Backhand of Justice

Has Blizzard caught lightning in a bottle a second time? Is Starcraft II any good? read more

Gamasutra’s Chris Beault claims that Starcraft II’s ladders are its biggest flaw. Is this unfair criticism, or does he have a valid point? read more

Social gaming is the new hotness. Haven’t you heard? Zynga is taking over the world, and Mafia Wars and Farmville are the most popular games on earth. What, you just own a Playstation 3 or an Xbox 360? Those are so passe. I’m sure you play on your own, in the dark, while we’re happily picking blueberries with our friends.

Is this really what it has come to? Is social gaming the future of gaming, as many Facebook gamers claim? Is a single player experience in the form of ‘core games’ a brief aberration that will be relegated to the least social of creatures? read more

Shigeru Miyamoto said that videogames didn’t sell well in 2009 because ‘we were not able to produce fun-enough products.’ When the creator of Mario, Zelda, Starfox, Donkey Kong and Cold Fusion (Nintendo scheduled release 2011) speaks, the videogame community listens.

Do games really need to be fun, though? Not all books are fun, and critics frequently ridicule ‘fun’ books like John Grisham novels or the Da Vinci Code. Nobody can really argue that The Hurt Locker was more fun than some of the other films released this year, but that doesn’t prevent it from winning the awards? Will games always just be fun? read more

People (mouth-breathers) like to demean games as silly wastes of time. They’re probably right, at least if you’re referring to the current crop of games. Can they be harnessed towards something useful? We’ve seen labeling pictures turned into a game. We’ve seen manipulating proteins turned into a game. What about teaching Microsoft Office?

A new game called Ribbon Hero attempts to turn learning and practicing Microsoft Office techniques into a game. This is just the first step: soon everything will use games to teach. read more

Fans always want remakes of their favorite games. Final Fantasy VII is one of the perennial frontrunners for the remake treatment, and there is always speculation that Square Enix would make a bundle if they just updated the game with HD graphics. It’s rare, however, that you see the opposite.

A fan remade a portion of Mega Man 9 in HD, and while it’s identical to the original game (which was a retro throwback anyway) but with HD graphics, fans have not been kind to it. Critics say it removed the soul of the game. Are 8-bit graphics really that charming and expressive? read more

There are changes afoot at Activision. As you may have heard, the two heads of Activision’s most successful studio, Infinity Ward, have been fired for ‘breach of contract and subordination.’ Dubious Quality has a nice little summary of events.

Activision has tasked Sledgehammer games (run by the former developers of Dead Space) with making the Call of Duty game for 2011 which will potentially be in the action-adventure genre. Activision believes they have created a self-sustaining franchise separate from the individual game quality, the same mistake Electronic Arts made with their sports franchises. Call of Duty, meet Madden, the ghost of Christmas future.  read more

Whether you’re discussing the rise of MMOs, the increasing use of digital distribution or the prevalence of online multiplayer, it is undeniable: we’re living in an online world.

Why are so many upset, then, when Ubisoft introduces DRM that requires you be online for game saves? Why are so many upset when there are delays to updates, or the Playstation Network goes down, or World of Warcraft server maintenance takes slightly longer than expected? Sure it’s inconvenient, but there are as many if not more benefits to having game services move online than there are drawbacks. Why fight it conceptually? read more

Interactivity distinguishes games from other forms of entertainment. What constitutes interactivity, however? What if a TV show required you to raise or lower the volume every 5 minutes in order to continue? Would that make the TV show interactive (not just by definition, but in the spirit of the word)?

Heavy Rain is a unique product that pushes games in a direction that few have attempted in the past decade. Where does ‘experience’ end, however, and ‘game’ begin? read more

Arcades were once great gaming meccas. Kids from across the neighborhood would converge to spend many quarters and hours on their favorite hobby. Back then, videogames were a social hobby, as you would encounter countless kids with whom you had a common interest while waiting for the next game.

While the home console changed the face of gaming forever in primarily positive ways, one negative side effect was the death of the arcade and the emergence of the fat loner slob videogame stereotype. Can new 3D games reinvigorate the arcade scene? read more