vanquish

Game Design Talk: Do You Need Context in Your Video Games?

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Having recently completed Vanquish, the game got me thinking about the context behind any given video game. What I mean by context in this sense, is the context behind your actions within a game. For instance, the story of a Super Mario game might be paper thin, but the context for actions is clear: you’re trying to save Princess Peach. Oftentimes, people will use the word ‘story’ in place of ‘context’, but I think context is a better fitting word in this sense.

The context behind Vanquish is awful for a number of reasons, yet I really enjoyed playing that game strictly because I loved the gameplay mechanics that drove the experience. I simply chose to tune out the convoluted story, poor dialogue and bad voice acting.

Though I’ve sort of talked about this topic in the past, I wanted to open this up for discussion. Do you need context in your video games in order to enjoy them?

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Vanquish Review

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Vanquish has the dubious distinction of being Gamespot’s 2010 Best Game No One Played. Back when it was released, I paid no mind to it, as I had no interest in a Japanese interpretation of Gears of War and Halo. However, despite my initial disinterest in the game, the general buzz about the game was that it was pretty good. With that in mind, I kept it on my list of games to pick up on the cheap. I was able to do just that a few weeks ago during the big Blockbuster closeout event in my country. Do I recommend you follow suit?

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Pick-Up Post: Blockbuster Liquidation Madness

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Across Canada, 146 Blockbuster locations are preparing to close their doors, which accounts for about 1/3 of all Blockbuster locations across the country. It’s a sad day for over a thousand people who will be losing their jobs and many of its customers who still want their movies and games on physical media. Canada will still have Blockbuster locations after this, but the future for those left is foggy at best.

The short-term good news is, all of these stores affected are liquidating their products at deep discounts. On the first day of the sales, my girlfriend and I went to her local Blockbuster that was shutting down and bought a ton of stuff. She bought Epic Mickey and a bunch of movies. I had upwards of 15 games in my hands during that trip, but I narrowed it down to 7 by the time I hit the register. Check out what I bought by clicking through to the rest of this post!

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