"What's wrong with me" is that I don't have enough Reggie in my life.
Last week, you may have read Kotaku's post about a conversation with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime regarding the "core gamer." He essentially blamed the bad blood between many of today's "hardcore gamers" and Nintendo on a refusal to ever be satisfied or content with what's being offered. Now, the general claim that gamers are an entitled bunch is defensible enough. One merely needs to look at the myriad outcries against DLC, DRM, "online passes," HD rereleases, retailer-exclusive pre-order bonuses, and the fact that every Tom, Dick and Harry now feels the need to create a petition every time something doesn't quite go his way. The Mass Effect 3 ending controversy and the petition for a non-GFWL PC version of Dark Souls stand out as some of this year's douchey-er "give me more!" spectacles.
But "the Regginator" invokes different reasoning when he calls out gamers. And I'm here to tell you why, while the general sentiment is correct, the logic behind it missed the mark entirely.
Well, I held off an extra day to make my comments on Nintendo's E3 2012 offerings, due to their unexpected announcement that they would have a 3DS-dedicated conference this evening.
Sadly, that was one of the only surprises Nintendo had to offer this year.
Being the responsible college student I am, I actually went to class today, and used my fancy new DVR to record Microsoft's keynote. Now that I'm finished watching it, here are my thoughts.
Please note that this post is teeming with Gears of War 2 and Gears of War 3 campaign spoilers. They have NOT been hidden for your convenience, as they were in my Alice 2 review. If you want to avoid spoilers, please stop reading here.
No, this isn't about Nietzsche's book or Michel Ancel's 2003 action-adventure game.
As you may or may not be aware, people really freaking love Portal. I love Portal. I had the misfortune of never knowing of its magic (science?) until this past Spring. Especially since the release of the proper, full-length sequel, fans from every trade and craft have emerged to express their love of all things to do with the eerie first-person puzzler. Because the series is well known for its brilliant writing and sterile, dismal atmosphere, it was only a matter of time before fan films started cropping up, right?
This past week brought us Dan Trachtenberg's "Portal: No Escape." It showed up in the headlines of every major gaming blog, shot up to 2.7 million views on Youtube, and seems to have received nearly unanimous praise. If you're one of the few who still has yet to see it, here it is:
DO NOT LOOK INTO THE OPERATIONAL END OF THE DEVICE.
As you can see, the video is a quality piece of work. Yet it suffers from one huge, glaring problem that as a devout Portal fan, I cannot ignore: almost everything about it is indisputably un-Portal. The room she's contained in is some kind of gritty, filthy holding cell more reminiscent of Saw than the pristine Aperture Science facility. Tally marks on the wall? Way too blatant to ever happen in the Portal universe; those should be tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the Rat Man dens. Don't even get me started on the blood-stained hospital gown, which screams "pretense."
How about the human guards patrolling outside of her holding cell--with guns? Or the complete lack of GLaDOS, turrets, or the promise of cake? After making these observations I realized this film is exactly what it would look like if some Hollywood big-shot got the chance to turn Portal into a run-of-the-mill action flick. I mean, goodness, there's "taking creative liberties" and then there's betraying everything that made the games unforgettable, and copying them only on the most superficial level possible.
So that may be a bit overly harsh. Again, the editing and special effects are top knotch, especially for an independent filmmaker, and I appreciate the sense of despair we get from the ending. But before I'm accused of being a total hater, here is another Portal fan film that is a million times better at capturing the essence of Portal's subtlety, sterility, and psychology. And frankly, I think it deserves much more attention and praise than the above video.
Even after the trauma of Aperture Science, Chell still loves cake.
It's fan creations like this that make me feel all fuzzy inside to be a Portal fan.
Which tribute to this wonderful series do you prefer? Sound off in the comments!
