I Want to Play Journey…

This video game is just something I don’t think I should miss out on.  Unfortunately it is a PlayStation Network game, not a console game, and I DON’T HAVE A PLAYSTATION NETWORK ACCOUNT.

I’ve known about Journey for a while, and when I first saw videos of it (E3 or some other program like that), I was mesmerized by the desert terrain and the music.  The video game is about a light-weight, cloth-garbed character (which you control) whose story is to go on a journey to reach the mountain with light behind it.  But it is far away.  You can choose how you can get him there; as straight-forward as you want, or stop from time to time to enjoy the sights, explore the terrain or remnants of a village.  You can go alone or if you find another traveler, you may make a companion out of him and journey together.  On PSN, it would be possible to find others playing at the same time, even several players at once.

What is interesting about this game is that there is no spoken dialogue… which is fine, because I think the game doesn’t require a scripted dialogue anyway.  I think it is still possible to communicate with the other travelers.  According to a comment about the video game’s soundtrack on iTunes, you may communicate with Morse Code if you are familiar with it.  This makes me want to learn Morse Code, just to be able to do this… or just because I’m curious.   It is another language to learn.  I mean another alphabet to learn.  Better not make that mistake.

There is hope yet.  I found out that there is a Journey soundtrack available in iTunes, and I put it in my wish-list already so I don’t have to find it later.  I listened to a few music tracks from this album and oh my goodness, the music is so beautiful, I just want to imagine myself travelling around a desert as the background music plays.  I decided to look up this game on Amazon.com and I discovered that there is going to be a video game collection for the PS3, called the Journey Collector’s Edition.  The description on the page says that it includes three full games from thatgamecompany : Journey, Flower, and flOw.  I hope this means that I can play this game without needing to have an account for Playstation Network.

Unless…that just means that whatever parts of the game that had to be downloaded are all included in the game, except—and this kinda breaks my heart—it still might be a one-player game after all if I don’t have the internet on the PS3.  If I wanted to experience other Journey characters, I would have needed to sign up for a PSN account and WiFi this and Internet that, and I just don’t want to deal with that mess.  That’s me, anyway.  So, it turns out that I might make this journey alone.  Hmmm.

I like journey stories.  I have a couple of novels that are journey stories, in which the main character or characters are on a journey to a certain destination, and events and emotions happen along the way that make them grow as a person, and be enlightened and even at peace.  I am drawn to that kind of stuff.  Even Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy was a journey, in a way.  It was certainly an adventure.  So the video game Journey is—what can I say—the very journey game I’ve been waiting for?

You can find a trailer of Journey Collector’s Edition on this Amazom.com webpage.  It is located under the image for the product.   Here's the link: Journey Collector's Edition

What’s So Great About Twisted Metal X????

I know, I can’t just criticize this game without having played any of it.   But I don’t understand what is great about this video game.  Does it have a story?   Is there an actual point to the game other than just riding on cars or motorcycles and committing crimes or killing other drivers?

Let’s look at another combat car game, Jak X: Combat Racing.

In my opinion, even though Jak X was a video game in a combat racing genre, at least Jak X had a story.  Jak and his buddies drink beverages that were poisoned without their knowing until it was too late.  In order to get the antidote for the poison, they had to win race after race, and try to survive all the while.   Winning to get the antidote is a very good motivation for the heroes’ racing.  There is a ticking clock.

What does Twisted Metal X do?  It’s just pure combat and killing and destroying.  There is only a vague idea of what happened to the world, and so the characters (if there even are protagonists here) deal with it by combat driving.  And who likes murderous clowns?  I don’t. 

I’m sorry, I just don’t like video games where the only point to the gameplay is destroying things and extinguishing lives.  Count in committing crimes.  It’s why I have absolutely no interest in playing any of the Grand Theft Auto video games.