Video-Game Journalism: A Joke

I found this interesting little article: Video-Game Journalism: A Joke

What particularly interested me was the snide comment 'published literature about games about games surely you jest'.

Firmly at the core of my passion for gaming is a deep rooted belief in the emotion games can evoke. I can not see why games are regarded as second rate media. Plots in games can be as involving and evocative as any cinema release or book published. Characters are deep and there is a genuine capacity to care for these computer generated images. Landscapes are breathless and limitless. What is the difference say, between Avatar and Gears of War? The interactive element? Surely that makes the medium more involving and adds interesting dimensions? Can it be said then, that video games are in fact a higher medium of entertainment?

One day, I will write a book about this sort of thing. Now that would be published literature about games.

I'M BACK!

Yes yes yes, I know it's been a bloody long time, but internet over the summer has been pretty limited. Even now I'm tapping away on Aarons laptop. Hopefully they'll be a new laptop in Satas sack for me :)

So what's prompted this dramatic return to blogging? I've just watch Panorama and the title of this weeks addition? Addicted to Videogames. Yeah, you heard right, more bad press for video games. Suprisingly however, video games weren't presented as being the most depremental thing to the youth generation since rock and roll. The focus was much more on the individuals who are 'addicted' (although the application of this term is debateable) to gaming and less of an attack on videogames themselves. All in all, fasinating stuff.

My thoughts? I think with everything the problem lies not in the medium but the individual. Show someone with an addictive personality cocain, and I imagine they'll become addicted. Show them a copy of World of Warcraft, I'm sure they'll become addicted to that too.

So there you go. What else... I'm currently playing Fallout: New Vegas, so once thats done, I'll post my thoughts on that. And I'll be starting my dissertaion proposal in the new year, which I fully intend on gearing toward gaming. Videogames as Valid Media or perhaps The Medias Portrayal of Videogames Through the Years... something along those lines. So you can look forward to a five thousand word essay sometime in the future.

Much love :)

Bioshock 2 reveiw... coming soon!

So I just completed Bioshock 2, so I'll be posting a full review of that soon.

Initial thoughts...
it lacked the atmosphere of the original, but no one was expecting it to be able to recreate the magic of entering Rapture for first time. In all, a great game. I think it added wonderfully to the mythology of game and kept me gripped for the full... ten or so hours it took me to complete it. Thoroughly decent buy :)

x

I think I think too much...

Yes yes yes,

another of my ponderings. This one however isn't going require my Paint skills.

So, I've been watching my friend play Silent Hill: Shattered Memories on the Wii and it got me thinking about this new trend 'shaping the game to suit the player'. In Shattered Memories the player is 'psychologically assessed' through a series of psychological tests (ink blots and word association, you know the type) and the game alters to suit the player. Examples include the clothing of the np characters changing and the appearance of the monsters adapting to suite whether the player is more aggressive or sexually fixated say.

I think this concept has a lot of potential and seems to be emerging as a way of pushing the boundaries of a consoles power. I said to my friend 'don't you think Shattered Memories would have been even better on the PS3 or 360, as they're more powerful and could have done more with the altering of the game to suit the player?' to which he replied, 'but then it wouldn't have had the cool things you can do with the Wii.' Fair point. I must admit I was pretty damn excited when I had to hold the Wii remote to my ear like a telephone and colouring in the house using the remote like a pencil was a little too much fun.

So that got me thinking about the question 'if a Wii game isn't enhanced by the gimmicks of the Wii, will it always play better on a more powerful console?'

Food for thought people, food for thought...

Now Unveiling the Ultimate Console!

I was thinking, what if Microsoft and Sony got together and made a console. It's awesomeness would know no bounds. So, with a little help from my freind Aaronmon, we conceived the ultimate console.

I present to you mere mortals, The XPlayStationBox 3720! (copywrite Sonysoft)

(Yes, I know, my Paint skills know no limits!)

Just Cause 2 Demo

So I've just played the Just Cause 2 demo and I'm a little apprehensive. I have always been interested in Just Cause as I do like my sandbox games, and Just Cause did boast having the largest open world environment ever in a game. I never did get around to buying it, so I was pretty excited when a demo for numero two popped up on the PlayStation store.

I can see the appeal of using the parachute and the grapple as it seems to add a nice little gameplay dynamic. Once mastered, I think this game could be a lot of fun. The thing that worries me however, is the variety of mission types on offer. Having only played the demo, I realise the game will have a lot more to offer. Perhaps I feel the demo didn't do Just Cause 2 enough justice. It just plopped you in the middle of a map and told you to shoot things. I'll need to do more research before making my mind up on Just Cause, so just watch this space ;)

Heavy Rain Reveiw

I’m just trying to be a good dad. I know I really shouldn’t let him stay up late and his mother would kill me if she found out I let him have pizza for dinner, but hell, I want the little bugger to be happy. So when I tuck him up in bed and kiss him good night, and he turns to me and says “dad, why do you always look so sad?” my heart shatters. No really, it genuinely hurts me hearing him say this. Not the me as in I am the character Ethan Mars, but the me sat behind the controller, pushing buttons to select topics for conversation and wiggling the analogue stick to open cupboards. Heavy Rain does this to you. It skilfully forces you to connect with your on screen son and later on, with other characters as well. This allows there to be an added dimension to the empathy you feel for the character you are controlling. Video games force us to adopt a role, make us become a character. A good game makes you care about the characters and what ultimately happens to them. What would Modern Warfare be without Captain Price? Yes, it would still be a superb game, but would it still have the same emotional depth? Heavy Rain beautifully crafts a relationship between you and your on screen character, whether that be the central character Ethan, or any of the other three playable characters.

Initial thoughts on Heavy Rain

I finished Heavy Rain on Sunday and was very impressed. What a superb game! Incredibly compelling! I'll admit to waking up at 3 and sneaking a couple of early morning chapters in. Yes, I killed Jaden. I'm not proud, not at all. I was just so determined to discover the identity of the killer. I really should have listened to the bar tenders advice... and there was no way in hell I was going to forgive that bitch Madison!

I have just watched my friend play it through to the end and I'll be honest, his ending kicked my endings arse. There were indeed tears.

I'm right in the middle of writing a review, so that should be coming soon. Plus I plan on writing a piece on gaming's role in main stream media, which I'll be using Heavy Rain as and example, so that's on it's way too.

:) x

My first Blog!

Hey there!
I'm totaly new to blogging, so excuse me if I make any mistakes. I'm not sure what is appropriate for a first post, so I thought I'd tell you a little about myself and why I decided to get a blog :)

I am in my first year of University, studying English and Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth. I originaly come from Oxford and have two big passions in my life, horseriding and video gaming.

It is the video gaming that has lead me to getting this blog. I desperately want to be a gaming journalist you see, so I thought the best way of doing this would be get a blog and post my reveiws and thoughts on the rapidly developing gaming world.

That is pretty much it. I hope you enjoy my ranting and... er... wish me luck ;)

x