stumbled at the bottom of the stairs) but people have short term memories so they thought it was dramatic.

I changed during high school. I became more reserved than I was at Primary school, I think it happens to most people because you’re back to being the babies of the school in first year. But I also became nervous. I became scared of confrontations. Even given the very slim chances that I would be personally involved in a confrontation, my mind told me I would and I tensed up in anticipation of one.

Not that I was bullied. I have never been bullied. The events I will describe were random, I rarely knew the people involved, and only two we’re actual physical assaults. Ah, on second thought, make that three…Anyway, the point is I have been luckier than most – this is not a plea for pity – I just want to get this off my chest.

Another incident, again in High School, was where I was on my way to Religious Education (oh the joy). I can usually spot the troublemakers before they spot me, and although I saw it coming and knew exactly what would happen, I couldn’t do alot to avoid it. So on my way to RE some prankster thought it would be funny to ping a gobbing of paper mush at me (He had a sort of rubber thing held between his teeth that he pulled with his fingers and fired at me like a slingshot). It smacked me in the side of the neck leaving a red mark and a mess that I had to clean off.

As I said, by this point I had changed, but i’m not sure what my reaction would have been when I was younger. I kept walking. I walked all the way to RE where my teacher asked if I was okay (I obviously looked upset). I asked to be excused and went to clean the mess off. End of that story – I knew the boy by sight but never encountered him again.

The next confrontation to tell also happened during my High School years. I used to have a paper round in the evenings and on this particular evening, as I finished posting the last paper on my round, I met some people I knew from school – again by sight -a girl and two guys (only one of whom I knew).

I remember feeling anxious but I don’t know why as I had previously been on good terms with the girl. They started hassling me, trying to open the trolley (It was one of those old things your granny has, alright?lol) and asking what the hell I was doing when I closed it and pushed their hands away.

Anyway, I made the classic mistake – for whatever reason I decided to head home the way I normally would, up a dark alleyway. It was halfway up this alleyway that things got ugly. I was backed against a lamp-post with the guys on either side of me. The guy to my left, the one I didn’t know and the biggest of the group, started punching me in the shoulder. I’m not lying when I say it didn’t actually hurt. It was just an inconvenience.

But the girl was infront of me and starting kicking me in the crotch. Any guy will tell you how painful that is so I tried my best to block the kicks. I would never hit a girl though, and the fact I had previously liked this girl, had me shocked at what she was doing. It wasn’t long before I collapsed to the ground and they left me. They called back “Are you okay?” in a mocking tone and all I could think to shout was “yeah”. I later found out my friend saw them leave the alleyway laughing but thought nothing of it.

I made my way home, embarrassed and humiliated – it’s not a nice thing to get beaten up by a girl although I know it does happen. I tried to make it to my room without a fuss but my dad saw I was upset and the questions came – firstly to find out what happened to my glasses (They had been broken in the assault and I lost them on the way home).

To sum up, we hunted for the glasses that night and found them, I wore them with cellotape for a few days much to my friends amusement (oblivous to the previous night’s events). I saw the girl again one time and my mum gave her a stern telling off – again, much to my embarrassment. I saw the boy once and he made a joke or two about getting beaten up by a girl – although he himself didn’t actually do anything except stand and watch which I find amusing.

Later still, another confrontation. I left my house in winter to go to the local shopping centre and passed a boy from school trying to throw snowballs at me. Needless to say I dodged the snowballs and ran off calling him a “fat bastard”. Well he was fat.

A week or two later I saw him again, this time with a friend. He remembered my choice of words from last time and confronted me. The weak part of me denied ever saying that and, as became the trend in my defenses of late, I walked away from a fight. I received a few punches to the back of the head as I made my way off but I kept on walking. I’ve always found the idea of punching someone in the back of the head to be an unnatural movement for your arm to make though…

It’s not all doom and gloom though. One time I encountered the boy in a Game store while my sister and I were playing a Dreamcast console. He was a fat git so he tried to push his weight against my back while I was playing and demanded a turn. I finished my turn and passed the controller to my sister and made sure she had a full turn before finally handing the controller to him. So there=P

Another time, a guy bigger than myself was sitting behind me and pulling my sister’s hair on the school bus. I grabbed his hand and threatened him verbally. He made all kinds of threats of how he was going to ‘get me’ when I got off the bus but nothing materialised. Small victories=)

You know, talking about these memories has actually reminded me of more confrontations – and I said I had it lucky? geez…

One time I was climbing on a spider’s web rope playground thing with my sister, my friend and his younger brother. A couple of local lads from the area climbed on board and started shaking the rope my sister was on. I helped her get off and we walked towards our original destination (a local hill). However they then proceeded to start throwing chipping stones at us and sh
outing insults. Still we kept on walking and they eventually got bored and left. Another classic example of the passive defence I had lapsed into.

The next incident also involved the same friend of mine. On the way home from school, we said our goodbyes as we each turned our seperate ways and off we went. I happened to look back as I rounded the next corner and saw my friend being harrassed by another boy (He was hitting him with a whip type thing). I started to head back but another boy asked me what I was doing, I panicked and made an excuse and turned for home again. My friend was okay but I’ll never forgive myself for leaving him like that.

Another time in High School (again I saw this coming). I was heading down a flight of steps with my friends, and there were two guys standing at the top. I was drinking a bottle of juice at the time and I knew, I really knew what was coming, but I carried on drinking. As I passed them they pushed me and I tripped down the stairs spilling my juice. Luckily I didn’t fall over though and I shouted at them and drew my arm back to throw the bottle at them.

I will always remember the single word uttered by my best friend: “don’t”. But anger has no master and I threw the bottle anyway. Unluckily (or luckily?) it was a crap throw and missed by miles. The guys were in stitches at my pathetic effort and my friends and I walked off.

I used to work in a supermarket at night while I was at school too and often used to get neds kicking the shutters when I was trying to close up. One night while I was near the front doors they threw a firecracker thing in the shop and it exploded right beside me, much to their amusement. Nice.

Although I had changed my tactics to walking away from fights, I had developed a bad habit of sticking my fingers up or swearing, or both, at any insult I received. Needless to say this didn’t always go down too well with the aggressor. One time after finishing work in an office job I had, I was on my way to meet Falling and my family at the nearby train station. I literally stepped out the front door of the office and passed a couple of men (Late twenties?) outside who said something. I walked on but said “fuck off” and stuck my fingers up as I walked off. I think my favourite choice was using my index finger.

This got them riled and they followed me. The weak part of my character kicked in and I panicked. I didn’t run however, I calmly walked into a nearby supermarket and bought some chewing gum, pretending not to know they had followed me. I knew they were hiding at the front doors and walked past them as I left the shop, during which time they attempted to give me a ‘dead leg’. They didn’t quite succeed however, and I was able to carry on walking. They called insults after me for not retaliating but I think I made the right choice in that particuar situation.

The last confrontation I ever had was not that long ago and was the worst I have ever had. Again, I could tell it was coming. Falling and I we’re walking through a local park to the shopping centre when I saw a group of boys coming towards us. Falling was still talking, oblivous to the danger, but I knew something wasn’t right. As we passed I made eye contact with one of the boys and why on earth I did, I don’t know, but I stuck my tongue out at him.

He retaliated by spitting at my back and, you know all that stuff about being a lover not a fighter and my passive resistance? Bollocks to that. I think partly because Falling was there (It’s a man’s duty to protect his woman) and my yet again changing attitude, I charged at the boy and grabbed him.

Now as I said, I never really punched anyone. I used to learn Karate but my classmates were younger and it was never that physical anyway. So when I grabbed this guy I tried to get him down � the wrestling approach. Unfortunately this boy liked punching.

It�s embarrassing to say that he was younger than me and surprisingly strong. He succeeded in getting me down and punching me. Falling tried to pull him off but he was too strong and I just kept thinking how easily she could get hurt. Why had I been SO STUPID to start this while she was there?

I managed to get up and get him in a headlock. My headlocks are fairly strong but he was punching me in the face repeatedly so I became dizzy quickly and he got me down again. He hit me a few more times and then stepped away. I was too dizzy to fight back but I tried to swipe at his legs as he walked away so he punched/kicked me a few more times.

Am I sorry I lost? Of course, but I�m also glad. If I had started winning the other two or three boys that were there would have stepped in and Falling could have been seriously hurt. That was what hurt the most � the fact that she could get hurt and I would be powerless to stop it. Thankfully she was unharmed and walked me to the shopping centre where I cleaned my bleeding nose.

The thing that annoys me the most is how weak I was. A man is supposed to be able to protect his woman but now I know I can�t protect Falling. I�m no fighter so it�s no shock that I lost, but to lose while she was there is soul-destroying. I�ve never been the type to think I�m invincible but it�s another thing when other people find out you�re not.

I think that is what prompted me to write this tonight � I still wrestle with my failure to be strong enough. If this comes across as a selfish moan then it�s unintentional. Good or bad day, I still needed to get this out of my system. As I said, I am one of the lucky ones � some people have it so much worse than me � so I am not looking for pity.

I hope people will be able to get something from the telling of my experiences, maybe even some hope? I know I ended on a low note in the final experience there but it�s a demon I have to confront. My pride has taken a bashing but it will heal with time. I believe everyone needs just the right amount of failure to keep them level-headed. I think I�ve had my share.

I have tried to be brutally honest here and have somewhat succeeded, but even I can�t ignore the fact that I�ve probably shaped these events to be more palatable. But it is more or less correct. Now all I have to do is click �publish post� to reveal the real me to the world. *gulp*