The player

Something's got to give: JOE GRIFFINsays videogame heroes shouldn't be so tough

LAST WEEK my fellow Player Ciara O'Brien ran through some of the hot games of 2011. Personally, I'm looking forward to Dead Space 2, Bulletstormand Gears of War III. One trend continues unabated (admittedly in some of the games I can't wait to play): the super- macho, brick-outhouse- shaped space marine.

As I've said in the past, I love the Gears of Warseries and have plenty of time for Halo, but this past year has shown that the more vulnerable the hero, the more affecting the game can be. Even Halo Reachshows the good guys getting trounced – and its climax is all the more tragic and affecting for it.

In a new documentary about the marking of Darkness of the Edge of Town, Bruce Springsteen talked abut amplifying instruments. Springsteen spent hours trying to make certain instruments prominent (louder drums on particular tracks, for example), until he discovered that there was only so much sonic room: Louder drums smothered the guitars, and vice-versa. Something had to give.

Similarly, in games, if you make the hero tougher, the possible enemies are more limited. Kratos in God of Warcan tear a giant apart from the inside, so his enemies are forced to go bigger and brasher. But the stakes feel greater in the case of Limbo, where it's a wimpy little boy fighting the elements; Flower, where it's a collection of petals; and Microbot, where it's a microscopic vessel fighting cells.

As countless movie thrillers have shown us, the peril of the ordinary man or woman feels greater than the overblown antics of the action man gym junkies of the 1980s.

Of the highlights of 2010, many of our game heroes were ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations; Ethan Mars in Heavy Rainis an architect, the eponymous lead in Alan Wakeis an author, and the central characters in the Kane and Lynchseries are often middle-aged and despondent.

A nice compromise is to give the hero a leg-up, whether it's the fancy suit in the Crysisgames, or some magic tricks and a faithful pet, as in the Fableseries. These little tricks can make the hero formidable but still vulnerable.

As an artform, games are still in their infancy. While the super-solider isn’t going anywhere, it’s nice to see that he’s getting a little competition from flower petals and scrawny kids.