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(02/20/12 5:01am)
It should come as no surprise that there are game tie-ins to big-budget films all the time. Although it is mostly in summer films, movies such as: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Thor, Green Lantern, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Iron Man and it’s sequel, The Incredible Hulk, and the upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man all have their own video-game adaptations of the film which either reiterate the story of the film or expand on what the film already covered. These movie-games all share one unifying theme: They have been or will be poorly received by critics.
(02/18/12 5:01am)
It’s not uncommon for high-profile games to have other media outlets to promote the release of the game. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has the DragonShout app, which lets you see the entire map of Skyrim and highlight quests and locations. Dead Space 2 released a downloadable interactive comic “game” that served as a connection between Dead Space 1 and 2. These types of multimedia advertising get the mildly interested player excited for the game’s release; I can see eye-to-eye with the publishers in that regard. However, the type of promotion and outlets the upcoming sci-fi epic Mass Effect 3 is being siphoned through is borderline obsessive and bothersome on Electronic Art’s part.
(02/13/12 5:01am)
I have done my very best to convey to my readers that the gaming industry is a serious endeavor. They shatter entertainment records and suck hours and hours of our free time so that we can be immersed in a world in ways that films and novels can’t provide. People’s jobs have come and gone and publishers are at each other’s throats striving for the next big hit. And developers are thrown into the middle of the shark tank and they seldom get the recognition they deserve. The recognition the games industry gets is insulting and, at times, disgusting.
(02/11/12 5:01am)
Back when the gaming industry was in its infancy, only sprites and pixels made up the games’ characters and they were nothing more than a gun or moving object on a 2-D plane of existence. It was up to the player to give the avatar a set of personality traits and goals. The avatar’s true motivation was to get to the end of the stage without dying. And while that true motivation hasn’t changed drastically over the years, advances in graphics have changed how video games and their characters exist. Game characters in the 21st century have hopes and ideals that motivate them through the narrative that a writer and development team produced.
(02/06/12 5:01am)
The integration of toys and action figures is nothing new to the video game industry. But in this generation of games, the toy/action figure market has exploded. Studios such as Todd McFarlane’s have been making figures for Halo and Guitar Hero. Toymaker Kotobukiya will make figures that will come with collector’s editions of games such as Batman: Arkham City. The Gears of War 3 Epic Edition featured a statue of the protagonist from TriForce, who will also be making the Max Payne 3 statue that will stand firmly on my shelf in May.
(02/04/12 5:01am)
Resident Evil 6 was announced on Jan. 17 and the news spread across the Internet like wildfire. Fans were making assumptions and getting wrapped up in the speculations; Journalism sites analyzed the trailer and threw in their own two cents on what it revealed. At the end of the trailer was a release month of November and thus the ticking countdowns on most fanboy’s pocket watches had begun. But underneath all of the hype and general excitement was a disturbing message: that a survival-horror franchise is going for the wallets of the Call of Duty fan base.
(01/30/12 5:01am)
The gaming industry is cyclical. It is a well-oiled machine that pumps out a new product every month. Developers make the games, publishers give money to the developers to make the games and the whole industry moves like clockwork. The gaming industry is also restricted by the confines of business practices and the economy. So when a product isn’t moving the numbers or a new idea isn’t generating some kind of revenue to make up for the costs, the development studio usually does not last long. These are the stories of game development studios that were once in the limelight but have gone through some difficult times as of January 2012.
(01/28/12 5:29am)
I can attest that today’s games are much easier than previous generation’s games. Playing Super Mario Bros. 3, from the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, on the Nintendo Wii is much more difficult than playing Rayman: Origins, a platformer released last year on the Xbox 360. I couldn’t even beat the first couple of stages in Super Mario Bros. 3, yet I am able to stroll through Rayman: Origins. But why is there a difference? Both are 2-D side-scrollers and only make use of two motions: jumping and moving. If there is a differentiation between these two, seemingly similar games then should there be a push for more difficult challenge. And if so, when does a game stop being fun and shift into frustration?
(01/23/12 5:01am)
Little kids like to play war. When I was a kid, it would be gender wars, cowboys vs. Indians and cops vs. robbers. Video games facilitate that need to make something at the end of a gun dead. In 1984, on the Nintendo Entertainment System, Duck Hunt tasked the player with shooting digital ducks with a gun that imitated the action. Yet in recent memory, games in which you have a gun in your hand and shooting digital enemies have become more advanced and the United States Army has taken note.
(01/21/12 6:56am)
Women in the video-game industry have typically been scantily clad buxom beauties with one of two stereotypical personalities: playful schoolgirl archetypes (male fantasies) or ice queens. These are unrealistic representations of their real-world counterparts, but consistent in video games. But one game seeks to break that trend: Bioshock: Infinite. Developed by Irrational Games, Bioshock: Infinite treats the player with an in-depth relationship with a very beautiful young woman named Elizabeth (picture provided) who was locked in a city in the sky. But Ken Levine, creative director and founder of Irrational Games, is disappointed in the Internet’s focus on Elizabeth’s chest and not the story.
(01/18/12 5:01am)
Back in the day, game development took place in someone’s garage or basement with a computer or two that were less powerful than the phones we use today. In the 21st Century, games are multi-million dollar investments by big-name publishers such as Electronic Arts and Activision. For the most part developers are given full creative control, but every once in a while, you get the rare occasion in which fans of a series alter the final outcome of a game or even how a character looks. But where do developers and publishers draw the line? If fans had such creative control over a product, it becomes less about the developer and the publisher and the game would never be completed. On the flip side, a developer that completely ignores its fan base is doomed to a quick end. It’s a fine line -- so where do today’s developers stand?
(01/16/12 9:32pm)
Welcome back readers and true believers. While we were enjoying a peaceful and relaxing winter break, the gaming industry still kept on trucking. Games were announced at the Video Game Awards; games of 2011 were distributed and lax customer service was making purchasing a simple gaming controller a hassle. I am, of course, referring to the controversy between Ocean Marketing/Avenger Controller representative Paul Christoforo and the customer and Penny Arcade founder Mike Krahulik. The released string of emails between these three parties has created a buzz that starts 2012 off on a positive note.
(01/12/12 5:01pm)
2011 was one of the biggest years of gaming yet. No matter what kind of gamer you are, there was something for you, and now you can use this list for all those Best Buy gift cards you racked up over the holidays. Picking five games was no easy task but here are the games that stood out from the rest, in my eyes. Starting with number five…
(12/05/11 5:01am)
People have been pirating movies and music since the advent of the Internet. Pirating, for those who are unfamiliar, is the process of downloading a music, movie or video game file for free. It is essentially digital theft and treated the same way in courts. Video game publishers have tried their damndest to quell piracy. They add online passes that you have to buy to play certain modes in games and Digital-Rights Management (DRM), which also must be bought, requires a constant Internet connection to play the games even if it is a single-player game. Publishers usually blame PC gamers for this piracy problem due to the higher probability of console owners who do not pirate video games than PC gamers.
(12/03/11 5:01am)
As an avid movie and video game fan, I always get giddy when I hear about a famous celebrity voicing a game character before a game’s release. A wide variety of celebrities have lent their voices to video games in one way or another. Some are there for just the introduction sequence and most will stay until the game’s credits roll. But what kind of effects does having well-known voice actors in games have? Does it put the player in the mindset of that actor, other characters the actor has played or the game character? Does it benefit the game in anyway?
(11/28/11 5:01am)
This might just be me being nostalgic and reminiscing about the good ol’ days of the simple act of purchasing a video game, but I miss the simplicity of it all. You walk in, look at the cover, see an anthropomorphic bandicoot or a purple dragon on said cover, pay and walk out. Nowadays, there are user agreements you have to agree to before you even play the game and unwritten rules about the game you could potentially be playing. Sometimes these unwritten rules cause serious detriments to a company’s reputation or severe backlash from the pre-existing fans of “x” game. Electronic Arts has had a mixed history with gamers but what I have seen this year has completely changed my views of the company.
(11/26/11 5:01am)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 has made record sales numbers in, not only the video game industry, but also in the entertainment industry as a whole. But just as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 made headlines with its controversial “No Russian” mission in which you gun down an airport full of civilians, Modern Warfare 3 prepares the player to experience a terrorist attack, from the victim’s perspective. But does the scene serve a purpose given its context? Or is it merely in there to shock the player and nothing else?
(11/21/11 5:01am)
This year was the year of the modern military first-person shooters. Two massive publishers of this generation, Electronic Arts and Activision, released their own military first person shooters to compete for the consumer’s hard earned cash. And while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was the clear victor with one of the largest entertainment releases in history, Electronic Arts did its best to try and bring it down, even if that meant sacrificing some of their maturity in the process.
(11/19/11 5:01am)
As the cold breeze rolls over the tundra of the northern province of Skyrim, the eye catches sights. Wooly mammoths escorted by giants, architecture and monuments to warriors fallen, and your avatar looking calmly into the vast open world. Every vista that is a static background in any other game is a destination in Skyrim. The world is calm and the music, with its violins and soft chorus, calms the mind. That is until a large shadow, with its reverberant roar, combs over the landscape and your stoic character. Its large leathery wings tilts the giant lizard around as it comes about for another pass. The hot flames scorch the ground and the dragon prepares its landing. You take a sword in one hand and a shield in another and you sprint as hard as you can towards the scaled beast. The setting for one of many David and Goliath battles begins. And this is only the tip of the iceberg for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
(11/14/11 5:01am)
For the majority of time in this industry, games have been largely distributed by retailers. But with the rise of digital distribution and a focus of downloadable games, music and movies, how long will that last? Will games in boxes become a thing of the past? What will this do to retailers who thrive on one sort of product? Will GameStop go the way of Borders? Are we advocating for simple convenience at the detriment of jobs? Can there be a middle ground? These are questions that are being asked in the 21st century and will grow more prevalent as time goes on.