December, 2009

Culture / Experience — 2 Comments
28
Dec 09

This is Week – Just Missed Christmas Edition

The True Spirit …

Even though the entire videogame industry goes dark over the final two weeks of the year, it doesn’t mean that there’s no news to talk about, especially when squeezing blood out of stones is one of your favourite pastimes. Yes, I’m aware that sounds creepier than it was supposed to, and I like it that way.

Time to PlayThe Good

Time to Play

Sometimes the prospect of dropping out of work or getting fired seems pretty appealing. Finally having time to play all those games that we’ve been meaning to get to would be a reality. That fantasy probably won’t ever come true in a way that’ll put food on the table, but at least there’s Christmas break, which will at least get us all part way there without disappointing our parents any further than we already have. Continue reading →

News — 2 Comments
21
Dec 09

This Is Week – Tri-ism Edition

The Good, the Bad, and the things that are sapping productivity.

Dualism is such a tired concept. Good/Bad, Man/Woman, Fool/Genius, you’d think that by now we’d have moved beyond a view of the world invented before the birth of Christ . So instead of just looking at the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ that’s occured over the week in game-related news, why not add another random category to the mix. That’ll be groundbreaking, won’t it? We can call its theoretical base ‘Tri-ism’.

The Good

L4D2Public Consultation About an R18+ Rating For Videogames

Two way, open discussion on a topic that affects our country’s citizens? What is this we’re living in, some kind of democracy? Finally releasing a discussion paper on Australia’s rating system and calling for submissions on the topic may be seen as a token effort by many, but it’s a start. Let’s just hope that the 1337 speaking population and all those with Xbox Live attitudes are too busy pwning noobs to reply. Continue reading →

Game Design / Industry — 1 Comment
18
Dec 09

What my television set can learn from videogames

People often pick up my Wii Remote trying to change the channel. It’s not a bad idea.

Observe the following evidence.

My Wii Remote:

IMG_0161

Continue reading →

Experience / Game Design — 2 Comments
5
Dec 09

Uncharted 2: Beyond ‘Cinematic’

Some games truly take advantage of the medium. Uncharted 2 is one of them.

Warning: This post contains intensely minor spoilers.

Many have described Uncharted 2 as ‘cinematic’ without actually qualifying what they mean. One might assume they’re insinuating that the game is perfect for watching while sitting back with a box of popcorn big enough to feed a developing nation. Or it could be that it looks great. I’m not quite sure. And I’m not clear whether those that use the term are either. If they’re referring to the game’s grand styling, which extends beyond its beautiful looks, then, for once, allusions to a scope as grand as cinema’s are warranted. But if it’s simply the cutscenes in isolation from the rest of the game that they’re focusing on, their view is incredibly myopic. Continue reading →

Game Design / Industry — 7 Comments
2
Dec 09

The year of thirds

AC2_S_008

If 2007 was the year of first person, then 2009 was the year of third person. A simple, and accurate equation, but it is more complex than all that.

With the exception of retro-fuelled nostalgia, the games industry can rarely be accused of looking backwards. From time to time we certainly hold up anointed examples of videogame craft and skill above others, and we regularly pine for a return to our first experiences with Mario, Zelda, and other aged icons.

But it is unusual to see analysis of trends or innovation outside of the gaming canon; even more unusual to look at a year’s worth of games once we’ve wiped our hands of them with obligatory Game of the Year awards. These awards are often contentious and fiercely debated at the time, but rarely do we concern ourselves with the trends of a particular year after we’ve handed out our pats-on-the-back and shown the world just how thoroughly up with it we’ve been in the last 365 days. We rarely even return to the games of years past: unless they’re in the canon, we probably won’t revisit them.

I’d therefore like to return to just two years ago: the year 2007. This, as it was easy to see at the time, was the year of first person. Continue reading →