When I started writing for videolamer over a year ago, I was a slightly angry, jaded gamer. I was pissed with how the industry was going: the Playstation 3 was way too expensive; the 360 had some good games on it, but let’s all be real honest, most people got the system for Halo or …
Archive for the ‘Editorials’ Category
Tyson gives thanks… to video games!
Friday, November 28th, 2008 by tysonThe Small, White Elephant in the Room
Wednesday, November 26th, 2008 by jayEvery 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 …
No 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 …
Fighting off the pirates - DRM points to deeper problems
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 by christianWith Spore’s flagrant copy protection causing a stir, DRM is once again the hot item of debate in the gaming world. I welcome any rigorous discussion of the topic, because while most of us will agree that DRM should not be used, it most certainly will be. The more we discuss it, the …
Thoughts on filler
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 by horatioWhile playing Professor Layton last Spring, I remember Jay asking me (before he had purchased the game himself) if it were true that the game was bad because 80% of the puzzles were simple, the kind of thing that you could solve in 30 seconds and with little thought. The answer was a yes and …
Gaming Community Rant
Monday, September 8th, 2008 by christianMy last few weeks of gaming have been dominated by two downloadable games, Braid and Bionic Commando. While both playing each game and reading the discussions surrounding them, I came to a great personal revelation. Whenever I get into a state of severe crankiness, it isn’t because of the games I am playing. …
RPGs are bad “games”
Tuesday, August 5th, 2008 by chrisThe JRPG genre is filled to the brim with games that are so ridiculously easy they are bad “games” - in the sense that a game is something you should have to play optimally to achieve success. The Suikoden series, my favorite of the past two generations, has gone from being “somewhat tricky in …
Dual Shocked
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 by christianWay back when the Playstation was Sony’s way of saying “fuck you” to Nintendo, there was the original Playstation controller. The method behind it was simple; take what Nintendo made and make it bigger. The controller had the same layout as a Super Nintendo pad, with some added handles and two extra shoulder …
E3 08 - Sony Press Conference impressions
Friday, July 18th, 2008 by christianThe major E3 press conferences played out the way I expected, except for Sony’s. Nintendo didn’t have much, and they didn’t really need much. Microsoft needed a fresh coat of paint and wanted a broader audience for the 360, and revealed attempts to accomplish these goals. Sony needed some big fucking guns, …
Firaxis Rage
Monday, July 14th, 2008 by golden jewI love Civilization. I really do. I’ve been on a massive kick of Civ 4: BTS multiplayer recently, and I’m eager for Civilization Revolution, as are many of my friends. But I can’t excuse some of the ridiculous activities that Firaxis has been engaged in lately.
First, they release ANOTHER faulty patch for …
