New Games Journalism (Me Rambling & Struggling to Articulate Myself)

omg.

Its Christmas morning 2010, and I have three hours to kill before my father’s side of the family join us for the annual mouth-watering dinner. I decide to try out one of my new games in order to stave off thoughts of hunger and distract myself from my grumbling stomach (stupid pigs in blankets leading me astray).

Anyway, initially I decided to try my hand at Elder Scrolls: Oblivion since many people had told me how wonderful and expansive it was, and so after spending half an hour using a character creator that seemed determined to produce the least aesthetically pleasing results possible, I then proceeded to stand about listening to some old king ramble on about something uninteresting before fannying about in some underground dungeons for about twenty minutes. It was at this point that I realised perhaps this game was not quite Christmas Morning material. I wanted to be sucked into another world; I wanted a game that actually made me consider missing out on my once-a-year plateful of deliciousness, so I then turned my attention to a game that I had purchased the week before, knowing little to nothing about it save for the fact that it was a fantasy RPG and that it featured a dragon both in its title and its box art. Dragons + Fantasy = overexcited inner nerd.

(Although I was never a huge fan of Oblivion; this bits pretty funny)

Embarrassed, as I am to admit that I purchased a game because of the mythological winged reptile depicted on the cover, that erratic decision might have ended up being one of the best choices I ever made in my gaming history.

So I strip off the clingfilm and pop the disc into my PS3 (may he rest in peace) and upon selecting “New Game” I’m thrown into an opening cinematic that proceeds to explain the plight of this order called the “Grey Wardens” who were engaged in battle with the barbaric Darkspawn. The graphics weren’t stunning and the story seemed about as standard fantasy as you could get, but the strong, important sounding voice of the narrator and the booming soundtrack caught my interest right away.

Soon after I find myself looking at my second character creation screen of the morning. Immediately I immerse myself in it, tweaking and toggling minute details to my hearts content, selecting gender, race, class, back-story and all the while imagining my character’s personality and lifestyle, right down to what foods they liked or what weather they preferred. Again this character creator wasn’t fabulous, I was unable to tweak body shape and the eyebrows always had this weird downward sliding aesthetic; as though my character were particularly perplexed by a difficult riddle or some such. Also no matter how much I tried to ignore it, I couldn’t escape the fact that the width of my dainty elven lady’s shoulders was the same as that of a rather more athletic elven man. However, the prospect of beginning one of “oh my god SIX whole different opening origins!” completely overshadowed any negative thoughts at this point; and so Emirah the Dalish Elf Rogue was born.  I press begin game.

I really like the music that plays during character creation too

Again comes the pleasing voice of my narrator, telling me a little more of my origin as the camera pans through some trees. I see a group of men running through the forest; I wonder what they’re running from. An elven man that my narrator informs me is my childhood friend “Tamlen” aims a bow at them. They have an exchange, during which I gather that elves and humans don’t exactly get along well, “there’s a surprise” I think to myself. Elf/human racism isn’t exactly a new aspect of the fantasy genre. Again, this does nothing to deter me “keep throwing me all of these fantasy clichés Dragon Age!” I think to myself.

Then something wonderful happened.

Emirah walks on screen, I note to myself that perhaps the other hairstyle would have suited her character better, but no time to dwell on that, as Tamlen has just addressed her directly. Expecting either the good old Legend of Zelda silent protagonist “Yes/No” checkbox or the unfitting preset script read of a voice actor; I instead found myself unbelievably surprised.

An options box appeared, filled with RESPONSES.

Ohhh my gosh, a whole selection of different replies, each reflecting different personalities! Excitement bubbled up within me; could games even do this? Did they even do this? Since when did they do this? WHY DIDN’T MORE GAMES DO THIS?! I carefully considered the choice that would best suit my cheeky, sceptical Dalish elf. Would she kill them outright? Would she want to spare getting into trouble? I eventually decided that Emirah was the curious type, always wanting to know more about things (nosy in other words) and so I picked the “lets find out what they’re doing here” option.

oh, Oghren

AND WHEN I PICKED IT, NO FOREIGN, ALIEN VOICE READ ALOUD MY CHOSEN REPLY. I was free to imagine my own voice for Emirah, attaching me even more to this character that had only just been born within my mind this very morning. I chose to imagine that she had quite a low, drawling voice for a petite female, with a somewhat croaky squeak inflection at the end of some words, showing the youthful, fun-loving side of her personality. Throughout this I was making myself painfully aware of what a character whore I am, unable to help myself from being reminded of days sat playing on The Sims and imagining exactly how each and every one of them would be in real life.

From that point on Tamlen and I conversed between ourselves and the “shems” (our name for the humans) we learned that they had found a cave, which interestingly enough contained a demon and Ancient Elvish writing; I gather from my companion that this is important. After choosing to kill one of the shems as a warning (slightly out of Emirahs character but I was feeling just a tad excitable). Next thing I know Emirah and Tamlen are running about the forest, stabbing attacking wolves and looting their bodies, Emirah also ponders why wolves are carrying about such useful items as “leather boots” and “greenstones” what use does a feral canine have for these things? Emirah tells herself that this isn’t important right now as we are nearing the mouth of the cave.

Credit to: ViNCeNT-aSMoDeus on Deviantart

Before we enter, Tamlen turns to my Dalish Rogue and enquires as to whether she’s seen this cave before, her reply is no, but that they should check it out (such is her careless explorative nature I’ve just decided that she has) and so the two elves enter in order to explore further. I think to myself that I quite like this character Tamlen and that he will be a good companion for my elven girl. The nagging voice of my mother rouses me from my fantasy world and implores the helping of table setting or drink pouring; I dismiss this with a mumbled “in a minute, two secondsss…”

 I resume playing in order to just very quickly peek inside the cave that Emirah is so curious about. Running after Tamlen and defeating the gigantic spiders that come toward her with swift backstabs and blocks, she wonders “what is this place and why does it look so much like a dungeon and so not like an ordinary cave?” Delving deeper and deeper and looting more and more treasure chests, her curiosity (and mine) continue to grow and grow.

Unfortunately though by this point I have one rather stressed mother in need of assistance, and so reluctantly I save the game and put on hold the adventures of the two Dalish elves. I’m gutted that I have to leave it for now, and itching to play more, but at least I have a huge delicious Sunday dinner waiting to be very thankfully devoured. Once I’ve sat down and begun to pile upon my plate the unbelievably yummy meal that only comes around once a year, amongst the cheery banter of my family members my mind wanders to the game, the land of Ferelden, Emirah and Tamlen; and I absent mindedly think to myself…

I wonder if elves like pigs in blankets?

Katie Rose Johnson Illustration