Geek Syndicate Issue 7 | Page 76

Geek Syndicate Image © Rockstar Games, 2008 or finding some half buried shrine with a powerful relic hidden within. On the other hand, we have a game like Rockstar Games’ LA Noire. LA Noire sees you driving around 1940s Los Angeles as policeman Cole Phelps. You mostly find yourself driving from crime scene to crime scene, although there are a few emergency calls that come in over the police radio that you can hasten to or ignore. So far, so good, but the actual city, while lovingly styled and produced, was empty of any real interactivity. It was an open world with very little to do or to explore, so there was little point in straying from the main linear story. The game offered the fast travel option of having your partner drive you to your next location. It was very tempting but I carried on driving myself, if only to enjoy the look of the period cars and to listen to the various radio stations. I would have much preferred the open world pretence to be gone and a longer linear story to be provided. This is an example of a game where fast travel is almost a nod to the fact that the game world was barren of things Image © Bethesda Softworks, 2011 “In-world” solution: Take the train in GTA IV ... depending on the game. Often, you cannot fast travel somewhere until you have visited there once via the old fashioned route of getting there yourself. There may also be costs for your character; a fare for the cab ride or some kind of statistical penalty such as increased hunger or fatigue. (Fallout New Vegas in its “Hardcore” mode). The issue seems to be whether fast travel is simply being offered as an option, a nod to the fact that sometimes gamers just want to get on with things or have limited time due to life constraints. Or whether it is being used to hide some of the shortcomings of the game world. A game that seems to use fast travel in the spirit it is intended is Bethesda’s Skyrim, a large open world filled with incidental detail and lots of random encounters. Skyrim offers the ability to fast travel from any outside location to one which you have previously discovered, as long as your character is not near enemies or carrying too much loot. You are met with a loading screen and when you find yourself back in the game world, time has passed reflecting the length of your journey. If it is afternoon when you leave, it would very probably be night when you arrive if you are travelling far enough. If this kind of travel isn’t for you, the game gives you horse-drawn carriages which will take you to the major cities for a sum of gold, even if you haven’t yet visited them. As far as Skyrim is concerned, I feel that its fast travel systems don’t hide flaws or the lie of a vibrant world. In my own opinion at least, Skyrim’s world is amazing to walk around and to explore, and if anything, using fast travel causes you to miss or lose out on some of the games best experiences. Seeing a dragon attacking a grizzly bear on the road ahead, ... or a carriage ride in Skyrim 76