A Videogame Called Me Dicktits
How many of the videogames you've played recently have actually been fun?
I just played the Bulletstorm demo. Bulletstorm is pretty shallow and pointless. It also calls you rude things that I'm pretty sure it made up. But as I was playing the demo, I realised something; I was actually having fun.
This made me think about the last few games I've played, and I realised that with a lot of games, I don't actually have fun. I'd go so far as to say that most modern videogames aren't fun. They may be challenging and they may be enjoyable, but I don't think they're fun.
Fable 3 wasn't fun; it was funny, and immersive, and ultimately a bit disappointing. But it wasn't fun. Assassin's Creed Brotherhood wasn't fun; it was huge and compulsive, impressive and diverting. But not fun. Dead Space 2 isn't fun; it's scary and absorbing, with a killer atmosphere and (mostly) great design. It's really very good. But still not fun.
The trouble with a lot of modern games is that they take themselves very seriously. They are enormously self-conscious about their presentation and the value of their content. And when they take themselves so damn seriously it's very easy to jump on any tiny flaws that pop-up.
When Fable claims to challenge your morals, it's all to easy to notice that everything is broken down into big glowing GOOD or EVIL options, which rather kills the whole idea of 'choice'. When Assassin's Creed is trying very hard to envelope you in the sprawl of ancient Rome, a horse charging through a cliff and a man teleporting onto a roof stand out quite a lot. That and that the whole future-storyline thing is batshit insane. And when Dead Space 2 is trying to immerse you in a tense atmosphere, it pisses me right the hell off when it eventually devolves into a clunky shooting gallery.
Note that I'm not confusing 'fun' with 'enjoyment' here. I enjoyed all of the above games to varying degrees. But I didn't have fun with them. For me, a videogame is 'fun' when I can sit down and enjoy a chunk of gameplay regardless of motivation, presentation, or narrative context.
Bulletstorm isn't a serious game. It knows it's not a serious game. Hell, it sells itself on the fact that it is not a serious game. It's a game about grabbing some dudes and kicking them, then sticking a bomb on them then kicking them again only into a thing this time then shooting them with a fucking gun or something. I don't know. But it's fun. It's fun whether you're doing on a space station, in a desert, or in the sea, whatever. The controls respond tightly and everything goes whoosh and then explodes. And I can overlook a whole lot of minor glitches so long as it carries on being fun.
It might not actually be fun for more than 10 minutes. Who knows. But I like that a big-budget modern game has the ability to laugh at both itself and the player. The demo called me a dicktits. I don't think that's even a thing, but because of that, I may well give Bulletstorm some of my money. And I might even have fun whilst playing it.
