My apologies in advance because I am going to talk about superheroes and computer games…

This moment occured recently in a game of Half Life 2 deathmatch:

I was throwing a car at some dude, he was throwing a table at me and it got me thinking about tactility.

Spiderman 2

One of the thrills of the first Spiderman film was the fluidity of Mr Parker gliding around New York City, dancing along the side of a skyscraper. I swear it was as though he was making love to the skyline. So languid and sensuously charged was this flight that Hannah even claimed to be ever so very turned on by Peter Parker’s CG ass.

In the sequel however, Dr Octopus, he of the Badass-Nano-Tech-Limbs-Of-Death, has a far less sympathetic relationship to his built environment. When he climbs up the side of the building it is not like some soft focus Flake add, it is an advertisement for Nutrigrain - loud and metallic, embossed. His claws puncture the facades and take great chunks of the rubble with them as he clambers without grace up the side of the building. He is the antithesis of Spiderman and he is far more satisfying to watch navigating New York City.

This is a tactile experience and it is why the second film was far more engaging than the first film. We feel the weight and momentum of Dr Ock’s arms as they destroy the architecture in their way.

Half Life 2

Half LIfe 2 features a the most fully realised physical environment in a video game to date. Where in other games there may be a box that may be blown up, a table that can be pushed over, in Half Life 2 everything has a physical property, can be picked up, thrown and be expected to fall and tumble accurately. If I pick up and throw it over the edge of a cliff it can be expected to fall and tumble with a satisfying tactility.

This may be enough to create a convincing replication of a physical space however where Half Life 2 excels is by making this physicality deeply entwined in the gameplay.

Part of the way through the game the player receives the gravity gun. With this any loose item in the game can be picked up and thrown. Where a metal locker used to be a bit of decoration sitting in the corner of the room it is now a projectile, or a battering ram or a blockade. Cars can be blown out of the way and tables can be launched at the enemy, knocking them for six.

Towards the end of the game the player receives a more powerful version of the gun that can pick up people and throw them. The staple of the action game, the projectile firing gun has been removed and the body becomes the weapon. Antoinette was shocked as I picked up a Combine Soldier and hurled him, arms flailing, into five other soldiers. And it is shocking. The human body should not be abused in this manner but there is no denying that this is a tactile experience. The body has mass and momentum that affects its environment.

In the online, multiplayer part of the game with each player in control of a gravity gun this turns into a chaotic gamespace. Cars, tables and toilets fly around the level bouncing off one another, colliding with other players. The level is alive with kinetic energy. All of a sudden, the well-defined and somewhat tired genre of multiplayer deathmatch has changed from trying not to be shot by invisible virtual bullets, to an attempt not to be crushed by flying detritus. It is frantic and invigorating.

Ico 2

A new game is in the works that looks as though it may take the idea of a tactile environment to its natural conclusion and again it is a sequel to a game that in the first instance created a highly organised and consistent game world. Ico was the perfect Rescue The Princess game. It existed in a highly refined and intricately planned castle and no other game has successfully distilled complex gameplay mechanics into such an elegant, simple world.

The sequel to Ico, currently titled Wanda and Colossus, takes the player out of the castle and into a vast empty plain.

Where in the first game the architecture was a riddle to be solved this time the architecture is the enemy. The game takes the player out of the castle and into a vast empty plain inhabited by giant beings. These giant Colossus’ are the architecture of the game and they must be conquered. Architecture has changed from a benevolent beautiful structure to a kinetic dangerous entity. The player must clamber over the Colossus while it attempts to shake you off, swat you whatever, sinking your sword into its side to maintain a hold on the moving behemoth.

This is a truly physical game concept. The first game distilled much of the fluff prevalent in other games down to just a few elements: The Castle, The Princess and a single enemy. It looks as thought the sequel will distil this even further by dipsosing of the idea of an enemy entirely and making the castle, the architecture the adversary.