The turn of the millenium saw a bit of a step backwards for TG characters in games. For decades, the transgender community has been plagued by the Norman Bates “Psycho” stereotype which depicts transvestites as unhinged and dangerous. The new millennium started off with two games that used such a depiction of of transgender people.
So how do you like your story; well done, raw or somewhere in the middle? There’s no denying that during this current generation of gaming we have seen an increase in narrative based games. I have always been a “gameplay first, story second” person and always will be. However, that’s not to say I don’t love a good story in my game, it can definitely add a lot to the experience, it does amazing things for Metal Gear Solid and God of War for instance. However, is story becoming too important in an area where the entire point behind the medium is interaction?
When gaming was beginning to take off, with games like Pac-Man, Tetris or Space Invaders, they had virtually no story. What was on screen was just a visual representation of the programming. As technology advanced, the opportunity for telling stories in gaming greatly expanded, an early example being the Metal Gear series, you spend more time watching the story unfold than you do actually playing the game. But does that make it a bad game? Of course it doesn’t, but does it take too much interaction away from the medium; you could easily argue that it does. I imagine you’ve spent far more time playing your favourite game than you have watching your favourite film, the gameplay part of a game is different every time you play, whereas the story will remain the same.
It’s been almost a decade since the rise and fall of the Sega Dreamcast, leaving behind it a legacy of both innovation and failure. The system has spawned some classics and Sega is looking to cash in by dragging up old licenses from the dead.
The collection, which hits February 22nd here in North America, takes some of the most beloved games of all time puts them in one compilation. The collection includes Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Sega Bass Fishing, and Space Channel 5: Part 2. The pote
Episodic gaming over the years has become more and more popular. You could credit this to either the economic slowdown, or the pressure from publishers to release content quickly, but no matter the cause, episodic gaming is now a reliable and valuable way to release games. In this feature, we’re going to look at what exactly makes a game episodic, the pros and cons of episodic gaming, some examples of episodic gaming, and what the future holds for this release strategy.
After the majesty that was Fallout: New Vegas, Bethesda is returning to its roots with the fifth title in the Elder Scrolls series, this time focusing on Tamriel’s mountainous province of Skyrim two hundred years after the events of Oblivion. In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, the land is in chaos after the death of the regional king, and civil war rages unabated. As the last remaining of the Dragonborn dragonkillers, the player must traverse Skyrim, develop skills and abilities, and ultimately defeat the manifested dragongod, Alduin. There’s only been brief news on the game, but the details appear to improve on the failings of Oblivion as well as add a few new features that take the best of the lessons learned in Fallout 3 and New Vegas.
We’re at a crossroads in the gaming community, and it’s a crossroads we’ve been at for a while now. Gaming is at a point where the status of women is uncertain. While some developers make clear efforts to create deep, interesting female characters, others seem perfectly content to create buxom, shallow stereotypes. The problem is with the industry and the lack of women in creative positions, and while some developers claim up to 50% female staff that number can be misleading. Game developers are just like every other business, there are Public Relations people, Community Managers, as well as other non-creative positions. Most of the women who do get a job at a developer have these jobs, and are left out of the creative discussion when they could help establish an authentic female personality for a game.
Created by Paul Fischer, Defy Gravity is a space themed platformer with gravity manipulation at the forefront. No, it doesn’t use the gravity gun from Half-Life 2; rather, you shoot out “Gravity wells”. With a five dollar price tag and about 2-3 hours of gameplay, the value of Defy Gravity can only be validated by it’s gameplay. Which, I’m happy to say, is pretty great.
