Black Mesa

 

I recently played through fan-made Half-Life remake Black Mesa. I've been following it's development for years, and was really interested on how it turned out. Everyone seems to love this game, and of course that means that it's good. Right?

Well, let's start with the positives. Black Mesa reimagines Half-Life's famous military complex in a very beautiful way - it almost looks like a real place. Shooting is fun - fighting in general is very enjoyable and guns behave as you'd expect - and new soundtrack is awesome, though not as good as the original. Some of the added things and NPC's bring much needed life to the place, and the game looks as good as you can do with original Source engine. 

But as much as I enjoy how the game looks, it feels wrong. There's something special about original Half-Life's blocky 90's interiors, and remake looses some of the charm and atmosphere it had. 

Xen is something that many people have praised in Black Mesa. I'm not one of them. Sure, it's beautiful (when it's not running like piece of poop) and it's fun to see more of the alien world and how life there is, but for me the original, short and focused Xen is perfect ending for Half-Life. Black Mesa's version is long, sometimes boring, focuses too much on fighting and as mentioned before, it runs very badly so playing it wasn't even that enjoyable.. 

My overall impression of Black Mesa is little bit confused. At the beginning it's seems that there's much work and love poured into it but the longer you play and closer to the end you get it starts to feel less like a remake of Half-Life and more like a mod. But It's a amazing work anyway even though I didn't personally liked all the aspects of it.

The thin line between diegetic & non-diegetic sound in Portal

Video games can be an immersive experience. With great sound design and memorable music, they can affect the player in many ways and the feeling of ‘’being there’’ can be tense. In this essay I’m going to analyze sound and music in puzzle game Portal and investigate, how diegetic and nondiegetic sounds are used in the game in question.

According to James Buhler, David Neumeyer and Rob Deemer, diegetic sound means every single piece of music and sounds that the character can hear in the reality of the movie, or in this case, game. Non-diegetic on the other hand means the sounds and music that the audience (player) hears. (2010). In Portal, to examine these concepts is very interesting, as the audience – the player – takes a bigger role than just viewing the story, as they are actively taking part to it and sometimes even creating new events.

Portal in a nutshell

Portal is a video game developed and published by Valve Corporation (former known as Valve Software) for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2007. Later it has been released also on mobile platform Android and on other computer operating systems like Linux and OS X. The main focus in the game is solving portal-based puzzles while A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) voice tells you sarcastic jokes and guides you through the game. Player spends most of the time in ‘’test chambers’’, which are located on the research station called Aperture Science. As I don’t want to spoil the game more than it’s necessary to analyze the music and sounds, I’m not going to discuss about story much more. Game is pretty short, it took me about one hour and thirty minutes to play it, and according to speedrun.com, the current world-record on completing the game is seven minutes (2017). Of course, the whole idea of the speed run scene is to complete games as fast as possible, but I still find that worth to mention.

There are two shown characters in the game: Chell, player’s character, who doesn’t speak a word during the gameplay, and GLaDOS, a computer A.I. voiced by Ellen McLain. There are also hints of other characters, but all that’s shown of them are only writings that they’ve left behind.

Soundtrack

Portal’s soundtrack is composed by Kelly Bailey and Mike Morasky. While the music is mostly dark ambient and instrumental, it includes also one song called ‘’Still Alive’’, composed by Jonathan Coulton and sung by Ellen McLain. I’m going to return to this particular song later on this essay. Soundtrack is released outside the game three times, first on Valve’s own collection called The Orange Box Collection (Valve, 2009), which includes various soundtracks from their games. In 2014 Valve released the soundtrack for free on their digital distribution platform Steam, and now the soundtrack has been released on the vinyl by Mondo in 2017. It’s also been released on a massive collection by Ipecac Recordings on music distribution service Spotify including also its sequel’s, Portal 2 (2011), soundtrack.

Game’s soundtrack is mostly minimalistic, electronic ambient score music. Score music is term for the music, that’s made specifically for the movie or game (Chion, 1994). It’s creating mood of being alone in the giant, weird research station, and in some ways, it reminds of horror movie music. During the main events music takes turn to more energetic and ‘’heart-pounding’’ style, being almost like trance or some other similar electronic music genre. This happens only few times during the game, so it really makes the mood and atmosphere change during the twisted story events. This kind of music is sometimes called as adaptive music (Timms, 2016).

Diegetic sounds in Portal

Player’s character, Chell, can hear many different sounds in the game’s world. There are lots of mechanical noises made by different apparatus in the test chambers, for example elevators and electric barriers. She’s also able to hear the GLaDOS through speakers, even though it might feel like the A.I. speaks inside of her head. This impression is broke during the last section of the game, where it’s clear that GLaDOS is speaking through bad quality speakers outside the chambers. Chell can also hear turret’s speech, sometimes even not seeing them.

Most of the speech in the game comes somewhere outside of the Chell’s and players view. Later in the game Chell meets previously mentioned turrets, and eventually she’ll meet GLaDOS, getting to know the voice that she’s been hearing during her adventure. GLaDOS’ voice is de-acousmatized, as the source is revealed to the player character in the end of the game (Chion, 1994), and it’s not possible to tell during most of the story where her voice is coming from.

There is also some diegetic music in the game, and it can be heard already in the beginning of the game. Music is played through little radios, that are scattered throughout the test chambers, and they play instrumental Latin styled version of the credit song, ‘’Still Alive’’. The familiar tune becomes somewhat relaxing and welcoming little thing during the game.

First radio you’ll encounter during the game. Source:

<https://cdn.wikimg.net/en/strategywiki/images/8/89/Portal_Radio_1_start.png>

Non-diegetic sounds in Portal

For the player, there’s lots of sounds that the played character can’t hear but player can. One example is the click-sound played when you press one button. It’s meant to demonstrate to the player, that they can or can’t interact with some objects. As the sound is familiar from the many other Valve’s games, it’s pretty safe to assume that it’s part of the game engine and not something that characters can hear in their minds.

The ambient music is only heard by player, as it’s not the part of the reality of the game and is more or less just there to create the mood. Music is sometimes almost non-audible, and it’s possible to think that it is part of the world’s atmosphere. We are speaking of imaginary environment, so of course it’s possible that the ambient music can be there in the world, but as the game is trying to be somewhat realistic I don’t think that’s the case.

Player as a character

Games differ from the films as in games you are (mostly) in control of the one or more characters related to the story. That creates an interesting dilemma whether or not the sounds you hear as a player are also sounds that your character hears. You are the character, so your ears are theirs too. When speaking of the sounds and music, this goes sometimes to very weird places. How can you know that your character isn’t wearing earphones and listening the ‘’soundtrack’’ while going through the game world as playing in the first person view (FPS) doesn’t traditionally let you see characters head?

Of course, we can assume that’s not the case, as we take many games as some kind of interactive form of movies. Still, it’s worth to mention, that in games player takes a bigger role than being just neutral viewer. Because of this, it’s sometimes hard to recall which sounds are diegetic and which ones are non-diegetic. Player takes a role of actor in some way, but with more ways to affect to the what’s happening on the screen. But as Portal is very linear game, and if you play it like it’s meant to be played, everything important to the story happens eventually. You can for example stay at the same place or refuse to do something, which actors probably can’t do if they want to get their salary. You have even the possibility to exit the story and never come back, but where’s the fun in that?

‘’Still Alive’’, the diegetic and non-diegetic song

The credit song of the game, ‘’Still Alive’’, exists in both game’s reality and our reality. In the game, it’s played on the radios that can be found almost on every level, and the distorted, Latin styled instrumental version can be heard. Song is also played at the end of the game while credits are shown, and you even get the lyrics to sing along. Different versions of the song are released on many releases, and there are at least two different sung versions on Valve’s official music releases.

Song itself is sung by Ellen McLain, the voice of GLaDOS, and the vocals are edited at the same way as the A.I.s voice. Lyrics are based on the game, and there are little notes of the story events and even hints of other Valve game, Half-Life. The lyrical and vocal aspect makes song very interesting as it’s supposedly something from the game’s world, but it’s existing in our reality, as normally this goes other way: we’ll take some pre-existing song from real life and put it on reality the game or movie, as a source music (Chion, 1994). In the case of ‘’Still Alive’’, we get something that’s not real, but instead it’s made real for us through playing the game and ‘’living’’ the story.

GLaDOS. Source: https://theportalwiki.com/wiki/File:Glados_ending_monologue.jpg

Conclusions

Portal includes a lot of diegetic sounds, but as many games, it’s playing also with non-diegetic and blurring player’s and playable character’s borders. At the same time it’s easy to say, which sounds belong to the game’s reality, but then again, you can never be sure if some clicks or beeps that feels like part of the game mechanics would be real sounds in the world you are playing on.

Game’s sound design leaves al lot of room for player’s own imagination, as even the sound of keyboard feels something that could be part of the fame. Soundtrack is almost a part of the world, and even in the real world ambient voices you hear can be somehow musical. At the same time you know, that the soundtrack is something that doesn’t belong to game’s reality, but the border between ‘’real’’ ambient in the game and music is very thin and blurred.

The whole idea of Portal-series is to play with reality, as Valve’s been releasing a lot of videos and other material based on the game and its story. These little things are made so that they feel like being part of our world, and Valve is sometimes even advertising their own services using characters or places from the Portal-universe.

References

1. Research material

Aperture Science Psychoacoustic Laboratories 2012. Portal 2: Songs to Test By (Collector’s Edition) [Spotify]. Ipecac Recordings.

Valve Corporation 2007. Portal [PC]. Valve Corporation.

2. Internet-references

Speedrun 2017. Continuously updated speed run record collection and list for Portal and other games. <https://www.speedrun.com/Portal> (read 5.12.2017)

3. Literature

Buhler, James, David Neumeyer and Rob Deemer 2010. Hearing the Movies: Music and Sound in Film History. New York: Oxford University Press.

Chion, Michel 1994. Audio-vision: sound on screen. New York: Columbia University Press.

Timms, Mark 2016. How sound design is used to create a sense of tension and horror in video games. Academia.

<https://www.academia.edu/24424213/How_sound_design_is_used_to_create_a_sense_of_tension_and_horror_in_video_games> (read 7.12.2017)

Note: I wrote this essay in 2017 for my musicology studies in University of Turku. I wouldn't recommend using it in academic context.

Why Half-Life 2 is my favorite game

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It was somewhere in 2009 when I first played Valve’s masterpiece, Half-Life 2. My gaming experiences before that were mostly demos of old games (Half-Life: Uplink, Worms, Turok) and Flash games so Half-Life 2 hit me like a truck. From the first time I arrived in the City 17, fought through Ravenholm and learned the secrets of this world I knew that this is something special - at least for me. These memories are dear to me and I notice that I want to relive those first times of playing this game again - they are some of my favorite memories and the feeling that I had playing Half-Life 2 for the first time is still something that no other game has been able to give me.

In Half-Life 2 you step on the shoes of Gordon Freeman, who’s trying to help the remaining human resistance to fight against Combine, an alien force that has been taken over the world after the 7 Hour War. Player is taken through the ruins of a world that is so familiar to us but now deserted: seas have been dried, humans can not give birth anymore and even most of the animals are gone. Gordon must fight his way to the Citadel, where local alien forces are controlling the City 17 and its remaining population. On his long way there he gets reunited with some old friends from the previous installment on Half-Life series, like Barney and Dr. Kleiner, and meets some new characters. Alyx, his trusty sidekick (or a real main character of the story?) is one of these. Gordon’s - and player’s - relationship with Alyx during the gameplay is something that stands out from the other games. All the characters in Half-Life 2 react somehow to the player and what they are doing, and especially Alyx on your side it really feels like you are there in the game world. That’s something that I haven’t really personally experienced with other games and I think the fact that the game has this uninterrupted flow within it makes it really stand out. With Half-Life 2 I don’t always feel like I am playing a game, it’s sometimes more like a book kind of experience - there is no jumping in and out from levels, no time spent in menus or anything like that. Everything just happens and you are part of it.

Physics are one thing that make Half-Life 2 stand out for me. I’ve been playing a lot of different games and how the game handles real life like physics is something that really is important for my personal gaming experience, especially in the FPS genre. There’s just something so special with the way Half-Life 2 and the Source engine handle physics that I always feel at home when I get to play games made with Source. I know how things work, I know what to expect and most importantly the feel of the game(s) feel right. And maybe this feeling of home is why Half-Life 2 to this day stays at my all time favorite game.

 

Left 4 Dead

Julkaistu: 2008
Alustat: PC, Xbox 360, Mac
Kehittäjä: Valve Corporation, Turtle Rock Studios
Julkaisija: Valve Corporation
Pelimoottori: Source

Left 4 Dead on yksi rakastetuimpia zombipelejä ikinä. Valven ikoninen pelisarja on tuttu varmasti jokaiselle PC-pelaajalle, eikä pelkästään Zoeyn takia.

Tämä ei lupaa hyvää.

Kuolemaa ilmassa
Left 4 Dead on pohjimmiltaan melko yksinkertainen arcaderäiskintä. Neljä selviytyjää taistelee tiensä läpi putkimaisten karttojen kohdaten aina välillä vahvempia zombeja sekä erilaisia haasteita. Suurimmaksi osaksi meno on kuitenkin suoraviivasita eikä paikalleen jäädä.

L4D pakottaa pelaajat toimimaan tiiminä, sillä yksin ei pitkälle pötkitä. Zombien piirittämäksi ja lamaannuttamaksi joutuva selviytyjä on nopeasti vuotanut kuiviin ellei pelastajaa näy. Myöskään erikoiszombeja vastaan taistelu ei yksin onnistu.

Palava Hunter.

Witch!
Left 4 Deadissa on harmittavan vähän aseita, eikä melee-aseita ole ollenkaan. Pelaaja voi toki tönäistä zombit kauemmas, mutta tämä ei pitkässä juoksussa auta. Erikoiszombejakaan ei ole montaa erilaista tyyppiä, ja näiden ääntelyn sekä käyttäytymisen oppii pian tuntemaan.

Graafisesti L4D on omaan silmääni rujo. Peliä pyörittää tietääkseni Sourcen vanha versio, ja tämä näkyy muun muuassa tyhjinä kenttinä, kulmikkaana grafikkana sekä hieman lagaavana tekoälynä. Osumakohdatkaan eivät ole aina ihan siellä missä pitäisi.

L4D on synkkä, ja vaikka grafiikka ei ole parhaasta päästä, on tunnelma jotain aivan käsittämätöntä. Pimeissä kentissä ja varsinkin sisätiloissa rupeaa oikeasti ahdistamaan, kun ikinä ei tiedä koska seuraava zombiaalto hyökkää. Pelillä on myös hieman hämmentävä tapa sijoittaa Witchit aina keskelle ainoaa kulkuväylää.

Välillä ei näe mitään.

Pills here!
Left 4 Dead nousee esiin zombipelien massasta hienon tarinansa ansiosta. Selviytyjien toivoton matka kohti pelastusta on surullista seurattavaa, ja varsinkin The Sacrifice -lisäri lyö yhden surullisimman pelihetken ikinä. Lisärin ohella julkaistu sarjakuva valoittaa maailmaa ja tarinaa entistäkin enemmän, ja se on ehdottomasti lukemisen arvoinen.

Ykkös-Leftis kärsii hieman siitä, että koko peli on siirretty lisärinä Left 4 Dead 2:seen päivitetylle pelimoottorille. Alkuperäistä peliä kannattaa silti ainakin edes kokeilla, sillä siinä on jotain mitä L4D2:sesta puuttuu. Palaan siihen kuitenkin tarkemmin Left 4 Dead 2:sen arvostelussa.

+ Zombeja!
+ Hahmot
+ Tarina
+ Synkkä
+ Tunnelmallinen
- Tyhjä
- Lagit

Team Fortress 2

Julkaistu: 2007
Alustat: PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox 360, PS3
Kehittäjä: Valve Corporation
Julkaisija: Valve Corporation
Pelimoottori: Source

Team Fortress 2 on kokenut vuosien aikana melkoisen muodonmuutoksen. Kun ensimmäisen kerran pelasin TF2:ta vuosia sitten, se oli vielä maksullinen, hattuinvaasio ei ollut alkanut ja pelimuotoja ja karttoja oli vain kourallinen. Nyt, vuonna 2015, pelistä on tullut Free 2 Play, hattuja ja muuta oheissälää on enemmän kuin kukaan jaksaa laskea, yhteisö on vahvasti mukana pelin kehityksessä ja pelimuotoja alkaa olla jo ihan riittävästi. Mukana on jopa CO-OP!

TF2 opettaa uimaan.

''Heavy feels funny''
TF2 on pohjimmiltaan perinteinen arcaderäiskintä yhdeksällä suljetulla hahmoluokalla, joilla jokaisella on oma tehtävänsä. Medic parantaa, Spy napsii vihollistiimin tarkka-ampujia ja Engineer esimerkiksi suojaa omaa komentopistettä. Hahmot ovat riittävän erilaisia ja toimivat hyvin yhteen, ja jokainen löytää varmasti oman suosikkinsa.

Tietyt pelimuodot valitettavasti suosivat tietynlaisia hahmoja, mikä voi aiheuttaa esim. sen, että puolet tiimistä on Scoutteja. Ennen vanhaan monilla servereillä oli rajoituksia mm. Snipereiden määrästä, mutta nykyään F2P-kansan keskellä virallisilla servuilla näin ei ole, mikä saa välillä hermot kireälle.

F2P-pohjaisuus aiheuttaa myös sen, että välillä pelit ovat epäreiluja; vastapuolella on hyvin yhteen pelaavia TF-veteraaneja, ja omalla puolella lähinnä vaihteluun ja hattujen craftaamiseen keskittyviä venäläisiä. Taistele siinä sitten yksin koko vihollistiimiä vastaan!

TF2 opettaa seisomaan jonossa.

''Boink!''
TF2 on melkein kymmenisen vuotta vanha peli, mutta se on silti monella tapaa nykyaikainen. Hahmojen asusteita pystyy muuttamaan lukuisilla eri tavoilla, ja peliin on ympätty niin videoeditoria kuin ns. juhlakausi-päivityksiä ja -tapahtumia. Jouluna TF2 kietoutuu lumeen, Halloweenina vereen.

TF2 on graafisesti hyvän näköinen. Ikivanha Source-pelimoottori pyörittää peliä kauniisti, ja sarjakuvamainen ulkoasu takaa sen, että grafiikka vanhenee hitaasti verrattuna realistisiin militaristiräiskintöihin. Jatkuvat päivitykset pitävät myös huolen siitä, että efektit ja äänimaailma pysyvät tuoreina.

Pari vuotta sitten lisätty Mann vs. Machine -pelimuoto toi peliin yhteistyötilan, jossa yhdeksän hengen tiimi taistelee alati kovenevaa robottiarmeijaa vastaan. Itse en ole kauheasti innostunut kyseisestä pelimuodosta, se ei jotenkin vaan sovi TF2-muottiin ja random-porukalla siitä tulee lähinnä sählinkiä. Ne harvat kerrat kun on saanut hyvin toimivan kaveriporukan kasaan ovat kuitenkin ihan nautittavia kokemuksia. Valitettavasti pelimuodon kartat ovat melko tylsiä ja mitäänsanomattomia.

TF2 opettaa painimaan täytetyn jetin kanssa.

''Medic!''
TF2:n etu ja vahvuus muihin ilmaisiin ja maksullisiin nettiräiskintöihin on sen jatkuva taustatarina. Kaikki uudet päivitykset perustuvat sarjakuvan keinoin kerrottavaan tarinaan, jolla syvennetään Team Fortressin maailmaa. Sarjikset kannattaa lukea vaikkei pelistä niinkään välittäisi, sillä ne ovat ammattitaitoisia ja hauskoja.

TF2 on parhaita nettiräiskintöjä koskaan. Vaikka ikä alkaa jo pikkuhiljaa näkyä, ei meno ole hyytynyt, ja uudet pelaajat löytävät tiensä jatkuvasti pelin luo. Suosittelen.

+ Pelattavuus
+ Paljon pelimuotoja
+ Aseet
+ Hahmoluokat
+ Sarjakuvamainen grafiikka
+ Taustatarina
- Mann vs. machine
- Pelaajat jotka eivät keskity pelaamiseen