Ricardo Morales - October 6th, 2009
Gamer Culture, Headlines
Final Fantasy sure has changed over the years.
These days, Square is substituting surface flashiness for that unique FF element that, in earlier titles, conjured genuine wonderment. This is especially evident in the new trailer for XIII. The original FF magic has been lost, and unfortunately, it’s in Square-Enix’s best interest to cultivate the evolution.
Some fans claim the franchise peaked around VI, others that XIII will be the best one yet. One thing’s certain: no matter how much the older fans miss bygone FF eras, the games will never be the same again.
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Chris P - October 6th, 2009
Game Design, Gamer Culture, Playstation 3
Demon’s Souls releases tomorrow exclusively on the PlayStation 3. Check out my review here to get a feel of what it’s going to be like.
With the assistance online component of the game going live on October 6, Atlus has also smartly decided to start a wiki page about Demon’s Soul as a real-time strategy guide that will assist in a different way than Demon’s Souls online function.
This couldn’t come at a better time because gamers are going to need to help each other to complete sections of the game.
Be sure to bookmark the wiki here.
Ricardo Morales - September 30th, 2009
Gamer Culture, Humor
Audiences love macho men. Video games cater to this need by providing us with strong heroes, and we love to step into their shoes.
It makes gamers feel like badasses.
Whether or not all gamers have dreams of power trips, there’s no doubt an interesting protagonist is usually a plus. That said, here are some of the most memorable video game characters, presented in all their manly glory.
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Ricardo Morales - September 8th, 2009
Gamer Culture, Headlines
Comic lovers everywhere are worried over Disney’s recent $4 billion purchase of Marvel. Granted, other comic fans, far from scared, are excited or even indifferent — the whole spectrum of emotions comes into play with big news.
Nothing is concrete yet, but this merger’s possibilities are endless. Let alone odd mashups, it could change the way we view comics, for better or worse, or even spell a new era of Marvel movie madness. Here’s a look at just three things that could happen.
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Ricardo Morales - August 31st, 2009
Gamer Culture, Headlines, Movies
Since the trailer for James Cameron’s Avatar was released, opinions have shot back and forth, mostly from extreme ends of the spectrum — either it looks like trash or it’s going to be the best movie ever made. One particular opinion that stuck with me was my friend’s when he said, “This looks so fake. It looks just like a video game.”
Which was interesting, because to many an outsider that’s all Avatar appears to be: a glorified video game. But that doesn’t mean it’ll suck. And not to contribute to the hype machine, but there’s a lot of potential riding with the release of this new sci-fi epic.
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Ricardo Morales - August 25th, 2009
Game Design, Gamer Culture
As with anything, when it comes to the gaming industry, there’s tons to complain about. Casual games, for instance. Or monstrous price tags. Just choose your poison.
But the biggest problem, by far, is that they’re too damn long. In this fast-paced culture, who has time for 20 hours (and upwards) of gameplay? We can’t even find time to cook our own food anymore, let alone churning through whole days playing video games.
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Ricardo Morales - August 17th, 2009
Gamer Culture
Kids play tons of video games, which is great. Games are not only fun, but they can be valuable educational tools as well.
The problem is, many kids don’t read books anymore. And with such entertaining, 21st century spectacles at our fingertips, who has time for hard-to-access, brain-straining storylines locked inside ancient tomes anyway? Right?
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Honest Chung - July 24th, 2009
Gamer Culture
If Six Days in Fallujah has shown us anything, it’s that the general public still does not take gaming seriously.
The controversy surrounding the game stems from the belief that a video game can never communicate the horrors of war. They, the critics, believe Six Days would merely trivialize the bloody event by turning it into entertainment.
What the general public fails to realize, though, is that games not all games are there for mindless entertainment. No, many games are an experience with emotional ups and downs that players can empathize with and even learn from. To claim that games can not communicate complex emotions of remorse, respect, or sadness is downright ignorant and insulting.
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