In the past 2-3 years the games industry has passed over the proverbial cusp that had prevented it from reaching mainstream appeal.
Games are being mentioned in the same breath as top tier films and books, being compared to art and various literature. It is set to take it’s place as a prominent form of entertainment.
There are however a few things that are holding it back, small hurdles that need to be overcome. I shall now suggest three changes that the Games Industry as a whole should make to cement it’s social acceptance and cultural relevance.
1 – Definitive media outlets
World news has the BBC, CNN and the New York Times. Film has Empire and IMDB, Music has Rolling Stone and NME. All of these are well established and respected sources for people outside of the subject they hold personal interest in. The games industry has Kotaku? Gamespot? Eurogamer? There isn’t one site or even a few out there who I would person... More »
Fable II explores what happens when a game does away with most forms of punishment, and does nothing but reward its players from start to finish. The results are astonishing.
It's worth stepping away from the tried and tested Pavlovian mechanics that games have inherited from the coin-crunching arcades to consider what Lionhead is proposing. Almost every game ever made has reinforced its rules with penalties: if you fight and lose, you're killed; if you go off and explore, you get lost; if you're spotted when you're meant to be hiding, you're deported back to the start.
It's a strategy that undoubtedly works - many of gaming's finer moments are often interlinked with its harshest challenges - but there's also no escaping the fact that when it all goes wrong you're often treated like a lab monkey undergoing a rather cruel experiment: you may really want that banana, but the chances are you're going to get a lot of electric shocks first.
Fable II, ... More »
Some new details about White Knight Chronicles have emerged, courtesy of Japanese gaming site Game-Star!
Here's the gist of the article:
- Story should last 100 hours +
- Graphics will be at 1080P
- Dynamic battle system, allowing you to chose from the regular sized characters or transforming into the colossal white knight
- Co-op gameplay over the PSN
With TGS right around the bend, expect a lot more from Level-5 on this Sony exclusive RPG.
September has nearly come to a close, and Qore Episode 5 is nearly upon us. We've got the details on the latest episode right here.
As the October issue, Qore will celebrate Halloween with the theme "The Monsters of Gaming," which will debut brand new footage of Fallout 3, Resident Evil 5 and Dead Space.
October also represents the approach of colder weather. In that spirit, Qore headed out to Park City, Utah to check out the PS3 version of Shaun White Snowboarding.
As always, the episode will feature an assortment of mini-games and downloadable content, though what form they will take has yet to be specified.
Stay tuned for more Qore coverage!
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This generation of consoles has barely got going, with the price war not really having even begun, and no sign of a winner yet being called (although the Wii is clearly the frontrunner). But, the next generation of consoles could be on their way sooner than we all think. The only question remains: who will actually be involved?
Actually I lied, the other question is when will the next-gen consoles actually arrive on the scene. We’ve spoken about this before, with 2010 being the earliest date mentioned in terms of when a new console could emerge from one of the big three, More likely given the state of the industry (healthy console sales but all three platforms still viable) is 2011 or 2012.
Nintendo is guaranteed to be in there. The Wii and DS have made the company so much money that it is likely to want to throw money at a new development in an effort to repeat the phenomenal success of this generation’s offerings.
Whether the Wii 2 is just a... More »
Just being able to play games is only the beginning. If you're going to call yourself a proper gamer (as opposed to a casual pretender) there are a few requisite skills that you must master first. 50 skills, in fact. And they're all right here...
1. Give a game a review score without ever actually playing the game
A cursory glance from 20 paces of a grainy postage stamp-sized super lo-res scanned-in screenshot pinned to the ass-feathers of a headless chicken in a sandstorm should be all you need to confidently attribute an authoritative and infallible review score to any game. It's how professional reviewers have been doing it for years.
2. Be able to spot whether a game is running in 720p
Just by looking at it.
3. Survive with only four hours sleep (max) a night
We all abide by the 'one more go' mantra. It demands that we are strong in the face of severe sleep deprivation.
4. Play Wii without using the wrist strap
<... More »
Are you afraid of the dark? Do you run from things that are creepy – or go looking for them with a magnifying glass?
Survival/horror, the genre that turned teens and adults into terrified gamers that were too scared to put down the controller (or in some cases, too frightened to hold onto it), has been a great source of pleasure for those seeking thrills and chills.
If you’re in that group, you won’t have to search much longer: Alone in the Dark returns this summer.
To quote: You can even pierce the gas tank, start driving, leaving a trail of fuel, bail out, set fire to the trail, and you have a powerful rolling bomb.
Our objective was to make a game that’s more modern in terms of content, more adapted to the tastes of today’s gamers, and in particular that breaks the clichés of what you know about video games, said Nour Polloni, Producer at Eden Games.
For us it’s not a survival/horror game, but a new per... More »
The online behavior of a small but growing number of computer users in the United States is monitored by their Internet service providers, who have access to every click and keystroke that comes down the line.
The companies harvest the stream of data for clues to a person's interests, making money from advertisers who use the information to target their online pitches.
The practice represents a significant expansion in the ability to track a household's Web use because it taps into Internet connections, and critics liken it to a phone company listening in on conversations. But the companies involved say customers' privacy is protected because no personally identifying details are released.
The extent of the practice is difficult to gauge because some service providers involved have declined to discuss their practices. Many Web surfers, moreover, probably have little idea they are being monitored.
But at least 100,000 U.S. customer... More »
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