Over the past year, I’ve been following any media I find on Heavy Rain for the Playstation 3. At first, I only knew this as the game that introduced me to the concept of the uncanny valley. And even though the game’s Quick Time Event based gameplay doesn’t excite me enough to buy a Playstation 3, I really hope this game sells well because Heavy Rain means a lot to the future of mature games.
When it comes to video games, it’s very easy to figure out what to do with games that are clearly good and games that are clearly bad. A good game will not let you go until you’ve squeezed every last bit of the experience out of it, while a bad game will eat at your soul until you get rid of it. But what are we to do with mediocre games? The games that aren’t bad, but aren’t necessarily good, either?
Happy Valentines Day! For those of you in love, out of love, or in-between love, I hope that your Valentines Day turns out to be a good one. Up until recently, the majority of my Valentines Days were horrible, but this isn’t the right forum to discuss that.
Anyway, I thought today would be a good day to start what may become a series of entries from me that pertain the role video games have in a relationship with a significant other that I call “Girlfriend Gaming”. I don’t mean to exclude the GLBT community, as some of my best friends are GLBT, but I would not be able to speak well on the intricacies of that dynamic. In any case, I’m sure that anyone with a significant other can find something to relate to here.
Unfortunately, my mental fortitude hasn’t been pushed nearly as hard since. Part of that has come from growing familiar with the world. But most of my growing weariness towards the game comes from the game’s design faults and squandered potential.
I vividly remember reading video game sites and listening to podcasts who were hyping up how amazing this game was. I didn’t care. The screenshots looked pretty, but I didn’t care that it came from the guy who made the System Shock games cause I’d never played them before. I didn’t care about the Little Sister dynamic. I didn’t care that you could add elemental powers to yourself to add variety to the combat.
Then I played the demo. Oh, my, God.
Sonic has had a hard knock life ever since his heyday on the Genesis. He had a ton of problems transitioning into 3D (which most people say the Sonic games never really pulled off well), he’s been held back by stupid sidekicks, his old games have been shoddily ported to every platform imaginable, his new games have been riddled with gimmicks, and he’s even been subjected to bestiality. Eww.
Flashback to sometime in the early 90s. I was between the ages of 8-10 years old around the time this happened. I was on a family trip, and we stopped at some souvenir shop that happened to have a haunted house in the basement. I guess it was more of a dungeon than anything. As a cocky kid, I thought I could handle it, no problem. Then I went down the stairs, saw a pitch-black hallway, and ran back up. I told my mom straight up, “I’m too scared to do this.” Wanting to get her money’s worth, my mom then came down there with me. This time, the lights were fully on, everything exposed, and nothing there that could possibly jump out of the blue and kill me. I think whoever was running the dungeon toned it down just so that I could get through it without messing up my underwear. I may have only been in that dark dungeon hallway alone for five seconds, but I still live with that fear to this day.
In April of 2008, Grand Theft Auto IV captured my imagination with a great story and fun open-world gameplay. Prior to GTA IV, my only open-world gaming experience was with The Godfather on the Wii. While many may have grown accustomed to (or weary of) the Grand Theft Auto formula by this point, I was completely caught up in the life of Niko Bellic, trying to find my way in Liberty City.
Almost two years removed from that experience (and almost one year since the release of The Lost and Damned), I have begun playing Episodes From Liberty City, which I received as a Christmas present from my girlfriend. Will this GTA IV add-on experience grab me like GTA IV did? Will it stand out on its own terms? Does the GTA IV style of play hold up even after I’ve played other fantastic open-world style games like Assassin’s Creed II and Borderlands?
I thought I could separate myself from Borderlands the moment I beat it. Sure, I only beat it on playthrough 1, and my character had only reached level 35, but I had basically seen everything there was to do in the game. All that was left was playthrough 2, which is the exact same quest, with tougher enemies and more awesome guns. I figured now was the time to move onto the next game in my backlog.
And yet, here I am, still playing this game.I took a few days off to chip away at my backlog, but one lazy Sunday playing co-op on playthrough 2 with my brother was enough to reel me back in. My usual nightly routine of late has been to play a few missions in Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes From Liberty City followed by Borderlands.
Hot off the heels of Army of Two: The 40th Day, I thought I’d take a minute to write a bit about the original Army of Two. I received this game as a Christmas present this year and have put in some time with it, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it while it’s relevant again.
In Third Person 
