Backhand of Justice

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

If you haven’t been following recent game news, you might not have heard of GameCrush. It’s a service where you can pay $8.25 for a 10 minute Xbox Live game or 6 minute flash game. Why would you do this when you can play for free? Because GameCrush allows you to play with women. read more

Don’t get me wrong: I’m a PS3 owner, and only a PS3 owner. I don’t want to start some console flame war about which is better overall. I just want to suggest that Xbox Live is winning the online war vs. PSN (as well it should considering it costs something vs. PSN which is free).

PSN likes to push that it offers greater value because there’s no subscription fee. Is $5/month really that crippling? Is the worse functionality offered by PSN worth the savings? Hardly. 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

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

Self-described videogame connoisseurs have long claimed that graphics don’t matter. ‘It’s all about the gameplay, obsession with graphics is for immature plebeians who can’t recognize real quality!’

This is a ridiculous notion. Videogames aren’t merely about the story or the gameplay; they’re about the total experience. A big budget film like Avatar can offer a different and equally valuable experience as a small art house film, and a graphically stunning videogame can offer the same.  read more

Bioware has announced that only Mass Effect 2 saves in which Shepard survives the ending can be imported into Mass Effect 3. Considering the trilogy is Shepard’s story, this is understandable. 

Will restrictions like these eventually cripple the breadth of choice available in a game like Mass Effect 2? Choose your own adventure novels are frequently crap because it’s hard to develop a compelling multi-thread storyline, after all. read more

Dante’s Inferno is probably an OK game. Yeah, yeah, I know it’s trendy to criticize EA’s grand vision of The Divine Comedy as an exploitative debacle. If you focus on just the story, that’s probably fair. What I don’t understand is why everybody is so critical of its gameplay without even having played it.

The term ‘God of War ripoff’ has been thrown around liberally of late with the release of Darksiders, and if any game deserves it, it’s Dante’s Inferno. That being said, why does that make it a bad game? Why does everybody say ‘Just wait for God of War III, that game is going to be awesome!’ Does a game get a free pass on repetitiveness just because it’s part of the franchise which originated its style of gameplay? read more