Don
Mattrick, President of Interactive Entertainment Business at
Microsoft, probably wasn’t expecting such a poor reception when he revealed
Xbox One to the world on Tuesday. Coverage of the system, and the event at
which it was revealed, has been mostly negative so far. Plenty about Microsoft’s
vision for the console, and the way it’s been communicated, deserves to be
criticised. It’s largely the overblown and empty language used to introduce Xbox
One that I plan to talk about here, and I want to point out that I’m reserving
judgement on the console itself at least until E3. When you read the quotes
below, remember that they were said by straight-faced men and women, without a
hint of irony. On reflection, this may be the most impressive thing about the
entire event.
Friday 24 May 2013
Sunday 12 May 2013
PS3 Review: Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
I've decided to try to make my reviews more critical, coming at games from a particular angle rather than simply evaluating their visuals, sound, story, and so on. This look at 'style over substance' in Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon is my first attempt.
‘Style
over substance’ is a phrase I often see in video game reviews. I came
dangerously close to using it in my own review of Metal Gear Rising: Revenegence, and can think of scores of other
games I’ve played that it could apply to. But what does it really mean? To me,
substance refers to a game’s controls, systems, and mechanics, whilst style covers
sound design, art direction, and narrative. A game that prioritises style over
substance, then, is one where attention has been lavished on the game’s
aesthetic and the expense of its gameplay, or at least one where the selling
point is the former rather than the latter. Since the vanilla version of Far Cry 3 is near identical in substance,
it’s clear that Blood Dragon’s main
selling point is its distinct, 80s
throwback style.
Thursday 2 May 2013
PS3 Review: Guacamelee!
There’s
an on-going debate amongst video game critics about whether or not games need
to be fun. It’s my opinion that they don’t. There are plenty of games that I
didn’t find fun, but that I found worthwhile for other reasons, Spec Ops: The Line, for example.
Drinkbox Studios’ Guacamelee!, however,
aims to be nothing but fun – unashamedly so, and its singular dedication to
this goal is difficult to fault.
Monday 22 April 2013
Video Game Controls as Standard Language
Anyone
watching me play through the first few hours of BioShock Infinite would have had a painful experience. When I tried
to swing the Sky-Hook, I would inevitably find myself staring up an enemy’s
nostrils, having forgotten that zoom, not melee, is mapped to R3 in the game. I’m
sure you’ve had similar experiences when a game didn’t control how you expected
it to. I think my failure to grasp Infinite’s
perfectly simple controls results in part from me expecting the game to
adhere to the established ‘standard’ shooter control scheme.
Friday 12 April 2013
EA Responds To Bad PR With More Bad PR
Once
again, EA has received the Golden Poo, the prize given
to the ‘winner’ of the Consumerist’s ‘Worst Company in America’ poll. Voted for
by the site’s users, it marks the second time EA has topped the poll in as
many years.
Wednesday 10 April 2013
PS3 Review: BioShock Infinite
Many
big budget games rely on the player overcoming violent opposition to progress. Taking
place in the floating city of Columbia during its yearly fair, BioShock Infinite’s first hour makes a
compelling argument that this needn’t be the case. Columbia is mysterious. Posters bear cryptic references to prophecies
you don’t yet understand; ambient dialogue and seemingly innocuous fairground
games hint at a culture where racism is rife; stalls show off curiously
advanced technology for a game set in 1912. Everywhere you look in BioShock Infinite, scraps of Columbia’s backstory are incorporated
organically into the landscape, and each one you discover pulls the curtain
back a little further. This process of discovery is so tantalising that you’ll
never find your trigger finger itching. When the curtain comes all the way back
and the extent of Columbia’s prejudice is laid bare, it’s one of the most
incredible scenes in gaming to date.
Sunday 7 April 2013
Performative Utterances (Or Not) in Chris Hecker's 'Fair Use'
Fair Use, Chris Hecker’s hilarious Game
Developer’s Conference (GDC) 2013 rant, is essential viewing for anyone sick of
video game developers making unsubstantiated claims. Hecker’s rant skewered the
worst tendencies of spokespeople in the gaming business, just by giving a few
of them enough rope to hang themselves with. If you haven’t seen it already, you can check it out at Chris Hecker's personal website.
Let’s
have a closer look at the clips in Fair
Use.
Labels:
Bungie,
Capcom,
Chris Hecker,
COD MW3,
Deep Down,
Destiny,
Fair Use,
Guerrilla Games,
Infamous Second Son,
J. L. Austin,
Killzone: Shadow Fall,
Linguistics,
Panta Rhei,
Performatives,
Sucker Punch
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