Burnout websites

XBox360's website features Burnout Revenge as one of their most promising racing games because of its realism.

These games provide chills that we could never survive in real life. Xbox 360 has brought this thrill-a-minute battle racing game into a whole new realm. Criterion and Electronic Arts, developer and publisher respectively, have dubbed this release their showcase version and have worked hard to live up to their own goals. The experience does not approach reality; it transcends reality. The graphics take Burnout Revenge on Xbox 360 up, up, and over the top. Realism in lighting effects, textures, and reflections bridges the gap between what might have been just a nice bit of fun and what has instead turned out to be an adrenaline-releasing crash-o-rama.

The controls match what you see on the screen so smoothly, there's no disconnect between what you're seeing and what you're doing.

And my personal favorite quote:

The Big Crash

Why are we here if not to crash? For Burnout Revenge, Xbox 360 opened a portal into the realm of possibility, the possibility of more detailed damage. Improved shader technology, for example, adds depth and dimension to vehicle damage.
Designed for realistic effect, the complexity of the damage modeling has increased. Every scratch removes paint. Every ding leaves a mark that affects the reflections in it. Pieces fall off the cars, in small bits as well as large chunks. Bumpers hang askew. Engines and other interior elements become exposed. Glass flies. Tires burn. Pile-ups explode.

Of course they do. :)

The folks at Criterion have put a big fat spotlight on the fact that you can capture highlights from your replays (up to 30 seconds for the clips) and share them with friends.

The immortalized, glamorized car crash; you can relive the excitement over and over again.

Video Games in Museums

I went to see the new Body Works exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry on Tuesday because I mistakenly thought it was a free day. TIP! There are no free days at the Museum of Science and Industry. Anyway, I was wandering around after the Body Works exhibit, when me and my friend spotted a small room with an arcade-style racing game.
We got kind of excited, and went to the racing chairs and started the game, but much to our dismay these were old racing games from the mid 90s and it wasn't fun at all. Well, maybe a little.
The point is that I'd already played this version of arcade racing in hotel lobbies all across the Midwest, and I was surprised that the Museum of Science and Industry would have them in one of their own exhibits. The purpose for the exhibit was to show how simulations work, but it was a very poor (and outdated) example of video game simulation.
Then again, museums aren't known for their up-to-date technology, in fact that is what museums mainly showcase; out-dated technology in all its ancient glory. Maybe I expected more from the Museum of Science and Industry, but I was very disappointed with that lame exhibit.

For my final project, I'd like to concentrate on the use of video games within libraries and other public places where people can game together without having to invest in game consoles and overpriced games.
For the past 15 years, most public libraries have been lending PC games to kids, and educational interactive PC programs to adults, but the video game itself has generally been scoffed at by public librarians as a poor way to spend your time. However, more demand by patrons is what's allowing the video game stigma to slowly disappear within libraries. Personally, most librarians I know play video games, so even if the demand were to stay low, video games would eventually be integrated into libraries simply because the people who run them are the ones who decide what the library is going to offer its patrons.
The same goes for museums. The curator of a museum is the one who decides out of all the materials the museum owns, which are to be the ones on display. The Field Museum has an enormous collection of artifacts from New Guinea, but none of that material is on display because the current curator prefers to showcase the artifacts from the Native American collection. Plus, that curator may have a feeling that artifacts from New Guinea wouldn't be as popular and thus the patronage will fall if he removes the actually popular Native American displays.
The Head Librarian has to make these same choices when determining what he or she will offer to the public. Perhaps in fifty years libraries across America will lend video games as often as they lend books, but that all depends on the patron demand and who is in charge. Until that day comes, museums need to stop showcasing "new" technology in their exhibits, because within 5 years it's already old and nobody cares. You would think though, that the Museum of Science and Industry could afford to update their exhibits every five years or so to reflect the current "new" technology especially considering that they never have a free day.

I just checked The Museum of Science and Industry's website for a clue as to why they have an old racing arcade game in their exhibit space and I found and old exhibit in their archives list that is all about the history of video games. http://www.msichicago.org/scrapbook/scrapbook_exhibits/gameon2/index.html
CLick on tour and you'll get the list of different games and genres featured in the old exhibit. The latest games listed were from 2002, or 2003. Like most things you'll find in museums, this exhibit was designed with kids in mind and there's not much to it. The website's kind of cute though.

Reality in racing

"Burnout" for XBox360 has a side game where you have to drive your car up a ramp at high speeds and plunge it into oncoming traffic in order to create the biggest explosion. You rack up more points if the explosion causes other cars to crash and explode. This is like an elaborate, player-controlled, cut-scene which, if done properly, can last for several minutes.
Watching the massive pile-up grow in size as other cars on the road plowed into the huge wreck, I felt a sense of pride in my accomplishment because in the bottom of the screen the points kept adding up like arbitrary dollar amounts awarded to pinball players whenever the ball happens to hit anything on the board. This side game of "Burnout" is like a cause and effect experiment in chaos. The cut-scene of exploding cars and trucks is quite spectacular, and it reminds me of the quote, again, from "White Noise" where Murray exclaims that the car crash in the entertainment business is a form of art, beauty in destruction, and all that.
It's undeniable that there is a huge emphasis on the crash, not only in racing games like "Burnout" but within all forms of entertainment as well, at least within America.
There was also another side race in "Burnout" that pits you against a fellow player, or you can play it alone. The object is to cause other (specially designated) cars on the road to flip over and crash/explode. The first to destroy 10 cars wins. Recklessness is the only skill you need for these games, and an enthusiasm for destruction. You gotta really want it in order to win!
The racing game itself relies heavilly on minor crashes to gain boost points that will eventually get you over the finish line. It's a catch 22. You have to waste time crashing in order to get the power of a boost so that you can go faster and take first place. "But why should you waste time crashing into other cars?" you say. Well, it's just so much fun. Plus, you get to watch you car's paint chip a little more every time you crash and if you get into a big enough accident, your bumper will fall off. The realism that the creators of "Burnout" attempt is significant, but realism in the game and actual reality are still very much separated in the players mind. Although it is a sim game, it's not at all realistic...but it is... I think that Burnout's realism has more to do with the fakeness of its ancestral racing games than any actual physical realities to racing.
Part of its realism comes from the background art of the race tracks. They mostly take place in real cities, for example, one of the race tracks is titled "The Eternal City" which is Rome. When Betty and I played Burnout for the first time we chose this track without really thinking about it, but when the game loaded we were very surprised to feel a sense of nostalgia, because last semester Betty and I studied in the eternal city, and the game was very true to the look and feel of those crazy bendy Roman streets and alleyways.
Just a fun fact: before I left for Rome there was a news report about a high-speed chase and gun fight (by the passengers) of two sports cars in the streets of Rome. The Italian government wanted a apology from the U.S. stating that it was our fault because the Italians had reason to believe that one of the shooters was an agent for the CIA. The U.S. denied any involvement.
SO, as for the believability of Burnout, it kind of depends on how often you read the news?

http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/399354

Comments for "Way of the Gun"

I'm in the middle of reading the article "Way of the Gun" and it's giving me lots of ideas for my presentation on racing games.
"Explorative Linearity": The difference between FP and Third Person perspectives in gaming is crucial, because as the author says, having a FP perspective can be narrow and confining, you can never be sure where your enemies are at. I'm pretty sure that there's a toggle feature within "Burnout" that allows the player to change from FP to ThirdP and back again, although I personally prefer the ThirdP perspective.
The author also mentioned something about "Doom" and how its popularity was attributed to its simplicity, and I agree. Keep it simple and let the player find the interest and meaning. I think the same can be said for simmulated racing because if there's too much going on in the background tracks, then the player can get distracted. If there is a very busy background, it's almost preferential to have a FP perspective, sort of like putting blinders on a horse, it helps the player focus on the track.
Semi-realism is cool too. The more realistic the cars are, the crashes are, the more popular the game will be overall. And, as I've blogged before, the crash sequences within racing games are extremely important, they almost reach the cinematic level of cut-scenes because they take you out of the game for at least 10 seconds to show you something spectacular.
Music within racing is great too, it adds to a feeling of tension. Using pop music within racing is a relatively recent phenomenon, I think, and although it's fun to listen to for a while, it also has the drawback of making the game seem outdated (that is, as soon as those songs are no longer popular) within a few years.
I have to remember also, to say something about the level of AI within the rival racers. How much variation in behavior can you as the player expect from your rivals within a racing game? When I played Super Mario Brothers as a kid I memorized the pattern of movement of my enemies so that I could get through the entire game without ever having taken a hit, but that was because the bad guys moved the same way every time. However, no two races are the same in games like "Burnout" so memorizing the course isn't enough. I know that I can set the difficulty for the tracks, but is it even possible for a begginner to win their first race? No, probably not, because the player doesn't know what to expect yet. So, practice is necessary to win, not just a dependence on "stealth" (dodging the attacks of other drivers and innocent bystanders).
But "Burnout" is different once again because the game encourages you to side-slam other vehicles for Boost points, which you'll need if you want to get ahead. It's like your being encouraged to act like a bully (pushing other cars around) but you have to keep your cool at the same time (not seriously crashing your car and waisting time in an awesome cut scene).

Myst Online

Who saw the commercial for Myst Uru Online? It was on last night. We may have talked about this in class, like everything else I mention, but what the heck.

Personal notes for simmulation presentation

In class last week I wrote down some notes that I thought might pertain to the presentation by Betty, Dan and I.
Somatic: to physically simmulate an action. dictionary.com and wikipedia were my only references, and they only gave a biological description of the word. I was thinking that I could incorporate the idea of somatic action to the player of a racing game, and how the player is literally replicating a physical action that needs to be done in order to operate the car.
There is also a certain amount of editing involved on the part of the player because it is necessary to choose the make, model and color of the car, as well as the race track and the number of opponents. In fact, the player controls pretty much everything within the racing except for how the race will turn out.
We also talked in class about how the majority of the console-based games we will and have discussed, are of Japanese origin and are inspired by Western culture. The racing game is different; it is the original if not the only game of Western, more specifically, American origin, and it is inspired by the real events of a huge American sub-culture (Nascar). Football games like Madden are also examples of simmulated games uniquely attributed to American culture.
correct me if I'm wrong.

Lost and Myst

I just finished reading Dr. Jones' chapter on Lost and Myst, and I have to say that I'm very pleased with myself. I read it under 90 minutes and I liked it a lot, Lost is my favorite TV show, so really everything made sense. I've also recently read Our Mutual Friend, and played Myst, so the whole article cemented those common threads I'd already started to unravel on my own. I'm also very glad that Lost isn't just someone's imagination, dream, or purgatory.
I liked learning about the paratextual qualities of the show, although I've never taken part in the Lost Experience game just because I've been afraid that I'd get too involved in it. Stuff like that takes a lot of commitment...plus, what would happen if the show ended this season, and all of the hype created by the paratextual content would suddenly stop at a dead-end...or would the paratextual aspects of Lost live on even though the show no longer exists. I'm sure that viewers of shows like Firefly were the reason that Whedon made the movie Serenity when Firefly was canceled suddenly without any plot resolutions. Will the creators of Lost be compelled to make a movie out of the show as well? I hope not. I'm thinking about going to the University of Hawaii for grad school, so it would be better for me if the show were still in production. Maybe I can get a cameo...