Archive for October 2009
Chaim Gingold, the lead designer behind the creature creator tools found in EA's Spore, along with Brutal Legend artist Jane Ng, has released Earth Dragon for the iPhone. In the game, which appeared on the App Store yesterday, you play the role of a smash-and-roar green dragon tasked to claim revenge against humanity on behalf of Mother Earth for their transgressions against her world.
Via Kotaku, Demian Linn at Bitmob has a lengthy article going over the experience he discovered in his review copy of Dragon Age: Origins– specifically, the variations of sexual encounters a player can have in the game. Aside from the expected heterosexual encounters, there is also room for gay, lesbian and apparently even transgendered sex scenes.
It seems that any game coming out these days touts "moral ambiguity" as a selling point. But is this mechanic worth the hype or just a failed caricature of human ethics that gives the illusion of choice but instead forces players into unrealistic and stereotyped paradigms?
With the impending release of Windows 7, tech news media has stepped up the common refrain that somehow Vista was a "failed" operating system. While the OS certainly had a rocky launch, is its negative perception today really accurate or the result of misunderstandings and incorrect representations?
The latest compilation project from OverClocked ReMix is Humans + Gears and re-envisions Yasunori Mitsuda's opus from Xenogears. Started in 2006, Humans + Gears is a two disc, 33-track album featuring submissions from thirty different artists. The scope of the album is split into two halves; Human is softer and more acoustic while Gears is more electronic and mechanical. Having gone through the entire two discs earlier I was blown away by the impressiveness of many of the songs– while they all have their roots in a video game soundtrack, so many of the arrangements completely stand on their own legs without seeming like someone ran a MIDI through Reason.
Attaching special bonuses to an upcoming release, serving as a magical enticement to get you to fork over cash before a title comes out, is not a new practice– nor is it reserved to the gaming industry. I'm personally well familiar with receiving all sorts of solicitations for buying a CD before its release date, from bonus songs to videos to promo concert codes. With games, bonuses come specific to the retailer you're purchasing from too, with GameStop in particular usually running away with the lion's share of consumer "gifts."
- Joshua Meadows: Yes dear.
- Josh:
should effectively sum up how I feel. - AK: A feminist assertion that the game is sexist in its portrayal of women is also an assertion that any woman who expresses physicality and/or...
- Kaimi Kyomoon: Bravo! And best wishes for every success to you and your boyfriend and for equal rights and opportunities for all gay/bi/straight...
- Joshua Meadows: Josh: It’s really down to aesthetics for me. I’ve used an Eee and other netbooks and on the superficial level,...
All contents of this site are copyright © 2009 Joshua Meadows, except where otherwise noted.
Powered by WordPress 3.0.1.
Copyright notice and usage guidelines
