MeekinOnMovies On....Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos

Smooth Operators: Call Center Chaos

Platforms: XBLA, iOS
Did I pay for it? Yes (XBLA) No (iOS)



When’s the last time your job was the focus of a novel? What about a movie? TV Show? How about a video game? Lets face it, unless you’re living the incredibly exciting life of a cop, drug dealer, vampire, teenage mother, surgeon, space Marine, work in a restaurant of some kind, or are Mark Cuban, your career is probably underrepresented in terms of representation in media - “Pro-Bono Video Game Critic 2014” isn’t happening anytime soon folks. 

But that tide is changing. Farming simulators, truck driving simulators, and even robot vacuum simulators (seriously) are gaining word-of-mouth buzz, and some critical praise too. It seems finding the joy in the mundane is what’s hot in gaming right now, a “new wave” of interactive experiences that ditches the laser guns and damsels in distress for something a little closer to home. 

Case-and-point: “Smooth Operators”, a charming-as-hell call center management simulator, that for iOS. 

Freebie: Galaxy on Fire 2 HD for iPhone and iPads

I’m a Trekkie, tried and true. While not as obsessed as some, I enjoy the sciencey bits, the theoretical discussions between space and time, and the way “Star Trek: The Next Generation” employs real scientific consultants to fact check all sorts of data and concepts that were subtly inserted into the show. So as a kid I was always a Jean-Luc Picard kind of guy in a Han Solo world. 

Of course, it became a tough choice as time went on. Classic space games like “Elite 2” and “X3: Reunion” with almost-limitless-as-space depth whisked past my peripheral vision - too obtuse to truly dive into.


Which brings us to the completely free “Galaxy On Fire 2”, the first game in the space pirate/trader genre that I’ve truly sunk my teeth into since the Sega Genesis’s “WarpSpeed”, and I’ve enjoyed it quite a great deal. 

Freebie: You Don't Know Jack (Mobile / Facebook)

In this world, there are few places for B-type personalities to massage their egos. You can write a 13,000 word diatribe defending the “Star Wars” Prequels, get a PHD, get a writing gig, kick-start that graphic novel you’ve been kicking around, but the ability to have an honest-to-goodness pissing contest is the privilege of the macho. So we play trivia. 

But once people know you’re good at it, they don’t want to play with you any more.

Until...you meet a pretty girl. Well, pretty is a disservice. Imagine if you took Rolf the Muppet’s personality and curly hair and put it into a sexy possibly Latina chick. I wooed her with a trip to the giant Dave & Buster’s trivia machine, the sly maneuver of giving my prize tickets away to a kid (after getting her an adorable stuffed penguin - Gerald), and not much else. Trivia came up again, and I mentioned owning “You Don’t Know Jack”. Her eyes lit up, and I was suddenly inviting a girl back to my place to play video games. She was serious about this too. That competitive spirit that had eluded all my friends and most of my acquaintances, was present in this angel of a woman. I needed to win, and she did too and that was freaking sexy.

This is why I fondly refer to the 'old' You Don't Know Jack as the game that got me laid.

MeekinOnMovies On....Hitman: GO

“Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.”

 - Frank Lloyd Wright 

 

The Hitman Series is a weird one. The first game came out over a decade ago, and there’s been four sequels since, all with interchangeable subtitles like “Absolution”, “Blood Money”, and “Silent Assassin” that conjure up a mind’s eye view of generic power fantasy blech.

In reality Hitman games are pretty heady - or at least want to be. From all kinds of religious subtext and orchestral arrangements, to trippy content and no-win plot scenarios, Hitman’s failing seems to be one of half measure. It can’t be the post-modern, dour, slow-burn thriller like the movie “Drive” is, and it doesn’t want to be the ballsy over-the-top campy game like “Max Payne” either. As a result the games live somewhere in the middle; truly bizarre titles with a variety of interesting - if not completely compelling, narrative ideas.

I bring this all up because despite what you may think, it has quite a bit to do with Hitman: Go, a simple, addicting, challenging, elegant, board game recently released for tablets.