Every month I get game magazines with beautiful characters from HD games splashed across their covers. The latest EGM features the Watchmen, the newest Edge details Little Big Planet and Game Developer dives into downloadable XBLA game The Age of Booty. Roundtable discussions in these magazines with developers and producers invariably focus on HD games …
Author Archive
The Small, White Elephant in the Room
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 by jayNo one who worked with Eidos should ever be taken seriously
Friday, October 24th, 2008 by jayIn a new Gamasutra editorial, Keith Boesky - “a long-standing game agent and attorney as well as former Eidos president” discusses the problems with game critics. Dismissing him immediately because he was in charge of Eidos would be unfair. I’m kidding, of course. The only reason he can’t be entirely ignored is because Gamasutra …
October Nintendo conference - new games, DS, xenophobia
Monday, October 6th, 2008 by jayThe October Nintendo conference, held close to the Tokyo Games Show because Nintendo are jerks and won’t go to the TGS, was received better by gamers than their last E3 show. Among the new titles shown off were Wii Punch Out, Mario & Luigi 3 for the DS, a Klonoa remake for the Wii, a …
To the music folder!
Thursday, August 28th, 2008 by jayI am a big fan of game music, specifically old chip tunes. Anyone who only hears bleeps and bloops is willfully ignoring melody, harmony and rhythm and stupidly focusing only on timbre. Games with “real” soundtracks don’t excite me the same way old game tunes do. I already have access to real music.
More importantly, I …
Review - Jake Hunter
Thursday, August 7th, 2008 by jayYou likely play video games for one of the following reasons:
To enjoy fun gameplay
To be amazed by pretty graphics
To fall in love with characters
To listen to an enthralling score
To read a well written story
To kill time because your life is entirely devoid of meaning, even fake, self-created, existentialist meaning
Bad news for those who play primarily …
Review - Rondo of Swords
Thursday, July 31st, 2008 by jayWhat we have already played shapes our opinions of new games. To an SRPG fan, a game like Luminous Arc is old hat. Yet people new to the genre may be taken in by the musical score, voice acting, interesting story and quality breast-focused character art. Without knowing what has come before, the game seems …
News We Care About Wrapup - 7.25.08
Friday, July 25th, 2008 by jayDavid Cage insults MMOs
Cage, the creator of Indigo Prophecy (or if you prefer, Fahrenheit) questions the emotional significance of grinding. His points look very similar to what some of us were saying during the long comment war after this videolamer article. He goes further than we did, though, and into territory I asked …
E3 08 - Nintendo Press Conference impressions
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 by jayNintendo’s E3 conference this year was a big let down for most people. Gamers are even calling it the worst E3 presentation ever and discussing how to best dispose of their Wiis. What could Nintendo have done to have drawn this kind of ire?
Having a mom lead off the presentation …
Sony follows the lonely path
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008 by jayThe new PS3 commercial shows a handful of games set to what sounds like a clip from a Gladiator or Braveheart type movie. A warrior with a middle ages accent (ye olde accent) rallies his comrades before a glorious battle. To Sony this console business is a battle, and a bloody $3 billion one so …
My Life as a Hermitic King
Thursday, June 26th, 2008 by jayAround day 100 or so it starts to become painfully clear that playing My Life as a King consists of little more than assigning spreadsheet characters to spreadsheet dungeons. As this understanding of the game mechanics slowly dawned on me, I began to go to bed earlier each day (virtual king me, not real me).
Calling …
