Sunday Frames — Rocket League


Surprisingly few games, when you think about it, ded­i­cate their load­ing screens to an image of actu­al in-game action. For me, Rocket League’s load­ing screen has been an oppor­tu­ni­ty to grab anoth­er sip of my beer, lament the pre­vi­ous game’s fail­ures, and think about a few things.

What’s going on here? Well it looks like the bal­l’s just inside the Blue half, to the right of the posts. Red’s look­ing to meet the ball head on and power a shot on goal. Blue wants to time the sec­ond, more pow­er­ful, hit of the dou­ble jump to smash the ball clear.

What’s going to hap­pen? Difficult to say which direc­tion the bal­l’s mov­ing in, but it’s impor­tant. If it’s drop­ping in from high up I reck­on Blue’s going to hit it first, see­ing it away. If it’s bounced and head­ing upwards and away from Blue, Red’s going to get there first.

What would I do in this sit­u­a­tion? If I’m Blue I’m clear­ly about to panic, hit the dou­ble jump early and fly frus­trat­ing­ly close to Red as he clips a deli­cious shot past me into the goal. I will then, as so often, audi­bly curse ‘Those pricks who can fly.’

But if I’m Red it’s a dif­fer­ent mat­ter! Hark at the momen­tum on him. With the tables turned I’m def­i­nite­ly get­ting to that ball first, smash­ing it way over the goal to bounce back into my own half as I plum­met, bounce, and grad­u­al­ly come to a halt spin­ning gen­tly upside down in the Blue goal. Over on the other end, they’ve scored.

Up yours, Rocket League.

rocket-league-loading

Sunday Frames is a series of short pieces where the author muses on one or a small num­ber of stills, frames, pic­tures, screen­shots, or illus­tra­tions.


Jim Ralph

About Jim Ralph

Jim Ralph currently resides in sunny Winchester, England. He'd love to hear from you, personally, with any thoughts on his writing or lucrative job offers.