Journey: Collectors Edition Review

Journey: Collector’s Edition is actually a somewhat misleading title for this selection of thatgamecompany games. In fact it functions more as a boxset of the studio’s work to this point, containing as it does all three of their PS3 titles as well as a raft of extras a bonus material that make the value proposition considerable even for those already familiar with their ouvre.

The company’s first game, flOw, was based on co-founder Jenova Chen’s MSE thesis. Taking the role of a series of more complex aquatic organisms the game sees you delve deeper and deeper in a microscopic world consuming, growing and evolving over time. With no real goal or fail state the game functions more as a sandbox experience, and whilst basic, looking back it clearly sets the tone and feel of the subsequent games the studio would release...

You can read the rest of the review over at D-Pad here.

Becoming the Storyteller

The below is an article written for D-Pad Magazine giving some thoughts on storytelling techniques in gaming, find the original here.

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If there has been one thing that has become most notable in the times since videogames emerged into the hallowed third dimension, it has been the focus on story and storytelling. There once was a time when all the story you needed was simply to know that a certain princess was in another castle, or that you were charged with protecting Earth from the alien invaders which are conveniently falling from the sky. Not that the idea of telling a story through gaming is entirely a new convention, but with the advent of full motion video, cut-scenes and cinematic devices it has become an expected and prevalent part of all big budget high profile releases. With these developments have come advances in the way games play out; now tightly-scripted linear games are common, with an emphasis on telling a thrilling, singular story through your actions. Games such as Half Life and the early Call of Duty games are heavily cited as implementing a lot of these features successfully, using the environment, and immersive nature of the first-person viewpoint to pull you through a compelling and thrilling adventure.
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Whilst gaming is a highly immersive and interactive medium, this can often work against it from a storytelling point of view, the autonomy you have over your character becomes the most difficult thing to guard against, and so restrictions have to be put in place to maintain the illusion; NPCs will be invulnerable, or your firing capacity will become restricted when not in combat, only specific doors at specific times will open, bosses and enemies often have to be killed in specific ways and you have no real say in the way events will play out. You are a pawn in a virtual movie, your actions often very limited and it can be very difficult to try and tell a dramatically interesting story, when the only real actions your character can perform are navigating an environment and firing weapons, perhaps with a little puzzle solving in the middle. Any actual character development has to be left for the cut-scenes over which you have little to no control and there is often a strange cognitive dissonance between the two.

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Take Uncharted 2 as an example; in the opening sequence of the game Nathan Drake finds himself incapacitated thanks to a gunshot wound to the stomach. He stumbles along, dragging his feel clearly in a bad way and it limits your abilities as you play in this regard. However through the course of the game you suffer hundreds, if not thousands of gunshots to no ill-effect. The re-charging health system lets him shrug such injuries off, until the cut-scenes of course. Similarly whilst the game spins an entertaining tale with well rounded characters, there is no escaping the fact that in through the course of actually playing the game you, as Drake, are responsible for killing upwards of 1,000 enemies, a fact that is completely counter to the character and realism elsewhere forged through the story. It’s perhaps a natural limitation of gaming’s current desire to ape the cinematic form of storytelling, but ultimately games aren’t films and I sometimes feel that in trying to be they take away much of what makes gaming so unique and interesting an art form as it is in its own right. The very freedom you have as a player, that so many stories seek to limit, can itself be a source of interesting and unique stories, not in the grand sense of a novel or a film, but a much more personal experience, arising from the combinations of player choice and gaming systems.

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My recent, possibly unhealthy, obsession with From Software’s brilliant but brutal Dark Souls, is what brought this topic to mind. The game is extremely story-lite in the traditional sense, at the outset you are given very vague instructions and let loose in a world where pretty much everything wants to kill you (and will probably do so, many times). But what makes Dark Souls so compelling, is the way that you create your own story simply through the act of playing. My adventure through Lordran will be different to anyone else’s, the scarcity of checkpoints and fiendish design make exploring each new location a nerve-wracking and absorbing endeavour. You can’t help but recount the time that you nervously ventured in a new area, were immediately ambushed but somehow survived. Undeterred you crept on taking out enemies until, with the smallest sliver of health left, you reach the safety of the local bonfire, who’s outline you glimpsed from across the level. It is a tale so vivid and unique because you made it for yourself. Maybe someone else took a different route across the map? Maybe it took then a few attempts to reach the same place, by which time they had memorised the layout? Maybe they found a shortcut, or played the whole game and never even found that bonfire. There are no checkpoint markers, no on-screen objectives and so everything you accomplish feels incredibly rewarding. It’s a mini-adventure that you made yourself, the lack of knowledge and information that the game gives you leaves the act of discovery on you, the player, and it results in an experience that feels truly special.

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Even the way you build your character, in this and other more open world RPGs such as Fallout 3 and the upcoming Skyrim allow for these same storytelling opportunities. Some of the best moments of Fallout for me were not the pre-scripted quests or storylines, but the random encounters experienced out in the wilderness. The sense of character and place really made me feel like I was building something through my actions in the world, the people I got on with and the people I opposed. Even within the quests the differing options allowed you to act as you want, and construct your own stories as you go. Such melding of game systems and design is not as straightforward or easy as building a game around a fixed narrative, and both certainly have their place, but the experience you have of blazing your own trail, and taking what you want from a game is one not possible anywhere else. Ultimately these mini stories and anecdotes about your exploits in a world are what tend to stick in the memory, because you are acutely aware that you aren’t just experiencing the same scripted sequence as everyone who bought the same game.

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There are other games experimenting with different storytelling techniques, Heavy Rain for instance, which had a scripted linear plot, but with many divergent points based upon player decisions and performance, which seamlessly moulded into an experience that felt complete but also player driven. One of the best things about the game was not only how wrapped up in the story I got, but the discussions afterwards with others who had such a variety of different experiences. Characters that died in one game lived on in others, whole events and scenes either played out differently or didn’t happen at all. It was a brilliant gamble, and one that I hope more games take in the future.

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Gaming has the potential to be so much more than a cut-scene delivery system, the interactivity with the players gives an immediate investment that other media can’t replicate, all it needs is developers brave enough to do things differently. With the advances in AI and open worlds it isn’t hard to envisage a time when games adapt to your behaviour and performance, truly tailoring an experience that is truly unique and meaningful for each and every player. As it is we are so often the passive participant in other people’s adventures, but more and more I look forward to the day we become our own storytellers, and forge our own paths through these virtual worlds.

Flower

The debate of games-as-art has raged for a while now, the advancement in graphics and technology coupled with gaming’s increasing popularity and relevance to modern culture make such comparisons and questions inevitable but it has been a topic I feel has slightly missed the point. To compare any two mediums in their definitions as art would be to do each a disservice, if we wanted our games to be like films, then why not just go and watch a film? I love the fact that this generation of games has really allowed the smaller developers and teams to have an outlet for unique and unusual games that they previously wouldn’t have had. Each of the three consoles has their own download system for games, be it Wii-ware, the Xbox Live Arcade of the PlayStation Store. Last week saw the release of Flower on the PSN, the game, from the creators of FlOw, pits you as a petal (or collection of petals) and uses the PS3 motion sensor to guide you through levels restoring the land and riding the wind. It is a wonderfully original and fresh game and one that is instantly captivating. The graphics are stunning artistically and technically, and the music is a vital part of the gameplay, the two combining for a relaxing and meditative experience.

But what really impresses about the game is the way it manages to be emotionally affecting, and string together a narrative across its 6 levels without text, characters or dialogue. The game is best played all the way through and I won’t spoil anything, but the way the narrative arc of storytelling is wound into the gameplay is very clever and affecting. The game is also very subtle about things though; through my time with it there came a point where the game was a bit frustrating and a lot less fun. The levels start to darken and the atmosphere becomes gloomy and oppressive, and the way this affects your play is remarkable. But those who stop here, or play in chunks would be missing out on the release that comes from the last level. The game is structured so that from your extreme response to one level, your reaction to the next one is enhanced. And so the final level becomes a joyous turnaround hinged on restoration and renewal. But such a level would not have had the impact without those that preceded it.

Now this is a common style used in other mediums but this is the first time in such an abstract way I was aware of it being implemented so successfully into a game. But even without this the game is a real treat, it is only £6 to download and in my opinion is worth it hands down, the levels have hidden secrets and paths and the mechanics of the game itself are so fun and enjoyable that you will find yourself returning for a quick 5 or 10 minutes every now and again even after completion.

There really is balance for small games to co-exist alongside the big-name titles now and I’m sure that we are only now scratching the surface of the potential for new experiences, and I for one am excited to see where we go from here.

Little Big Planet

It’s funny how character and personality can help define a game in so many ways. For all that graphics and gameplay and content are banded about as key-words within games criticism, it is often those games that above and beyond all that, manage to convey a sense of uniqueness, or life beyond mere pixels, that stand out and garner attention. In recent times no better example of this can be found than Little Big Planet, Media Molecule’s much-hyped creation-based platformer which was so proudly touted and displayed by Sony at games conventions for the past few years. Now that the game has been released, to a positive but somewhat muted reception critically and sales-wise, and I have had the chance to put some time in with the game I feel it worth writing about in terms of not only its use of character and style but the place it could play in the years to come as an example of where much of the gaming industry could be heading. Charm-wise the game is a winner, the universe that has been constructed is wonderful and consistent, the whimsical nature of the story and the levels is balanced out, never becoming too twee or swifling. The choice of Stephen Fry was a masterstroke and lends the tutorials a wonderfully British sense of not only humour but construction as well. The makeshift nature of the game works in its favour, the way levels are built out of cardboard or wood and the way bosses and enemies are bolted together out of separately designed parts work as a constant reminder and as a sort of in-game tutorial to what is possible with the creative tools on offer. For much as Little Big Planet is a fun and enjoyable platform game in its own right, to only scratch the offline sections of the game is missing the game’s real point. What Little Big Planet wants to do is offer the gamer the same tools that the creators have, then encourage you to go out and build something yourself. A great deal of work has gone into making the level creator on offer as flexible as possible, whilst keeping it simple enough to use. Delving in for the first time is a bit overwhelming, and there has been a certain sacrifice to ease of use that comes with a depth of complexity but generally the range of tools on offer has been perfectly balanced to not be overwhelming, but also not limiting either in allowing you to create whatever you envision on the screen. All this takes time and dedication of course, and there will be choruses of gamers unwilling to put in this time, or who have no personal inclination to make use of the tools, however these people can still browse the hundreds and thousands of user created levels that already exist, allowing the game to continue on gaining new content day by day, with no effort from the publishers. As you would expect from such a vast pool of creative talent great things will emerge, and whilst it has taken a while the standard of levels now being found is very high, and it doesn’t take much searching to find new creative and enjoyable levels to play. What is most impressive really is the variety of game styles, the game does not limit you to mere platforming and so you get levels that are races, or time challenges, or merely passive rides where you bear witness to music or scenery. With the addition of the latest Metal Gear Solid themed update the element of shooting a paintgun has been added which has changed a lot of the possibilities for design once again. Overall Media Molecule have done what many doubted they could and delivered on what they said they would. As an overall package Little Big Planet stands as a great example of not only a game with a distinctive and unique voice and style (the game really would not work with a more generic and traditional sheen), but one that paves the way for gamer interaction within games. The community that can be built up and the support that is still to come in the future means that hopefully the game will remain fresh and relevant for a long time to come, and encourage other developers to think along the same lines, blurring the lines between the finished box on the shelf and the life a game can take on once it’s taken home and embraced by the consumers.

My Nintendo Problem

By the end of January it’s almost safe to predict that the NPD Numbers for the US will contain within them the single largest monthly sales number of a console since, well, ever. The Wii decimated the November record (by a cool 700,000 units, or nearly as many as the Xbox360 sold all month) and is bound to do the same again, the current record of 2.7 million PS2’s is in serious jeopardy. Now I think it’s easy to take these numbers in without really appreciating the sheer scale of this achievement. Just to think that over 2 years since its release the Wii is still hard to find, it is still the number 1 searched for and desired gift. Its sales are only getting bigger as supply finally begins to meet demand. From Nintendo’s position 3 years ago this would have seemed impossible and faintly ridiculous, yet now its constant outselling of all the other consoles combined is not only expected, it has become the norm.

As a Nintendo fan this has made me happy, I liked the Gamecube but as it drew to the end of its life I held out hope for the Wii, but only to keep Nintendo in the game for one more round, I honestly couldn’t see them catching up to Sony and Microsoft, let alone breezing past them as if they weren’t even there. You see Nintendo have always marched to the beat of their own drum and I liked their focus on the games rather than the technology, and their step away from the macho one-upping of Sony and Microsoft was a wise one. They were never going to have the resources to be able to compete on that level and by creating their own market they have changed the rules, moved the playing field and left Sony and Microsoft to fight for second place.

So why is it that I can’t help feeling twinges of disappointment and regret when glancing at the Wii sat in the corner of my room? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not writing it off, nor assuming in anyway that this feeling will prevail but it is worth analysing I feel. I think the sense of regret is what has been lost in the clamour for this new market, this new way of playing. Nintendo have gained a huge audience, massive popularity and shedloads of money, but their cutting edge has been dulled, their innovative company line compromised at the altar of the all-powerful dollar. Case in point the latest Animal Crossing game, a game I was anticipating upon its announcement, the promise of an online world which is customisable and inhabitable by people all over the world sounded exciting. Having only played a bit of the previous games I was struck by the possibilities available on the Wii. Even with the friend code restrictions the idea of visiting friends within the same game world and impacting their game was intriguing. Maybe there would also been tasks and challenges you could complete together online? The annual celebrations could be witnessed globally perhaps, and the idea of leaving presents, or notes and messages with others and receiving such thing yourself on returning to the game was an appealing one. Animal Crossing to me always felt like a game hindered by a lack to true connectivity and one that would, or could, flourish in an online environment.

Yet the final game achieves very little of this inherent promise, it is in fact more an upgrade of the Gamecube and DS games, retaining all the previous features and adding very little new. The voice chat add-on is welcome but restrictive and has no great purpose in the game. The graphics and world are near identical to those that have gone before and the much touted ‘city’ of the title is a small collection of shops previously accessed from inside your own village. More than any recently released or even historically released first party Nintendo game this is the one that has felt most like a lazy and cynical upgrade. And the worrying sign is that this may well be the direction Nintendo head towards as time goes on. Now I don’t think that the major franchises will ever be treated with such disdain (Mario Galaxy after all was a magnificent game full of innovation and creativity) but I feel that this style of more casual releases (apologies for using the word, I am not a fan of categorising everything into hardcore and casual games much in the way that I would not categorise films as art-house or populist) will be one we see more of.

For starters next year sees the beginning of Nintendo’s re-releases of Gamecube games with added Wii controls, another fad that has plagued the Wii from becoming home to truly new and innovative games that are built to take advantage of its unique control style. Now I will concede that for games that never saw the light of day on a Nintendo console such as Okami this can be a good thing, and I am enjoying the game very much, but for games such as Pikmin it feels like another rather lazy way of gaining some extra money rather than pouring resources into creating new games. Just because the Wii isn’t much more powerful than the last generation of consoles doesn’t mean it should languish alongside them in terms of content and gameplay.

But what’s wrong with milking something that is so popular for some more money? After all there is a definite justification in spending a small budget on an upgraded game and gaining the same or even more revenue than you might from spending millions on a new and innovative product. I understand the business logic and Nintendo are perfectly justified in doing this, you could even argue they would be foolish not to. But this is where, as a fan, it hurts. Nintendo have never been a logical company, whilst everyone else moved to CD’s they stuck to cartridges out of a stubborn dislike of piracy. Rather than use DVDs with the Gamecube they manufactured their own mini-DVD’s and their fabled reluctance to get involved with online gaming is well documented. But that is partly why I loved them; they zagged when everyone else zigged, they planned crazy add-on’s and extras for bizarre Japanese games such as the N64 DD and gained fame from naming a Gorilla after a Mule. So for a company like this to suddenly seem so profit-focused and predictable feels a little bit sad. Now I’m not saying Nintendo were not profit oriented before, the prevalence of Mario licensed games in their history is more than testament enough to this, but they always had this crazy edge as well and they always had a focus on quality and innovation; even when it didn’t always work. Now it seems that beyond the Wii remote itself there have been fewer and fewer glimpses of this in recent years.

But all this does not mean I have given up hope. 2008 was a quiet year in terms of gaming from Nintendo and it has been a barren few months for Wii owners in terms of games as 3rd party developers get to grips with the system and how to produce quality games for it, but 2009 is full of promise. Nintendo’s recent strategy of announcing games only months before they will be release may well prove successful this year, the thought of a new Zelda, Mario or Pikmin game (or an entirely new game of course) being announced in May and released in November is an exciting one and much more preferable to the old system of announcement then release 2 or even 3 years later.

Where they go from here no-one knows, but the fan in me has his fingers crossed that the old Nintendo makes an appearance soon, if only briefly, to confuse and surprise us once again.

Wii in 2008

I have been a bit slack on the gaming posting lately, this was intended for earlier in the year but before it got to late I thought I'd better get this post written! There are a ton of great looking games coming out for all systems this year, here I will focus on the Wii as that is the platform I own and therefore have the most interest in, but I may well do a follow up post with a wider look at the games coming up for all platforms this year. With all 3 consoles firmly established the focus can finally switch to the games, with second (and third) generation titles appearing as well we will start to see the developers really get to grips with each platform and whatever console you own there will be a host of fantastic titles available this year. So without further ado onto the games, with added clips for your enjoyment... Mario Kart Wii I know it just came out but looks like great fun and online as well which I look forward to exploring! Okami A port of the PS2 game but with improved visuals and added Wii remote functionality this looks like the ultimate version of one of the best games of the past couple of years that I never got to play! Count me excited! Boom Blox A puzzle game developed by EA and Steven Spielberg this looks fun and unique. Super Smash Bros. Brawl OK, I know this is also out in the US already but not here! With enough features to last all year and online modes as well this looks like the ultimate version of one of the best party games of recent years, set a release date please! Wii Fit A hybrid of game and fitness program this still looks like it could be good fun and also practical, I predict it will take the world by storm when it is released in a couple of weeks.

Not quite ready to rock

The success of the Guitar Hero games has sort of passed me by thus far, the appeal of playing along with the songs is obvious enough but it was only when I actually had a go at Christmas that I got the addictive nature of the game, and since then I admit I’ve been tempted. But with the less than stellar reviews for Guitar Hero 3 (not to mention the myriad of problems the Wii version of the game has had) I decided to wait, what really got my interest was the game the original creators of Guitar Hero, Harmonix, went on to make next – Rock Band. After its release last November in the US the game has been a massive success, especially given that the game plus all the accessories (the game comes with a drum set, microphone and guitar and can add another guitar for the full band set up) cost $170 (£85). However the game was only available for PS3 and Xbox 360, so whilst the game looked interesting it wasn’t really on my radar. That is until the recent announcement that the game was coming to the Wii. Despite the fact that there wont an online mode (or the option to download additional content) I was still pleased by the news, the game already comes with 65+ songs and I don’t really have the time for online play so it isn’t something I would really miss. So everything seemed good again, until that is the price was announced. £180 Yes, that’s right. The same as the Wii console, MORE than an Xbox 360 core console and more than double the price of the US version? What? This pricing has only been announced for the Xbox and PS3 versions of the game (the Xbox 360 version is due out at the end of May with the Wii and PS3 sometime later in the year) but is bound to follow for the Wii. So why is it so high? Well firstly UK prices are always higher than their US counterparts, partly due to VAT and tax and other reasons but this usually results in items being 30%-50% higher. There is also the fact that in the UK EA is selling the instruments separate to the game, the instruments cost £130 with the game an extra £50 – again posing the question of why given that you need both to play the game and each is rather useless without the other. So even with these factors this doubling of the price is crazy and puts this game pretty much out of my range, even if it would be fun and last a long time, I just can’t justify that kind of expense, and by the sounds of the internet in recent days a lot of people are in the same boat. For a company to release a game 6 months late and double the price over the US version is unacceptable and it will be interesting to see how peoples reaction to this pan out over time. I think EA will have definitely have hurt their potential sales and with the general public more wary about spending as well I suspect that this announcement may cost the company more in the long term than they expect. Of course there are those who will buy it regardless whilst grumbling about the price, because we have no choice, but for those interested or on the fence about the game, this announcement may just have swayed them the wrong way.

The Joy of Lego Star Wars

There were many possible headings I could have used for this article, some nice force-based pun perhaps, or a more cryptic and enticing title but at the end of the day joy seemed the most appropriate word when describing Lego Star Wars. I had managed to miss the individual games when they were released a couple of years ago but since the Complete Saga was released last year I have been intrigued, and buying it has been a great decision. Now to get off to a start let me just say that the game has its share of flaws, the vehicle sections are clumsy and often frustrating, the camera often has a mind of its own, the levels can get a bit repetitive and the whole game is not that challenging to complete, or that deep in terms of design. Yet it simultaneously manages to be one of the most fun, addictive and enjoyable gaming experiences I’ve had in years. Part of this is down to the genius design of the game, in terms of structure and implementation, the advocacy of a two player throughout practically necessitates co-operative play and the ease with which characters can drop in and out and which the game has been designed around this mechanic is great, it makes the game a much more social and enjoyable experience all round and never feels tacked on or forced like many other co-op game modes.

Secondly the marring of Lego and Star Wars is inspired, a lot of care and attention has gone not only into recreating the films faithfully and cleverly, but to the Lego as well, the universal appeal of that helps the game appeal to more than just the Star Wars fanboy userbase and it somehow makes the whole game more fun to see it created out of Lego blocks. There is a good implementation of the key features of both things as well, there are plenty of opportunities to build things and manipulate the Lego, as well as lots of in-jokes and referenced to Star Wars with a great inclusion of powers and abilities and a wide range of characters you can play as. One of the best things though about the game is its hidden depths. If you want to simply play through the game and be done then you can, and that is perfectly enjoyable but the inclusion of hidden canisters and other challenges on every single level encourage exploration and increase the replay value of the title exponentially. The ability to go back and replay levels in Free Play mode where you can choose and switch between a range of characters is fantastic and so much of the clever design is revealed through these extended play-throughs, often revealing secrets and extras that are missed or not accessible during the initial run through of the level. Add in the extra characters to unlock, the collection of Lego studs which allow you to buy things, extra challenge modes for each film and a bonus room of extra levels not to mention the blue canister challenges for each level and you get a game more packed with content that many you come across. It’s a wonder as well that this rarely feels like a chore to collect, it is not necessary but for those, like me, who are compelled to see and do everything in a game and it really feeds the completionist inside.

Overall this game is great fun, yes it has its flaws but the sheer joy of the gameplay and the world that has been created and the flair with which it has been realised more than make up for it. Maybe one day the Lego-isation of film franchises will become stale and repetitive, but for now this stands as a well crafted and jam packed game that will keep you going for hours on end, if you have missed out on the phenomenon so far then I strongly encourage you to check this out, if you are in any way a Lego or Star Wars fan then you won’t be disappointed.

Mass Defect

When it comes to the mainstream media the events of this past week have proven more than ever that as a medium there is a long way to go before video-games become acceptable and talked about with the same level of criticism and knowledge that movies and music currently enjoy. In case you missed it the whole furore involves the game Mass Effect, Bioware’s epic sci-fi role playing game which sees you create a character and move through a huge and detailed universe building relationships, solving puzzles and becoming immersed in one of the most well crafted and involving stories yet found in a videogame. Oh and yes there is a short two minute non-controllable sex scene which can be a part of the story. The horror. Never mind the fact that the scene in question is far more tasteful than 90% of even pre-watershed TV, or that it is a scene crucial to the plot and characters, or the mere fact that it is something that has to be worked towards through genuine affection and relationships between characters, the media has chosen to side with the usual uneducated ‘video-games are corrupting our children’ line of enquiry, the typical knee jerk reaction to something they have little experience of or understand, and which leads to these scare mongering stories. This little debacle started out a couple of weeks ago with an extremely uneducated and alarmist post from political blogger Kevin McCullough who posted an article on the net basically condemning mass effect as videogame porn and condemning videogames in general, his post containing so many inaccuracies it was almost laughable. He later posted an apology of sorts for the misinformation (after the massive gamer backlash) but never fully rescinded his position. Naturally such an inflammatory piece garnered much attention in the media and gaming sites, however things dies down a bit until the other night when a fox special news report was broadcast focusing once again on Mass Effect, the staggering fact being that this national news broadcaster chose to re-iterate many of Kevin McCullough’s inaccuracies in a fluff piece that soon become clear had no bearing on reality. Videogame expert Geoff Keighley was brought in to bring some facts to the proceedings but that the piece itself made it to air or warranted such attention boggles the mind. You can watch the whole exchange here and there is a much better analysis and transcript of the piece over at Bill Harris’s blog here, it’s an excellent read and sums up my feelings 100% (but in better words.) Thankfully today EA have issued a statement and a letter to Fox news stating their disappointment and seeking an apology, whilst they are often seen as the corporate baddies of the videogame world this time I am right behind them, this kind of misinformed tripe needs to be monitored and corrected and the people responsible held accountable. All such news pieces do are bring the industry into disrepute and add more stains to an already blotchy history, and of course peddle misinformation to the general public who, shockingly, rely on the national news for information. If such blatant untruths were spoken about a book or film there would be an outrage, but somehow gathering people who have played the game in question to host a debate on it is acceptable and normal? I am glad however at the storm that the games playing public has caused around this issue and can only hope that it leads to sensible and well reasoned discussion in the future, there may well need to be questions raised about targeting games to children and the content of such titles, but with more violence and sexuality than ever before available on the internet and on TV it seems mightily hypocritical, not to mention ironic, that the finger ends up pointing at one of the few modern games to really try and push the medium as an art form and whose structure and ambition should be lauded as one of the best example of recent years of videogames finally growing up.

Gaming

Here you can find all my posts related to gaming, be they articles, reviews or impressions or just news or clips, enjoy! 2008 Mass Defect 2007 Reviews, scores and sequels - far from perfect? Get corrupted Where Nintendo is going wrong Five is the Magic Number A casual problem My Games #1: Super Mario 64 A console retrospective E3 2007 Round Up Sailing the Blue Ocean Manhunt 2 and Pleasant Surprises This is Living